Reading report nº 3

Name: Cristina Soledad Guzmán
Date: April, 8th
Title: High-Tech Crime Is an Online Bubble That Hasn’t Burst
Source: www.nytimes.com Date of publication: April 7, 2008


Vocabulary:
Storefronts: n. 1. The side of a store facing a street. 2. A room in a commercial building at street level.
Savvy: Informal. adj. sav·vi·er sav·vi·est1. Well informed and perceptive; shrewd. n. 2. Practical understanding. v. sav·vied sav·vy·ing3. To understand
Murky: murk: n. 1. Partial or total darkness; gloom. -- murkily adv. -- murkiness n. -- murky adj.
Shilling: n. Slang. 1. One who poses as a satisfied customer to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle. shill v.
Skip to next paragraphBidders: bid v. bade or bid bid·denor bid bid·ding1. To command; direct. 2. To utter (a greeting or salutation). 3. To invite to attend; summon. 4. past tense and past participle bidn. 5. a. An offer of a price. b. The amount offered. 6. An invitation. 7. a. The act of bidding in card games. b. The number of tricks declared. c. A player's turn to bid. 8. An earnest effort to gain something. bid“dern.
Glean: v. 1. To gather grain left behind by reapers. 2. To collect bit by bit.
Teaser: tease v. teased teas·ing1. To annoy; vex. 2. To make fun of. 3. To arouse hope, desire, or curiosity without affording satisfaction. 4. To coax. 5. To disentangle and dress the fibers of (wool). 6. To raise the nap of (cloth). 7. To brush or comb (the hair) toward the scalp for a bouffant effect.
Outsourcing: outsource: v. (business) to arrange for sb outside a company todo work or provide goods for that company. n : Outsourcing
Nonprofit:adj. (of an organization) without the aim of making a profit.
Elusiveness: e·lu·sive adj. 1. Tending to elude. 2. Evasive; slippery. e·lusively adv. e·lusive·ness n.
Parlance: n. 1. A particular manner of speaking; idiom: legal parlance.
Herder: herd n. 1. A group of animals, as domestic cattle kept or living together. 2. A large number of people; crowd. v. 3. To come together in a herd. 4. To gather, keep, or drive in or as if in a herd. herd“er n. -- herds“man n.
Covertly: cov·ert adj. 1. Concealed, hidden, or secret. 2. Sheltered. n. 3. A covered shelter or hiding place. 4. Thick underbrush affording cover for game. - cov“ert·ly adv.
Convene: v. con·vened con·ven·ing1. To meet or assemble formally. 2. To convoke. See synonyms at call.

Main Ideas

In Paris the cybercrime industry operates through savvy sellers who are shilling credit card numbers.
Credit card numbers are seeked in auctions through spyware.
Electronic crime is maturing, criminals are adopting convencional approaches and outsourcing to specialists.
The speed with which it is developed is astonishing.
In The United States victims have reported losses of $239 million to online fraud in 2007, which are recorded by the FBI.
The most common frauds were fake e-mail messages and phony Web pages.
Judges remain reluctant to order much jail time for computer crime.
A case in point is Owen Thor Walker, an 18-year-old hacker who pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
Walker had been investigated by the FBI since 2006.
The judge would concider community detention and work release or some home detention because the teenager suffers a mild form of autism.
In Europe a cybercrime forum has been held to develop guidelines for closer international cooperation between law enforcement and Internet service providers.
Dutch high-tech crime police unit has identified about 25 people involved in these crimes.
Years ago cybercrime was a speciality but now there is no crime where there are no digital components built in.
A British Corporate IT Forum is pressing for a single confidential channel through which cybercrimes could be reported.

Personal reaction

This article is about the astonishing speed with which the electronic crime is developing and the necessity for more tough legislation and punishment for these crimes. Cybercrime affects all countries in the world, to Eric Loermans, chief inspector of a Dutch high-tech crime police unit, “there is no crime anymore where there are no digital components built in”. In the US alone, victims reported losses of $239 millions to online fraud in 2007. In Paris bidders seek credit card numbers in auctions through spyware to sell them later.
Electric crime is maturing and criminals are adopting supermarket-style pricing and outsourcing to specialists who might act as portfolio managers or computer technicians. For this reason the FBI investigates these crimes and many companies are pressing for a single confidencial channel through which corporate security chiefs could report cybercrimes.
In my opinion, this sort of crime is extremely sophisticated and elusive that is why ilt is quite difficult to catch these criminals, but I also believe that more extrict controls, legislation and punishments are needed to combat cybercrime.