Cyber hacking is a plague on the Internet, and it is costing billions.  The days of the "teenage" hacker, "Aw, gee, I was just seeing if I could get in" ARE OVER.  Cyber-hacking is now a priority for all local, state and federal governments.

Good news:  better cyber cops

http://www.crime-research.org/news/09.02.2012/3888/ Date: February 09, 2012
Source: Csmonitor.com

Amid the flurry of cybercrime news that dominated headlines last year, from rampaging hacktivists and cyberspies to rising sabotage threats to infrastructure control systems – there was something else: the cybercops on the beat did a better job, too.

While most studies and surveys found cybercrime was increasing and spawning more serious threats to society, one new study also finds that cybercops are doing a lot better at discovering criminal data breaches on their own – and then alerting the victim companies that frequently often had no idea of the financial and other data being stolen from their networks.

“The good news for organizations is that the effectiveness of law enforcement to detect breaches increased almost five-fold in 2011,” according to the Trustwave 2012 Global Security Report, published by a Chicago-based cybersecurity company that tracks cybercrime trends. http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/criminal-law/economic-espioage.htm 

Economic espionage is a complex legal definition that involves the theft of trade secrets. In effect, economic espionage is the use of a stolen trade secret to benefit foreign powers or in commercial or economic trade. Ideas, formulas or products can all be trade secrets. Those who commit economic espionage do so in order to gain and benefit from proprietary information developed by businesses. It is estimated that economic espionage has caused business losses in the trillions of dollars over the last decade alone.

Economic espionage is prohibited by the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. § 1831-1839). Section 1831 of the Act criminalizes the theft and use of stolen trade secrets to benefit foreign powers, while Section 1832 makes illegal the theft of such trade secrets for commercial or economic gain. This includes the duplication or copying of a trade secret with the intention to economically benefit from it and/or the conspiracy to do so. The penalties for economic espionage can be stiff – those using stolen trade secrets to benefit a foreign government face a fine of up to $500,000 and/or up to 15 years in federal prison, while those who steal trade secrets for their own gain may be fined or put in prison for up to ten years.

Companies that engage in economic espionage also face harsh consequences – they can be fined up to $10 million for stealing trade secrets for another government and up to $5 million for using stolen secrets for their own gain. In addition to prosecution in the United States, the Economic Espionage Act also applies to perpetrators who victimize U.S. citizens, affect the United States in a substantial form, or are a U.S. citizen themselves. The U.S. Department of Justice prosecutes economic espionage with assistance from the CIA and other international bodies.  

The Chinese are not fettered by the privacy laws in the U.S.   All I would have to do is turn over my data to the Chinese police, and my hacker friends would have some new cyber friends for a long time to come.

As a matter of fact:  "According to the Forbes article, the Chinese use this data to gain an advantage in negotiations; if the Chinese know where the American company has drawn the line on technology transfer, the Chinese will toe that line.

Mr. Paller went on to say that cyber-espionage is shifting to law firms.  Specifically, Paller noted that most law firms "have very weak security" and "attorneys are often arrogant so they don't pay attention to security notices and guidelines."  Moreover, it's easier to find out information about a client's international dealings in a firm's files as opposed to the corporate files.  

The article is divided into a two-part series.  I'll post the second installment when Forbes makes it available.  You can find the Forbes source article here."

http://blog.cybersecuritylaw.us/2012/01/law-firms-the-victim-of-cyber-espionage-forbes-bloomberg-.html