Local computing community hear latest on cyber crime

Queensland Chair of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Nick Tate informed the computing community about the issues of identity theft and cyber crime at a presentation at USQ on Wednesday 26 September 2007.

Around 60 people attended the event, learning some alarming statistics about the prevalence of cyber crime and how it is spreading.

'There is some evidence that about 60 percent of all home PC's are compromised in some way,' Mr Tate said.

'It is unfortunately a well organised cybercrime economy.  
 
'The US Treasury made a statement that cyber crime generated a higher payback than drug trafficking.'

Mr Tate also explained the concept of ‘botnets' which are networks of computers that have been compromised and can be used to attack other computers.

'You can rent a ‘botnet' if you don't want to buy and set up your own and some seem to even come with support,' he said.

Mr Tate indicated that banks, both in Australia and overseas, are now starting to use hardware tokens to protect their online transactions.
 
There are measures people can take to reduce their likelihood of an attack on their computers, he said.

'People need antivirus but it isn't always enough on its own. You need to also be careful about the sites you go to and use a firewall.

'This will reduce the likelihood of your machine becoming compromised.'

Mr Tate's presentation is part of an ongoing series of events organised by the Toowoomba branch of the ACS to engage the computing community.

For more information on the ACS events visit the website http://www.acs.org.au/qld/

Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559