Today is inauguration day in the USA. As I traveled to many countries late last year I was amazed at how joyous people of many cultures were that Obama is to be President of the USA.
Working in the security field, we see a lot of disappointment. Sometimes it seems that there is no hope of catching up to the bad guys. In reality, cybercrime is simply crime, and computers and the Internet are simply the tool du jour. We have never eradicated crime in the history of civilization, but we keep trying, and in some areas we make significant progress, while in other areas, be it geographical, technical, or social, we have a lot of work to do.
Many years ago I read a book called “Black Like Me”, written by John Howard Griffin and published in 1961. The book recounted the travels and experiences of a white man who colored his skin so that he appeared to be black, and then he wrote of how he was treated differently. If you like history, sociology, or psychology, I highly recommend this book. The point really is that in the US, we have gone from such widespread sociological acceptance of inhuman discrimination based upon the color of one’s skin to electing and inaugurating (shortly) a black president.
Cybercrime is a social problem. To have made such significant progress on a social problem (racism) with such deep roots, in such a relatively short period of time really gives hope for our fight against a myriad of social problems.
Will we eradicate cybercrime? No, of course not. We have not eradicated most types of crime, and certainly there is still racism in the US and throughout the world. Can we make progress? Yes, we can!!!
Randy Abrams
Director of Technical Education
