Officer Ward

Officer Ward
Cyber Defender & Detention Center Security Officer

Officer Ward believes that most people who disrespect the privelages of Cyberspace are more ignorant than criminal, and that most cyber criminals can be rehabilitated into faithful cyber citizens through education about the dangers of delinquency in Cyberspace.

Working closely with Commander Omni and the Cyber Defense Academy, Officer Ward hopes to secure Cyberspace for everyone.

Favorite Quote:

It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do
- John Baptiste Moliere

Favorite Food:

Cupcakes

Interests:

Coaching softball, fishing, catching cyber criminals

October 28 2009

Cyber Criminals -Vladimir Levin, Citibank Fraud

Back in 1994, when I was at the youthful age of...15 years younger than I am now...there was a famous case of fraud involving Citibank. Wow, I feel old now.

Back then Vladimir Levin used Citibank's dialup wire transferring service to steal $10.7 million dollars! Of course, Levin was caught in less than a year, the bank got almost all of its money back, and Levin went to prison. Talk about a waste of time!

The interesting thing about this case is that originally, the media said Levin was a mathematician and graduate of Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology. After all, this would explain how he could hack into their system so easily, right? Well, as it turns out, Levin had no such skills. Instead of hacking into Citibank’s wire transfer service, Levin simply paid $100 to someone in the company to give him access to the systems.

Does this make Levin less of a cyber criminal? Not at all. Though he might not have had the smarts to break in himself, he did have $100 and a plan to steal millions via technology.  So watch out! It doesn’t take genius to be a notorious cyber criminal, just a regular person with evil in their heart and $100 in their pocket!

posted by Officer Ward
topic: Cyber Criminals

October 23 2009

Here's the Plan

Before I do anything else, I just want to say how impressed I am with Jax and Sparky. Not only did they encourage Erika to come forward, but they also came up with a fantastic plan to catch the cyber pirate Captain Jack. Here's what they came up with. Since Erika hadn't responded to Captain Jack's email yet, we had her write back to him saying that she did want to join his crew. We also had her invite the pilfering pirate to a Halloween party at the Academy. By the way, Dana, can you throw a Halloween party together for this Friday? Thanks.

Anyway, once Captain Jack shows up, we'll nab him and make him walk the plank! I mean, we'll arrest him. Sorry, I got carried away with the pirate theme...

posted by Officer Ward
topic: Miscellaneous

October 21 2009

Cyber Crimes: Cyber Squatting

Last night I decided to create a Webpage so I could brag about all the huge fish I caught last spring. I went to register www.officerward.com, but someone had already taken it! Worst of all, they weren't even using the Web site! I contacted the person that owned the Web site and they said they'd be willing to sell me the name.FOR $2,000! Then it hit me. I was dealing with rotten cybersquatters.

Cybersquatting is when someone registers a domain name so they can make a profit off it later by selling it for a high price. Some cybersquatters will even make a Web site with a name similar to a popular existing site to fool people into checking it out. When companies first started using the Internet to advertise their products, many of them found that the Web addresses they wanted to register were already taken. Luckily for them, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) protected their trademark and the owner of the domain name had to give them.

Since you probably don't own a company, you really shouldn't run into any problems with cybersquatters. I decided not to sue the person who owned www.officerward.com since it wouldn't be worth the effort. In fact, I decided not to do a Web site at all! Instead, I'll just carry pictures of all my amazing catches in my wallet so I can show people wherever I go!

posted by Officer Ward
topic: Cyber Crimes