Digital crime in the twenty-first century

The most effective way of eliminating opportunities for digital crime is simply to pull the plug. This is of course unrealistic — the affluent nations of the world are now highly dependent on information technology. For the poorer nations, information technology is probably a necessary, if not sufficient, path to economic development. Thus, the challenge lies in managing risk so as to achieve the maximum benefits that flow from new technologies, while minimizing the downside. A merchant could scrutinize every credit card transaction to drastically reduce the risk of fraud, but in the process drive away legitimate customers. At a higher level, nations around the world are in the process of forging policies on where to draw the line on such fundamental questions as the balance between the citizen's privacy and the imperatives of law enforcement, and freedom of expression versus the protection of certain cultural values.