Cybercriminals kill for rewards

According to Alperovitch, the organisation, which boasted 7000 members, was a clearing-house for trading stolen information, stolen credit cards and stolen botnets.

Golubov was arrested and charged with cyber-theft in 2005, but his detainment was short-lived.

“Members of the [Ukrainian] Parliament intervened on his [Golubov] behalf and he was let off,” Alperovitch said. "In fact Members of Parliament made a case that he was being unfairly prosecuted.”

After his charges were dismissed, Golubov started his own political party, the Internet Party of UKraine.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that Golubov denied involvement in any cybercriminal activity, claiming the FBI confused him with someone else. According to Golubov, he was the victim of identity theft.

Alperovitch also commented on the ongoing creation of laws and legislation in relation to cybercrime. He dismissed new regulations as misguided and insisted that the criminal legislation [in the US] that has existed for more than a century is sufficient to convict cybercriminals.

“Some of the laws that we currently see in the industry pass now and again are a little bit misguided,” he said. “These crimes - when you follow the money and look at what they [criminals] are actually trying to do - are already covered by laws that are hundreds of years old.

Fundamentally, cybercrime, just like traditional crime, is a people problem and not a technology problem Alperovitch said.

“Unless we look at individuals and the organisations that are responsible for it, and unless we target them aggressively, this problem is not going to go away,” he said.

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