Crime is inevitably a reflection of the time in which it is committed. 'Organised crime' has existed since man first discovered the benefits of living in organised communities and the target for such criminal activity has been where vulnerability in the protection is perceived. In the 19th and 20th Centuries, the physical movement of money or bullion was an essential element in greasing the wheels of economic activity. Money was, in the main, well protected in major banks but more at risk when in transit.
Organised crime recognised this weakness and progressed from robbing stagecoaches a la Wells Fargo to holding up armoured bullion vans. Society, recognising this as a serious threat to commercial and economic well being, responded by the imposition of long custodial sentences. The banks responded by a huge investment in technology and physical security measures. The threat was largely obviated.
However, in the digital age in which we now live, the vast majority of global finance is conducted in the virtual world and necessity for the physical move of money is reduced. Cyber-criminals have responded by moving into the cyberspace where the perception is that assets are less well protected and the sentencing of perpetrators, when caught, is relatively light.
Where are we then in the ever-developing battle with organised crime? The whole basis of the digital economy is one of trust. If we lose trust in the safety of conducting business in cyberspace then the way we now conduct business could itself collapse - it certainly will not develop as quickly as it ought to, or enable us to reap the benefits. It is against this background that we must gauge not only how well we are protected but what data requires protection and, to understand that, we need to understand the threats themselves.
Everyone accepts the phrase that 'we live in the information age' - but what does that actually mean? In many ways the most valuable thing that we now possess is information in all its various facets. Whist we cannot always put a value on information in the way we can on bullion bars, the accidental or deliberate release of information or distrust in its integrity, or the non-availability of it when required can have a devastating effect on business. Information then, is perhaps the most prized and most useful asset for any organisation in the 21st century.
What, therefore, are the threats in the information age? Protecting ourselves against the 16-year-old hackers utilising downloaded tools from the internet is now not so much a problem. The computer industry looks at the same hacker sites and moves quickly to block any new tool posted on those sites. The common perception is that these 16 year olds pose the greatest problem. Yes, they pose the most visible problem and on a percentage basis the overwhelming majority of malicious activity. But, the real threat from organised crime in the digital world comes from the perpetration of fraud, and the commission of commercial espionage.
Groups who feel compelled to forward their extreme agendas, whatever they may be, are also an emerging risk in the digital world as we now spot the advent of cyber terrorism. Cyber terrorism is not necessarily targeted against governments but against the components of society, the majority of which are the commercial enterprises. We are also at risk from the use of these tools by a range of activities from investigative journalists through dedicated single interest group activists to, disconcertingly, governments themselves who have been identified using their resources to obtain commercial advantage for their own industries - and yes, this has been going on within the EU.
We have to recognise that we are not well protected against the various threats and the major problem has been in identifying how major these threats really are. The psyche of the 16 year old hacker requires that he waves a 'digital flag' to show everyone how clever he has been. Organised Crime has the opposite motivation รข€“ they hide where they have been and what they have done and it requires sophisticated tools to spot what is happening. Disappointingly, all the major surveys still show that the overwhelming management perception of the problem is that the major threat is from viruses and overt hacking and defacement.
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