The Great Debate UK

from The Great Debate:

Rising tide of cyber-crime shows why we need Web regulation

Michael Barrett is the Chief Information Security Officer at PayPal. He is on the advisory board of StopBadware.org, an anti-malware "neighborhood watch" led by Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

In less than five years, Internet crime has changed from an anomaly of teenage vandals into a multi-billion dollar industry. Just one form of cyber crime, "phishing," where criminals masquerade as trustworthy entities in e-mails and instant messages to steal private data, reportedly amassed $3.2 billion last year.  Another form, spyware, where software surreptitiously monitors a victim's online activity, prompted 850,000 U.S. households to replace their computers and inflicted damages totaling $1.7 billion, reported the Consumer Reports National Research Center State of the Net Survey.

At the same time, Internet usage has skyrocketed worldwide with 20 percent of the world's population, or about one billion people, online today. It's not hard to understand why the Internet's popularity has continued to grow in the face of its threats. Could you get through your workday without e-mail or search? Could your kids make it to dinner without checking Facebook or sending a text? If you're like most people I know, the answer is likely, "no way."

We are socially and economically dependent on the Internet - a fact that makes us vulnerable in tough financial times. So, it may surprise you to know that no single entity is responsible for regulating the Internet or keeping its users safe.