Cyberattacks to worsen in 2015: McAfee researchers

Scary stuff. A cyber attack or virus is equivalent to breaking into someone's home, stealing valuables and burning the rest of it. Does anybody know how often these people are caught, and what the minimum/maximum penalties are for such crimes?

Tahoochi, it happens far more often than is reported. They are often caught, but it takes time as well, so you don't read about it until months or years after the original event took place.

Cyber crime has been steadily increasing over the last ten years. Almost exponentially. Some would say we are already engaged in the next world war. A cyberwar and it's an "arms race."

The biggest problem is awareness and underestimating the threat. The average person should always keep their anti virus up to date and follow good on-line practices like NEVER opening attachments from someone they don't know or even if they do know them, not opening an attachment that was not requested or confirmed as sent by that person.

Never let your children surf the web without supervision and very strict controls on the PC. Always make sure you have some kind of firewall in place as well.

At the business level. the problem is usually a budget issue. One of Sony's problems was that their IT dept budget had been cut by Bain an Co., an outside consultancy, who were brought in to help increase profits. Big corporations often underestimate the severity of the problem these days.

In the last few year, there has been a major incident at least every month and that is increasing to at least every week.

EVERYONE needs to be on their guard. Take it from me, a professional. I help protect from this every day.

Thanks, but are these cyber-terrorists and hackers actually being caught?

Bain and Co.? Romney strikes back. lolol

"Big corporations often underestimate the severity of the problem these days."

And yet, they have no issue telling us how secure our transactions are, and herding us towards their wares.

It's always, how "transactions are encrypted for your security", or some other such mumbo jumbo. The reality is that online/credit purchases have always been the least secure form of transaction. I've had my accounts hacked before, and my bank accounts compromised, but I can't remember the last time I got mugged walking into a store with cash.

@tahoochi - Thanks, but are these cyber-terrorists and hackers actually being caught?

Yes. All but the government sponsored ones.