Techno-crime and Why We Need a New Vision

Introduction:

I hope you enjoyed the previous post “Techno-crime and the Evolution of Investigations.” If you haven’t read it, feel free to follow the link.

Now do you have a different perspective on how serious the problem with techno-crimes already is?

Why do we need to change how we deal with techno-crimes?

Because Current Approaches Aren’t Working

Technology is growing at an exponential rate.

Law enforcement, legal systems, and computer security don’t.

Throughout history, who had technology first…the crooks or the cops?

Investigations and security have tended to grow at a more gradual, linear pace, as you see in the graph below.

Historically, we have always been reactive.

If we could be more proactive, would that be enough to close this gap?

To be honest, I’m not really sure.

As Daniel Burrus says in his amazing book, “Flash Foresight: See The Invisible To Do The Impossible:” “But in the twenty-first century, being proactive has outlived its usefulness. It’s too late to be proactive: we need to become preactive.”

The problem is, it’s now becoming exponentially harder for us to even be reactive, much less proactive or “preactive,” because of how fast technology is changing.

We have limitations that the criminals, and even the terrorists of the world don’t.

We are limited by:

• Current international systems of law and legal case precedents;
• Sophisticated technology that will require increased specialization;
• Demand for investigative and security specialists that we can’t satisfy, even today;
• Increased costs to hire specialized technology investigators;
• The exploding costs for specialized equipment, software and training requirements;
• Governments and agencies that don’t fully communicate and share information or resources.

When you think about it, the success of most investigations is based on either time or money.

If we can throw enough resources at an investigation or security program for a long enough time, we have a better chance of success.

But if the crooks and terrorists use technology to make it more time-consuming and expensive for us, the odds shift in their favor that we’ll never catch them.

They don’t have to “play by the rules.”

They can use every type of criminal enterprise to raise more money to pay for better technology…and that’s just what they are doing today.

What Can We Do?

We are at a critical tipping point for the future. In fact, unless we develop a completely new mindset to deal with techno-crime, we could be left behind.

But there are lots of serious questions to be discussed:

• Do we really want a world where we are no longer capable of investigating techno-crime or unable to protect our personal and business data?
• How do we balance the need for data protection (more than likely using encryption) with the need for law enforcement to obtain criminal evidence, or government intelligence agencies’ national security concerns?
• Is there a way to satisfy these legitimate needs while protecting our own privacy?
• Will our legal systems require change to deal with these issues?
• If we require more investigative and security technology specialists, where are they going to come from and how will be find the specific ones we need for every situation?

Final Thoughts:

It’s not good enough to just “try to keep up” with techno-crimes.

We need to evolve to get ahead of these technologies by developing new expertise, new tools, and new training that may not even exist today.

Investigators and security professionals may think that the best practices you are using today are still working fine for cases involving these technologies, but you’re probably wrong.

Let me just ask, how many data breaches have there been in the last couple of years?

How many more will happen before we realize (or admit) that the problem is already out of control?

Are you really confident that you’re prepared to handle every investigation or security incident involving every type of technology?

We need to start thinking about the best practices we’ll need for the technologies of tomorrow, our efforts won’t be effective anymore.

But together we have the knowledge and experience to make a difference.

But we can’t wait.

Technology is moving too fast.

We need something bigger than change. We need an evolution.

Evolve with me to talk about ways that we can close the gap between where we are today and the technical criminals in the world.

Evolve with me to prove to the world that we can even be better than they are.

Evolve with me so we can win the battle against techno-crime.

I’m curious to hear what you think about this problem. Continue the discussion with me and join us. Together, we can change the world and create a better future.