The rapidly expanding internet world provides massive benefits to modern societies and organisations. Over the past decade, the business and government sectors have been able to enjoy many internet-generated benefits such as email and multimedia communications, an information-rich World-Wide Web and several online tools, applications and associated innovations.
However, equally as evolving in that time has been the ambitious criminal world, and it seems to have moved quickly to adopt and exploit the internet in a multitude of unlawful ways.
In recent years, law enforcement agencies around the world have taken significant steps to combat various forms of cyber-crime such as identity theft, online fraud, online sex exploitation, cyber-stalking, digital piracy and security and privacy breaches. Part of their strategy has been to work collaboratively and transnationally to combine expertise and resource levels, in an effort to catch or deter the perpetrators of such crime types.
Unfortunately, it would seem that cyber-crime does not buckle to many traditional policing methodologies. Before the internet, criminals carried out their work in a predominantly physical capacity. Nowadays, the internet allows criminals to act with a high degree of speed and anonymity, affording them the ability to execute a plethora of online crimes and cause significant disruption.
Even despite the diligent efforts of law enforcement agencies and internet companies, there still seems to be an unrelenting growth of online criminal networks around the world that pose a significant threat to our businesses and communities.
In chapter eight of his 2007 book CyberCrime, Australian author Nigel Phair explores the online nature of today’s communications - particularly in terms of of e-commerce.
“Global commerce is totally reliant on interconnected computers and networks that fully support voice/sound, video and data at very quick speeds”, Mr Phair says.
“The internet is not only a connected system - it is also dependent. This means that attacks focusing on one part of the internet may affect others such as online communications.”
Nigel’s book (which is an excellent publication and well worth the read) goes far deeper into the subject, but these statements help to sum up the fundamental nature of our interconnected - and very vulnerable - internet world.
Then there’s this reminder from Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos who was recently interviewed in an e-news article by The Independent’s UK news website in March 2008:
“Anything which has storage capacity and can be plugged into a computer could now be carrying a virus.”
Not a surprising statement, but still considerably daunting as we increasingly find ourselves using a variety of different hardware types that are compatible with our computers - namely iPods, memory sticks, portable hard drives and GPSs, just to name a few.
In its e-news article, The Independent also quoted Lord Broers who is currently leading a UK government committee to address e-security:
“The Government should do a better job in gathering data on internet crime and fraud,” Lord Broers said.
“And we have to shift resources into this sort of policing.”
Lord Broers’ comments may only be isolated to the UK, but they still bare some testament to the notion that cyber-crime is ahead of the game.
If this is true, then it’s hardly good news - particularly given the internet’s increasing popularity around the world. In Australia alone, over 75 per cent of the population are now connected to the internet (statistics as at Dec 2007). Needless to say, the internet has become the preferred and, in many cases, single channel of trade and communications for businesses and users alike.
The global adoption of e-commerce and e-communications has, if you will, sealed the fate of the modern business world. Today’s commercial and government environments thrive on the efficiencies and cost-savings of the internet - and with that, they also assume the risks and threats of the cyber-crime menace.
Essentially supporting Lord Broers’ thoughts is a hair-raising article on the US-based Information Week website, published in September 2007. The article features McAfee CEO David DeWalt, who says that cyber-crime has become a $105 billion business that surpasses the global value of the illegal drug trade.
The article also highlights that - despite measures to improve internet governance and policing around the world - today’s cyber-criminals remain up to the task, and businesses stay at risk of fraud an other damaging crimes.
Looking over the fence for a moment…my blue collar, migrant Italian father-in-law absolutely hates the concept of the internet along with many other modern technologies. He refuses to understand and embrace any of it; in fact, he hates anything with a power cord that’s not meant for a building site.
However, he is also one of the very few people I know who probably won’t ever need to worry about cyber-crime…at least not if he has a choice! He’s quite happy handing bank notes to a human over a counter, getting his daily news from the newspaper, discussing the town gossip over a glass of Ginger Beer at the local RSL club and storing his documents on top of the fridge or under his pillow along with his stash of greenback.
Can we blame him, though? I used to mock my beloved father-in-law for his ignorance and old-fashioned ways, but I wonder if all our reliance on the internet is going to be worth it in the long run?
I think we all hope that internet security will continue to be addressed and improved by its governing bodies, governments and key business sectors. But what if it stays behind the game, at the hands of smarter, more persistent and well-connected online criminals?
Personally, as much as I am a fan of cyber-space, I don’t know if I’d be prepared to put my identity, finances and assets under that kind of threat. I accept that I may not actually have a choice in the future, but I am slightly concerned about it. I also contemplate what online life will be like for my kids who will be old enough to use the web in just a few years; we know that it will afford them unprecented levels of interaction, engagement and efficiency, but at what cost?
Rob
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