A recent report discusses a web scam targeting top executives (Christopher Rhoads, The Wall Street Journal, “Web Scammer Targets Senior U.S. Executives,” Nov. 9, 2007, P. A1).

The article is interesting for several reasons:

1) Cyber-crime is still either too embarrassing, time consuming, or confusing to be reported,
2) It is fortunate that organizations arise, such as the article’s Joe Stewart of SecureWorks, to pursue cyber-criminals,
3) The “hook” (or social engineering) of a scam can be creative enough to fool even senior executives

These are discussed below.
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1) The number of executives compromised in this scam is estimated to be in the thousands. Even when the investigators are first to make the executive aware that they are involved in a scam, most refuse to cooperate with investigators. This is unfortunate, and something that needs to change. As to where to report cyber-crime, the local police are a good start. Other websites provide tips as well (see Thinkquest.org, for example). For example, Bloomberg Financial participated in an FBI sting operation resulting in the arrest of cyber-extortionists (see CERT’s “Organized Crime and Cyber-Crime: Implications for Business”)

2) Fortunately, mavericks, such as the article’s Joe Stewart, stalk cyber-criminals. It is an uphill task that frequently depends on the criminal being careless. Joe Stewart compares fighting crime to the Old West when “there was very little law enforcement for a large territory.”

3) The hook in the executive scam was an email suggesting that a complaint had been filed against the executive with the Better Business Bureau. Subsequent derivatives of the scam threaten the executive with an IRS investigation or provide an invoice for services rendered. This is consistent with Wikipedia’s report that confidence tricks exploit human weaknesses (greed, dishonesty and vanity) or virtues (honesty or compassion).

Every successful con depends on a simple but effective “hook.” For example, the Melissa Macro Virus of 1999 was possibly the first to attach the victim’s reputation to the con by spoofing the victim’s name as sender, and using the victim’s address book to further fool unsuspecting acquaintances. This defeated then-current anti-virus measures depending on the recipient to be suspicious of email only from unknown senders (see CERT’s report for more on Melissa).

The executive scam installed a program to steal passwords and other personal information. One way to minimize identify-theft includes early detection by being aware of credit reports (see Sandra Block’s “Act now to prevent identify theft,” USAToday). A rather new option to protect identify-theft is to lock or freeze credit (see “Block your credit reports to prevent ID theft”). This method might be too restrictive for recent graduates, but would be appropriate for their parents.

PS – Counter-intuitively, I recently came across a group of anti-scammers that actually have fun with Nigerian-Scammers (see “The $100 Million Scam” by Hall Karp for more on the Nigerian Scam). Check out the exchanged email from the “Lads from Lagos” whose motto is “Why should scammers have all the fun?”

Blame it on Edison. In 1877 he first recorded the human voice on a tinfoil cylinder phonograph (see Recording in Technology History). It was only a matter of time until those recordings would become digital. In 1982 the consumer music industry jumped into the computer world with the first 5-inch digital audio CD.

I remember two interesting phenomena that followed. The first was a reaction by audiophile purists that rejected the “painted ships on painted seas” that they felt CD music represented. I worked with an electrical engineer that belonged to a group that cherished the analog music devices surrounding Long Playing (LP) records. Their equipment was large, hot and expensive. I decided my ears were not sensitive enough to warrant this analog experience, and quickly jumped onto the CD bandwagon1.

The second phenomena was the almost immediate creation of second hand CD stores. Consumers could buy the CD and record it to an audio cassette that could be easily played in cars and homes. The hardware to play cassette tapes was quite widespread at this time, while CD equipment was limited and somewhat pricey. Although markets did exist for used LPs, consumers were reluctant since the quality could be quite low. Consumer acceptance of used CDs was quite different, since, with minimal care, CDs promised the same quality playing experience. Of course, this begins the long and contentious anti-pirating battle by the music industry.

Jumping ahead a few decades, I was pleased to hear a current discussion of related issues at the UChannel podcast “How the digital revolution is changing the way we discover, create and consume media” (Oct. 11, 2007 ). The three speakers present quite different perspectives. David Jennings (Director, DJ Alchemic LTD) presents an almost professorial perspective. Later he describes an almost “head in the sand” reaction by a music company that in the late 1990’s still banned the Internet from their offices. Andrew Collins is an author and journalist that presents informative comments in a quite zany manner (and without conclusion). Claire Czajkowska is a singer and songwriter that provides a touching human perspective of an artist struggling in this era. Paul Hitchman, founder and managing director of PlayLouder MSP, chairs the presentation.

I particularly appreciated the reflections by Mr. Collins on the artifacts that accompanied LPs such as album artwork and inserts. I still have my album collection and have been told that the covers, not the LPs, are what collectors seek. I can remember sitting in my room and scrutinizing the covers, lyrics and musician notes for records Harry Chapin, the Moody Blues, the Beatles, and others, while enjoying the music. Mr. Collins comes close to explaining the experience to the MP3 generation that must find this aspect of music ownership quite strange!

1 The quality debate continues more recently in “Are Technology Limits in MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?” (Lee Gomes, The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 12, 2007, Page B1)
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