Cyber criminals hiding behind screens should be exposed

Cyber crimes have multiplied so rapidly that it requires a glossary of terms just to get a handle on the scene. Viruses, trolling, scamming, phishing, cyber stalking, cyber bullying, cyber extortion, grooming, malware, hacking, identity fraud ... it's a Sisyphean effort to just compile a list. No sooner has the task been done than another type of cyber crime rears its ugly head.

While statistics are hard to come by the experience of other countries is likely representative of China too. For instance, the latest figures in Japan suggest a record number of cyber crimes in the first half of this year. Police responded to 2,444 Internet cases, according to the National Police Agency. This is 31.5 percent up from 2009. In the United States it's a similar story. Last year, a National Internet Crime Center (NICC) report suggested Internet rip-offs had increased 33 percent over the previous year, with losses of $265 million.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Cyber criminals are ahead of the game, while the reporting of crimes and the ability of the police to do anything about them is marginal. It's a game of catch-up for the authorities, as crime migrates from the streets to the screen. For instance, in the US case, Americans filed 275,284 cyber crime reports but the NICC could only confirm "several arrests" because most of the agencies concerned did not provide clear-up rates.