Prometheus 6

Globalizing the Fight Against a Hostile Internet

During my visit to Moscow last week, Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky waxed poetically about the need for a global law enforcement agency to police the Internet against criminals and hackers. In his estimation, the Internet never will be free of threats so long as hackers are able to launch attacks against international targets from safe havens in their home countries.

Kaspersky isn't the only security executive calling for such an international cyber-security agency. McAfee CEO Dave DeWalt told partners and customers at his company's Focus conference in October that more international cooperation and a global police force is needed to combat the rising tide of threats and attacks against every aspect of the digital world.

It's ironic that Kaspersky, a Russian, would call for the creation of cyber-police when his own government opposes the notion of cross-border jurisdiction of hackers and cyber-criminals, as called for in the European Cybercrime Treaty.

But Kaspersky and DeWalt are essentially correct in that most successful hackers perpetrate their crimes not against domestic targets but rather against targets in other countries that would have a hard time—if any chance at all—of prosecuting suspected cyber-criminals. Consider the case of Gary McKinnon, the British citizen accused of hacking dozens of U.S. Navy systems in pursuit of UFO evidence. He was traced and caught in 2002 and is currently under indictment by U.S. authorities, but remains on British soil as he continually challenges extradition. (Last week, McKinnon lost his latest round, but his lawyers plan another appeal, saying he wouldn't survive the U.S. prison system.)