Technology,
with all its wonders, has brought us a raft of problems. At times, it seems we
have more new technology than we can handle.
Its rapid
introduction has brought efficiency and inefficiency, security and insecurity,
and creativity and criminality.
The Internet is
the genie the computer let out of the bottle, but it is not completely clear
whether it is good or evil.
The
revelations by Edward Snowden about the NSA’s collection of phone and Internet
records continue to raise concerns, as does the NSA’s plans to develop a way of
breaking through any protection to gain access to emails, messages and files.
News reports
say that people are being flooded with unwanted emails and that telephone lines
are being similarly inundated with unwanted calls intended to block some
emergency services.
Journalists
are being harassed by those receiving unfavorable coverage, who doctor online images
to make it look like the reporters have been compromised.
Using the
tools of identity theft, crooks have stolen more than a million IRS tax
refunds, beating the taxpayers by filing phony tax returns. They simply create false W-2 forms.
Credit and
debit card charges at Target, Neiman-Marcus and potentially many other stores,
were hijacked, supposedly by a young man in Russia, exposing data about
millions of people.
In the
Obamacare fiasco, computer programming was not up to the task entrusted to it,
placing one of the most significant new national programs in jeopardy.
In some
places, the police can use electronically guided drones to watch anybody they
choose without first getting a warrant.
In Maine, the
Department of Health and Human Services has knowingly overpaid care providers
millions of dollars, because it cannot get its electronic accounting system to
work properly.
Individuals
themselves have contributed to the problems by the extensive use of social
media – like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – leading to personal information
being widely available for criminal exploitation.
Finally,
international battles, fought on computers rather than on the ground, produce
serious threats. Can Chinese hackers
bring down the American electric utility grid?
The Internet
was meant to be open to all, a system with no central control and no police. Little
thought was given to the potential for abuse.
It has made
many aspects of our lives easier, producing faster results. That promotes commerce and conversation and
brings the world into homes in even remote areas. It is an aid to education.
Despite its
problems, its advantages are so great that we cannot try to stop its
momentum. But a case can be made that
its relentless advance should not continue to provide uncontrolled access to
hackers or to trample the privacy rights of its users.
There are
some reasonable steps that can be taken to reduce the threats of technology. Many of them are in the hands of users
themselves and do not require government action.
We should
take seriously advice to use strong passwords and change them frequently. It’s annoying but as essential as locking
away your valuable property.
In their
haste to wring profit from the Internet, many companies do not pay enough
attention to their own security. In the
end, both the user and the merchant or bank must get tough and be continually
watchful.
Target should
have made business aware of the need for great security and customers understand
the value of carefully reading their credit card statements.
And we need
better backup systems for conducting our business and operating the power grid,
something like we had before the coming of the technological revolution.
That could
mean making and retaining paper records.
It could also entail keeping mechanical systems available as backup instead
of eliminating them when electronic solutions come along.
As for
government, beyond the big questions created by the Snowden NSA revelations,
cyber policing needs to be increasingly.
We need an electronic cop on the beat.
In short, we
need a visible police presence always on the lookout for those who would
distort the technology marketplace for illegal purposes.
On the
international level, it should be obvious countries will always spy on one
another and that the Internet will help them.
There’s not much that can be done about that.
But all
countries’ economies are vulnerable to outside hackers. Russia and China are as easily hacked as the
United States.
Illegal use
of the Internet anywhere should be a crime everywhere. That’s exactly what the
world did to sharply reduce piracy on the high seas, and it’s time to treat
Internet crime in the ether the same way.