Call the cops: We're not winning against cybercriminals

Kaspersky seeks police help with fighting cybercrime

Tim Greene    February 01, 2007 (Network World) -- Kaspersky Lab Thursday will acknowledge that cybercriminals have the upper hand and cooperative international policing is needed to protect honest users.

"We don’t have the solutions," says Natalya Kaspersky, CEO of the company. "We thought it was possible to do antivirus and that was adequate protection. That time is gone."

Solving the problem is beyond the capabilities of security vendors alone, she says, and coordinated efforts among countries are needed. Kaspersky Lab is expected to share these assertions during a press conference in New York City Thursday.

A Federal Trade Commission official will join Kaspersky in the call for more law-enforcement involvement in punishing the authors and disseminators of malware as well as those who exploit it to commit monetary crimes. Also joining in will be James Lewis, a director and senior fellow at the nonprofit Center for Strategic and International Studies, which advises governments on security and prosperity.

The group will champion international agreements that create better channels for tracking cybercrime across international borders.

Kaspersky's CTO Eugene Kaspersky says security software vendors are overwhelmed. The company dedicates 50 engineers to analyzing new malware samples and trying to find ways to block them, but with about 200 new samples per day and growing, it's an uphill fight, he says.

"No antivirus company can come before you and say we can handle everything," Kaspersky says. "It's responsible to be vocal."

Police have made efforts to prosecute the people behind the malware, but success has been limited. In 2004, there were 100 arrests worldwide. That number rose to a few hundred in 2005, then dropped back to about 100 again in 2006, Kaspersky says. "The stupid guys got jailed," he says. "The smart guys -- it's very difficult to find them."

Part of the problem is the global nature of the Internet, which enables the author of malware in one country to sell it to someone in another country who wants to use it to trigger crimes in yet other countries. Police in any of the countries involved may find some of those responsible, but they lack the coordination to root out everyone along the chain, Kaspersky says.

Software designed to block malware is effective, but cannot stop all attacks, Natalya Kaspersky says. "We are just like the police. They miss many cases but they do their best. We try to prevent everything, but we cannot do miracles."