Global Cybercrime: New Toys for the Money Launderers
| Published date | 01 February 1999 |
| Date | 01 February 1999 |
| Pages | 317-325 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027198 |
| Author | Jason Haines,Peter Johnstone |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Money Laundering Control — Vol. 2 No. 4
Global Cybercrime: New Toys for the
Money Launderers
Jason Haines and Peter Johnstone
'The criminal can operate at a much less rarified
level and still have at his disposal the finest aid to
crime that the human mind has devised; a tool
that allows a crime to be committed in comfort,
for almost unlimited reward, with little chance of
detection and often with the ability to obliterate
all the evidence that it was even committed in the
first place. It is no wonder that computer security
experts are bewildered by community
apathy.'1
The transnational criminal certainly feels comfort
faced with almost limitless option buttons, when
surfing the 'global cyber candy shop' from the com-
fort of his cyber cafe armchair. The physical market-
place is rapidly transforming itself into a global
electronic arena, where the multicultural consumer
and its market-driven society merge and execute
limitless electronic transactions at the touch of a
trader's dealing screen, electronic transfers, credit
and debit cards, smart cards, and so on. These are
just some of the mediums which are now exploited
by the money launderer without leaving paper/
audit trails for law enforcement agencies and compli-
ance communities. Advances in communications,
information systems and cyber electronic innovations
increasingly dispel the myth that crime stops at the
border.
In order for governments to demonstrate their
sensitivity to the concerns and often reluctance of
consumers and end users to buy into new and often
'radicalised financial transacting' they promote and
endorse regulation, policing and facilitating the busi-
ness of financial services. Indeed in the UK, since the
enactment of the Financial Services Act 1986, the
financial services sector has electronically trans-
formed itself from a marketplace that was once
labour intensive to one that is dominated by com-
puter technology. There were various 'bedding in'
problems and difficulties faced by the then newly
established Securities and Investment Board (SIB)
and its delegated self-regulatory organisations. The
main implications of this new style of self-regulation
for regulators and compliance officers was that these
market professionals did not have time to consider
at length the possible impact of the new legislation
on the financial services industry, or even their own
role in terms of regulating this sector of the economy.
At the same time the Big Bang had just taken place
and the regulatory agencies were preoccupied with
how they were going to adapt to a financial services
industry that was routing itself through new electro-
nic avenues. This is analogous to the present regula-
tory climate, in the sense that yet again the
regulatory community is being revolutionised, but
this time regulators and compliance officers (guardian
angels of the financial arena) face an even more
challenging time than their predecessors. Indeed the
consultation period, for key market participants and
interested parties, over the Financial Services and
Markets Bill drew to an end in October after only
a three-month consultation period. In addition to
the regulatory reforms currently being debated and
scrutinised ready for future implementation, the
recently reformed Financial Services Authority
(FSA) is also faced with other complex issues such
as the year 2000 and the implementation of the Euro.
The single currency issue, however, is not the only
issue that is being debated over the government's
policy table. The technological issue that is currently
sapping the energy of ministers and computer experts
is the millennium bug syndrome. Indeed, it is
encouraging that policy makers and electronic
experts are facing the harsh reality of a potential 'elec-
tronic winter of discontent' in the year 2000 and are
endeavouring to resolve this complex problem
before the turn of the next century. It is ironic to
contemplate that the expediency of the spread of
financial services through a global electronic process,
facilitated by the removal of borders, and yet another
technological issue of equal importance, does not
appear to have been mentioned in pending legislation
in the UK 'cybercrime' arena.
COMPUTER HACKERS AND
CRACKERS
It is possible to differentiate between computer crim-
inals.
They can be divided into two groups; those
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