The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime The Report of the Inquiry into Cyber Crime House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications June 2010 Canberra © Commonwealth of Australia 2010 ISBN 978-0-642-79313-3 (Printed version) ISBN 978-0-642-79314-0 (HTML version) Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................................. ix Membership of the Committee .......................................................................................................... xiii Terms of reference ............................................................................................................................. xv Glossary and abbreviations .............................................................................................................. xvii List of recommendations ................................................................................................................. xxiii 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Referral of the Inquiry .................................................................................................................. 2 Definition of Cyber Crime ............................................................................................................ 3 Overview of the Report ............................................................................................................... 4 2 Nature, Prevalence and Economic Impact of Cyber Crime ............................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 9 Nature of cyber crime ............................................................................................................... 9 Cyber crime and the Internet ..................................................................................................... 10 Why do people commit cyber crime? ........................................................................................ 10 How do people currently commit cyber crime? .......................................................................... 11 The cyber crime industry ........................................................................................................... 23 Who commits cyber crime? ....................................................................................................... 28 Who are the victims of cyber crime? ......................................................................................... 29 Prevalence of Cyber Crime ..................................................................................................... 31 Current level of cyber crime threat ............................................................................................ 31 The outlook for cyber crime in Australia .................................................................................... 34 iv Economic impact of cyber crime ........................................................................................... 38 Committee View ........................................................................................................................ 41 3 Research and Data Collection ........................................................................... 43 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 43 Current research and data collection .................................................................................... 43 Challenges to research and data collection ......................................................................... 48 Compatibility of data .................................................................................................................. 48 Under reporting ......................................................................................................................... 49 Information for policy development ........................................................................................... 51 Committee View ........................................................................................................................ 52 4 Community Awareness and Vulnerability ........................................................ 55 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 55 Levels of Awareness and Uptake of E-security Measures .................................................. 55 Issues that contribute to low levels of awareness ............................................................... 59 Committee View ........................................................................................................................ 60 5 Domestic and International Coordination ......................................................... 61 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 61 Cyber Security Strategy ............................................................................................................ 61 Domestic Policy Coordination ............................................................................................... 62 National Coordination of Cyber Space Policy ............................................................................ 63 Committee View ........................................................................................................................ 67 International Engagement ...................................................................................................... 68 Committee View ........................................................................................................................ 71 Law Enforcement Coordination ............................................................................................. 72 Cyber Crime Reporting and Assistance .................................................................................... 72 High Tech Crime Operations Centre ......................................................................................... 75 Cyber Crime Reporting ............................................................................................................. 77 Recent Innovations in Cyber Crime Reporting .......................................................................... 79 A New National Approach to Cyber Crime Reporting ................................................................ 82 Committee View ........................................................................................................................ 87 Criminal Law Enforcement Coordination .............................................................................. 89 Training and development...................................................................................................... 91 v Committee View ........................................................................................................................ 93 Public-Private Cyber Crime Intelligence Sharing ................................................................. 93 Committee View ........................................................................................................................ 99 6 Criminal and Law Enforcement Framework ................................................... 103 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 103 Criminal Law .......................................................................................................................... 103 Computer Offences ................................................................................................................. 104 Identity Fraud Offences ........................................................................................................... 105 Commentary ........................................................................................................................... 106 Committee View ...................................................................................................................... 108 Law Enforcement Powers to Obtain Digital Evidence ....................................................... 109 Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) – Investigative Powers ........................................................................ 110 Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) .............................................. 111 Surveillance Devices Act 2004 (Cth) ....................................................................................... 112 Admissibility of Evidence ......................................................................................................... 113 Foreign business records ........................................................................................................ 113 International Cooperation ........................................................................................................ 114 Committee View .....................................................................................................................