Criminology Research Project Inc.

For only $100, YourHackerz.com will provide anyone with the password of any e-mail account!  There is no way of detecting this invasion.  Also provided is a “spoofing service” to disguise a woman’s voice as a man’s, vice-versa. 

Services like YourHackerz.com are active and plentiful, with clever names like piratecrackers.com and hackmail.net.  They boast of having little trouble hacking into such Web-based e-mail systems as AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook and Hotmail and they advertise openly.  Experts said, there doesn’t appear to be much anyone can do about it.

Peter Eckersley, a staff technologist for the Electric Frontier Foundation in San Francisco said, “This is an important point that people haven’t grasp.  According to Professor Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University,” Federal law probibits prohibits hacking but any hacker that is competent and spends the time and targets you, he’s going to get you.”  Professor Kerr was a trial attorney in the United States Justice Department’s computer crime section before his move to academics.  Kerr says, “The feds usually don’t have the resources to investigate and prosecute misdemeanors and part of the reason isi that normally it’s hard to know when an account has been compromised, because e-mail snooping doesn’t leave a trace.”

“Web Based e-mail password hacking or cracking is one of our all time favorite and unique hobbies,” writes the folks at YourHackerz.com.  It’s not clear where YourHackerz.com is located but experts suspect that most of the businesses are based overseas.  These outfits, with a 100% guarantee, claim they will provide original Passwords, no questions asked.  They require payment only after a buyer is convinced.  They also guarantee “total privacy of your information and no legal hassles.”

SlickHackerz.com boast, “We are professionals interested in helping serious people for whom an e-mail password wouldl mean saving a marriage, knowing the truth, preventing a fraud, protecting their family, job and interests only when conventional ways and normal procedures do not work.”

All the services advertise that they will e-mail a screenshot of the target’s in-box or even send an e-mail from the target-s e-mail as proof that they’ve cracked the password.  The customer then sends payment.  One service, whose fee is only $33, then responds with the script from a scene from a Shakespeare play, with the stolen poassword hidden in the copy.

The FBI cannot police the Internet, a spokesman said.  “The FBI is aware of these illegal services and we have been successful in the past in identifying criminal activity and working with prosecutors to bring indictments.  Users of these services should know that just because a product is marketed on the Internet does’s mean it’s legal.”

According to FBI spokesman Paul Bresson, “Agents must be made aware of specific illegal acts ocurring in the United States before they can pursue a provider.  They can’t investigate and online service without evidence of a particular crime.”

Alissa Cooper of the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington says, “This kind of thing has been on the radar of law enforcement already, but with many of the hackers overseas in practice it takes a lot of resources and time to build up relationships with law enforcement in other countries.  They’re starting to do that in the cybersecurity realm.”

Criminology Research Project, Inc., in monitoring newspapers from throughout the United States, obtained this information from the Washington Post in an article written by Tom Jackson.   CRP realizes cybersecurity does not fall under “murder oriented subject matter,” nevertheless it does fall within the definition of general criminology.  It’s important, in my opinion, that everyone become aware of this illegal activity.  Any suggestions?  Certainly…change your password often and hope for the best.

Just yesterday I attempted to sign on to one of my e-mail accounts only to be told that someone was already signed in!  I promptly reported it to the FBI and received a speedy reply.  However, what will be done? Very little in my opinion.

Cybersecurity is a new area for law enforcement is presents a most difficult dilemma.  Law enforcement is accustomed to having a physical crime scene which is absent in this type crime.  For thet present it seems cybercrime has out foxed law enforcement’s best efforts therefore, out of necessity, it is the obligation of each of use using the Internet to take computer security into our own hands.