Attack of the Grownups

The media frequently portray the typical computer criminal as a disaffected male youth, a computer wizard who lacks social skills. In the archetypal scene, FBI agents conduct a predawn raid: with their guns drawn, they arrest a teenager while his horrified parents look on. And in fact, Day says that as recently as five years ago, juveniles made up the majority of the perpetrators she encountered. They were teenagers who broke into Web sites that had little security, and their digital crowbars were tools that they downloaded freely from the Internet. These kids made no attempt to hide their success. Instead, they set up their own servers on the penetrated computers, bragged to their friends, and left behind lots of evidence of their misdeeds.

But such attacks are no longer the most important cases that Day's office investigates. Recent years have brought "an interesting shift," she says. Now she sees attackers breaking into computers that are supposedly protected by firewalls and security systems. These perpetrators-virtually all of them adults-mount extremely sophisticated attacks. They don't brag, and they don't leave obvious tracks. "It's economic espionage," Day concludes.