Nine and a half years ago, when I launched the online version of The Buzz magazine, a colleague of mine – the only Buzz colleague, in fact, who was interested enough to even *look* at the e-zine – got really excited. Sitting in the third floor office on Castle Street, Sligo, Ireland, he clicked from page to digital page, and made a statement I’ll never forget:
“You know Mikey,” he said, as a cartoon lightbulb hovered over his head, “if this internet thing ever takes off…”
I knew that the internet had already taken off. But even I am surprised at the speed with which this communications medium has made its impact across the world.
In North Carolina this week, two men are before the courts, facing up to twenty years in jail for a crime that the internet has made possible, and one of which every reader of this page, I am sure, has already been a “victim” – spam!
One of the men, Gaven Stubberfield, was described by Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore as “number eight on the top 10 worldwide spammer list”.
Cybercrimes are sure to increase in the future, as the internet continues to weave its way rapidly into the global socio-cultural fabric – faster even than television or radio did before it.
Perhaps I will be writing about online identity theft in a decade’s time?
By Michael Heraghty
(I am Michael Heraghty. Honest. Just ask Google.)
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