Saturday 6 June 2009

Global Economic Crisis


I don’t think that the topic of Economic Crisis needs an introduction. The one that happened, or rather got accepted and announced, just over six months ago affected nearly every one of us. People like me who were trying to get a foothold on the property ladder, found getting mortgages impossible; people already owning a home suffered from bad rates (unless you had a tracker), negative equity, even repossession. Coincidentally, organisations started major re-structuring and improvement of the overall org charts A.K.A. sacking. And job losses became another big hit of this crisis that turned global.

It didn’t take long for the why-it-all-happened programs to appear on TV, so at least now we have an official version of what went wrong. I don’t know exactly why the financial bubble burst, but I believe that there were plenty cyber criminals who used the situation to their advantage, worsening the effects of crisis further. I’m trying to describe one such possible scenario in the Snowflake. However, before I do, I want to ask for your opinion. Would you agree that serious computer crime doesn’t get enough coverage and that the real extent of cyber machinations is much greater than we are lead to believe?

10 comments:

  1. Computer crime is a dark river. Nobody knows its dimensions because nobody knows where it starts or where it’s flowing to. It doesn’t have territorial bounds. It’s global. Hackers of the late eighties were more interested in playing games, showing that they’re smarter, better, faster than the special services. Their attacks were meant to show off their skill, like saying You can’t hide your secrets from me! You can’t catch me! Now all they are trying to do is steal as much money as possible. There are no more hackers, only as you say criminals.

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  2. I don’t understand what we’re discussing here. I don’t think you have a concrete plan for writing your book and there’s no order or sense in your questions. Your reader will struggle to understand what you’re trying to say. Every topic you raise is different and has different audience. I preferred talking about families, emotions, struggling feelings. Now we’re starting to talk about computer crime and before we’ll know it, you’ll be writing about what software and hardware I should install on my PC. I’m sorry but I don’t find that interesting. I understand that that’s your job, but if you want to make it as a writer you shouldn’t only write about things that are interesting to you.

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  3. Hey people. I just love the fact that we are all so different. If it wasn’t for the previous comment we’d all look like characters from Corrie, talking about the same stuff. I tend to agree that cyber crime is not widely publicised. For two reasons. Either there’re not enough examples and no point talking about them, or there’re too many examples and talking about them would cause panic and anger that government is not doing enough. I do find the topic interesting and very suitable for the book.

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  4. I don’t think we’ll get very far if we start making personal comments and demanding things we want. People with a lot to say should consider starting their own blog.

    Personally, I think that cybercrime is a “here and now” issue and should be covered, both in fiction and mass media. Also, I think cybercrime will be coming out under the spotlight more and more often in future. There’re already cyber units in MI5, MI6, FBI, etcetera. But I believe there’ll be dedicated cyber security organisations sanctioned before long, both national and international. Maybe then we’ll get to hear more about the really big cyber cases.

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  5. Computer crime no doubt exists. And just like other types of crime, it spans different levels. There are petty criminals, equivalent to those who try to steal you handbag in a busy street. There also is organised computer crime that targets banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions. When crime is petty, it’s probably classified as not important enough to receive wide coverage. When it’s significant, with major consequences, it will be covered up so as not to worry the people. We all know what government thinks about us, naive, impressionable, overreacting citizens.

    I might not know much about computers, but I find this topic interesting and even educational to read about.

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  6. I believe computer crime is a much bigger problem than everyone thinks, so much so that it might be one of the main reasons for the economic crisis. If not, then at least they’ll be getting major benefits from it. Like they say, money is like water and if it flowed out of somebody’s pocket, it must have flowed into somebody else’s. It can’t be possible that everyone lost during the crisis and nobody gained. Where did all our money go? Don’t get me started on this!

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  7. Government’s empty promises + gambling on stock markets + cyber crime = Global Economic Crisis

    Lucky us...

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  8. Modern computer crime is like an iceberg floating in the sea of worldwide economy. Unfortunately, no amount of global warming will melt this one.

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  9. I don’t know about the rest, but ever since the crisis began my inbox now gets flooded with those emails that tell you that some African prince or Japanese banker needs your help to transfer gazillions of pounds. All you have to give them is your name, address and bank details. That’s computer crime, isn’t it? If it is, then it should be on the news more often.

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  10. I get fraudulent emails too and fraudulent phone calls. There are lots of people out there feeling desperate and others who want to cash in on that. I think there should be more news coverage on small cases like this.

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