National Threat Assessment 2008. Organised Crime - Politie

moving from the Netherlands to Canada, Russia and other countries.
The market for illegal hard copies is shrinking. Anyone can download these
days and soft copies are cheaper. The approach under private law also appears
to be having an effect.
5.4.7 Conclusion
ICT piracy was designated as a threat in NTA 2004. At the time it was assumed
that the number of illegal copies with links to organised crime (hard copies)
would exceed those of private amateurs (soft copies). This situation has changed
in the meantime. Hard copy sales are constantly falling, whilst the number of
soft copies is increasing. It also turns out that there is hardly any production of
illegal hard copies in the Netherlands. The damage to the music and film
industry is caused by criminal organisations abroad. Due to the loss of popularity,
pirates can no longer earn as much from hard copies and the damage has
therefore also decreased.
From a financial point of view, hosting file sharing sites is still appealing, however,
but because of the advertising income rather than the soft copies. In the
Netherlands action is currently being taken against these sites, as a result of which
the Netherlands has become less attractive as a country for establishing such sites.
The expectation is that ICT piracy will be no specific threat in the next four years.
5.5 Phishing
5.5.1 Introduction and scope
Phishing was investigated as part of the NTA 2006 follow-up study and qualified
as a conditional threat. The insights from that follow-up study, plus recent
observations, formed the basis for the section on phishing in the reassessment
project for the present NTA.
Phishing is described as ‘using digital activities to unlawfully gain possession of
and/or use the identity details of an Internet user, in whole or in part, with the
aim of committing a criminal offence where the Internet user will be the victim’.
5.5.2 General context
Broadly speaking, there are three types of phishing: classic phishing, pharming
and spy phishing. In the (now) classic form of phishing an email is sent to
Internet users. The email appears to come from a financial institution or
company. The aim is to convince recipients to click on a link in the email that
chapter 5 – Criminal modus operandi
195