With so much of our society relying on the Internet to get through the day, we can easily see how much chaos and brain-ache a virus or cyber attack can cause. For example, a cyber attack aimed at an individual can not only wreak havoc on their social and personal life, but it can also bankrupt them financially as their bank accounts can be hacked and debt piled up under their name. As for large companies, those that are attacked by cyber criminals can not only lose millions of dollars due to downtime, but they can also have their most important trade secrets stolen and shared with their top competitors.
With all the cyber attacks grabbing the media’s attention lately, it’s no wonder that governments are stepping up to fight hackers and those who willingly wreak cyber havoc on individuals and businesses. One government in particular, Japan, has recently passed a law that would make creating and spreading a virus punishable by up to three years in jail and fines up to 500,000 yen (around $6,200).
Perhaps this will help reduce the amount of malware on the web as more people become worried about going to jail when writing viruses, as opposed to thinking about how much they can profit by stealing from others online. Hopefully this will also lead to hackers and computer experts to use their skills in much more constructive ways instead of causing chaos.
(Via Time Techland) / (Image by There is always more mystery licensed under Creative Commons)
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