The Dark Side Of The Web

Are you entangled in the web? Millions of us across the globe use the internet on a daily basis. It has revolutionised communication just as Gutenberg’s printing press did in the Middle Ages. At a flick of a button you can go practically anywhere, speak to anyone, start any business, open a bank account, buy anything, assume any identity, live an idealised life in a virtual world and gain access to a kaleidoscope of information. The web is wunderbar! Isn’t it?

But beneath its surface is a dusky mysterious world of intrigue, deceit, espionage, monsters and super creeps. With terrorist cells, doppelgangers, fraudsters, black hats, viruses, worms, phishes, Trojan horses, governmental and industrial spying all lurking in the shadows.

The cost of cyber crime, hacking and fraud in particular, is estimated at between five and ten billion dollars per year. High-profile hackers appeal to our anti-hero, anti-establishment sensibilities no doubt. Ironically, however, they often end up in top corporate and government jobs – once they have paid their penance of course. Who said crime doesn’t pay?

The collapse of the Berlin Wall symbolised the ending of The Cold War. Do we know have the Firewall – a symbol of the Cyber War? Here’s a selection of juicy titbits about the scammers, spooks and big players who inhabit The Net’s underworld:

Cyber Wars

Estonia Vs Russia
Combine a pint-sized Baltic state, the removal of a bronze statue of a Soviet WW2 soldier and the acrimonious reaction from Estonians of Russian descent and we have the first war in cyber space. The data-flooding of Estonia’s computer networks caused chaos and mayhem for over a month and the blame has been squarely laid at Russia’s door. The Russian government has denied any involvement in the incursions, which almost closed down the country’s digital infrastructure, clogged the presidential and parliament websites, almost crippling the biggest bank and overwhelming the sites of several daily newspapers. ‘It turned out to be a national security issue’ Estonia’s national defence minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, said in an interview. Computer security experts from NATO, Israel, the European Union and the USA have since converged on Estonia to help and to glean what they can about the threat of cyber war in the digital age.

url source: http://blog.knowyourmoney.co.uk/index.php/2008/11/the-dark-side-of-the-web/