The Internet is many different things to many different people. For some users it’s primarily a jukebox, VCR, and video game console. For others it’s a teacher, tutor and library. For still others it’s the daily newspaper, a radio, the evening news and stock market tickertape.
It also functions as a telephone, a videophone, a post office, a newsletter, a fan club, a debating society, a boardroom, a shopping mall, a bank, an auction house, a sales floor, a travel agency, a business directory and much, much more.
In less than a decade, the Internet has become a ubiquitous appliance for the free world, and is frequently held up as the embodiment of freedom itself – and what could be freer than the World Wide Web, the apogee of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly?
The Internet has also remained relatively free of laws and regulations, and as a result a lot of the information flying around out there is free – when by all rules of commerce and copyright it shouldn’t be.
That’s not necessarily a good thing.
Because of the difficulty in tracking individuals, the anonymity the technology allows, and the fact that laws are applied differently around the world, the Internet has become a haven for criminal activity.
Subscribers to child pornography rings are frequently picked up by the authorities in international crackdowns, including a recent sting that included Who guitarist Pete Townshend and more than 1,300 others. Still, authorities believe that these computer users are just the tip of the iceberg.
Thieves are using Internet auction sites and message boards to fence stolen goods, which are virtually untraceable. Con artists are using the Web to scam people out of their money and personal information, and hackers are using the Internet to steal credit card numbers and software, and to disrupt the flow of information.
Recently the Human Society of Canada discovered that the Internet is also being used to facilitate the trafficking of banned animal parts, including bear gall bladders. One Web site led to the seizure of 386 bear galls in Ontario.
"This kind of cruelty puts a price on the head of every living bear," commented HSC director Michael O’Sullivan. "The Internet is the new frontier with a dominant culture that vigorously encourages freedom of expression and speech at all costs. Even if someone is promoting cruelty to animals, and even if the company hosting the Web site agrees that they don’t like it, they will protect the person’s right to express themselves."
Students, professionals – even British intelligence – have used the Web to plagiarize information for assignments.
Which leads us to another Internet dilemma – the huge quantities of unproven, unqualified and unsubstantiated information in cyberspace that is passed off as fact. This is especially concerning for health professionals, who are worried that the wrong information, or incomplete information, on products and treatments could be harmful to the public.
Hate groups have flourished on the Web, using the Internet to spread views and opinions that would be considered criminal in many countries.
Sexual offenders have used Internet chat rooms to dupe young girls into face-to-face meetings.
In more isolated cases, terrorists and mass murderers have used the Web to download recipes for making explosives, buy weapons, and plan criminal activities.
Meanwhile, the Internet is being used by millions of ordinarily law-abiding citizens to facilitate the breaking of hundreds of copyright laws, picking billions of dollars from the pockets of the entertainment industry. However you might justify your MP3 collection – the industry rips off the fans, musicians are too wealthy, if I like the music I’ll buy the CD, there’s no difference between downloading an MP3 and taping a song off a friend – you’re still stealing someone’s intellectual property.
So, you may ask, what’s being done to police the Web?
Domestically, Canada has given the job of tracking and prosecuting cyber and telecommunication crimes to a new RCMP unit, which by its own admission is understaffed.
Like the bear gall bladders, many forms of Internet crime are not all that difficult to find, but you have to be looking for it. Without the resources or the mandate to seek out Internet crime, police forces mainly rely on the public to report illegal activities, and usually these tips only arrive after the damage has been done.
There are signs that this is changing. On Feb. 24-25, the Canadian Police College (CPC) hosted the first international meeting of representatives of high-tech crime training institutions. Guest speakers included Internet crime experts from the U.S., China and Hong Kong, the U.K., and France.
To report any criminal activity in Canada, the RCMP ( www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ ) recommends contacting your local detachment.
In the U.S., they have an entire division within the U.S. Department of Justice to handle cyber crime complaints. The Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section can be reached at www.cybercrime.gov .
This site includes information on how to report Internet-related crimes, information on how private industry can get involved, a look at different types of cyber crime, and – to show they are serious – reports of arrests and sentencing in cyber crime cases.
Internationally, cyber crime is the domain of Interpol, an international policing body with more than 150 countries around the globe. Wherever the perpetrator of a cyber crime may be based, chances are that country is a member of Interpol.
For more information on Interpol’s Information Technology Crime division, visit www.interpol.int/Public/lcpo/
