High-tech crime becomes $8 billion industry

Karen Zekan

Tuesday, April 21, 1998 | 9:53 a.m.

William Thornhill is afraid of cellular phones.

He'll neither use them on the road, nor answer them when they ring.

He's cutting out any chance for the caller of America's nightmares to catch him -- the over-night millionaires who have rocketed high-technology crime into a billion-dollar industry.

Cell phones, over-the-counter devices, and computer networks have become the play-thing of hackers all over the world, accounting for an estimated $8 billion loss in the high-tech industry.

With a combination of key strokes even a small-time crook can drain bank accounts, tap into phone lines, and wipe out even the biggest of corporations.

But it doesn't have to happen.

Thornhill, a renown authority on high-tech crime prevention, and about a dozen other experts in the field of computer forensics are confident that law-abiding citizens can gain the upper hand.

At a seminar held at the Mirage Monday, their message to approximately 50 business executives and law enforcement personnel in the audience were to realize it's no longer a problem of tomorrow -- it's a problem that has to be tackled today.

"The people who perpetrate fraud pick who, where, how, why and when," said Thornhill. "It is a game."

And a game where anything goes, where curiosity is fed by tips to do and access just about anything on the internet.

Robert Morgester, a deputy district attorney in Sacramento, and Michael Menz of the Sacramento Sheriff's Department, had a stack of such how-to examples, among them magazines for hackers detailing things like how to get a bank account without a social security number, where to by scanners and used cellular programing, and tips for reprograming computers.

It might not sound like much to the uninitiated, yet these publications -- and hundreds of web sites accessible on the Internet -- are the guidebooks that have account for a 323 percent increase in computer related thefts since 1992.

FBI statistics reveal that there has been a 75 percent increase per year over the last six years in computer intrusions -- fancy fingers popping off the right pattern of key strokes to get into computer systems, access accounts, assume others' identities and other financial sabotage.

The Internet has led to a proliferation of fake drivers licenses, counterfeit currency and checks, and played an increasing role in organized crime.

"It's not just the high school student who knows how to use computers, as it once was," Morgester said. "It's parolees out of state prison who've had a chance to learn how to use computers while they were in prison."

Menz added that computers are ripe for on-line crime: California, for example, has 60,000 sex offenders -- "and almost every one of them has a computer system and an internet account."

Stolen computer components -- the hard drives, chips and miscellaneous circuitry often stolen from homes and businesses -- can be easily sold on the Internet without a trace, and experts say that pound for pound, their worth is greater than gold.

Cable boxes are also among the hot items being ripped off in residential burglaries and sold on the black market.

But how to stop this seemingly rampant crime?

Stopping them, Thornhill said, means creating an impenetrable wall of defense.

Businesses need to carefully scrutinize who they hire, who they promote and who within the company can gain access to sensitive documents and information that could potentially lead to financial ruin should the employee become disgruntled or be tempted to trade company secrets.

Brian Tim Wellesley, a financial investigative consultant, advises business owners to frequently change passwords on their computers. Also, turn computers off or disengage modems when systems are not in use. Make sure cell phones are encyrpted and protected against cloning, and never purchase or participate with venders via email until you are sure of who you are dealing with.

And other experts advise parents to keep a close eye on their children as they explore the computer. Tell them to leave chat rooms if obscenities are exchanged, never to give out their full names, notify parents if someone asks to meet them in person, and as a parent take time to see the chat rooms that a child is expressing interest in.

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