Milestones

Logging in to post the other day, I noticed that the number of comments on this blog has finally exceeded the number of entries. (Yes, I’m discounting comments by myself.) This is a good sign. Thank you very much for making me feel fantastically important. I encourage all of you to start blogging if you aren’t already, so that I may gleefully subscribe to, and of course comment on, your blogs.

This morning I read a headline on Slashdot that mentioned an interesting milestone. It appears that the cybercrime racket is now more profitable than drug trafficking globally. Who knew? Or rather, who didn’t? From the article:

McAfee CEO David DeWalt, said that cyber-crime has become a US$105 billion business that now surpasses the value of the illegal drug trade worldwide. Despite the increase in government compliance requirements and the proliferation of security tools, companies continue to underestimate the threat from phishing, data loss, and other cyber vulnerabilities, DeWalt said.

[...]

But law enforcement’s ability to find, prosecute, and punish criminals in cyberspace has not kept up: “If you rob a 7-11 you’ll get a much harsher punishment than if you stole millions online,” DeWal remarked. “The cross-border sophistication in tracking and arresting cyber-criminals is just not there.”

Anyway, it’s neat to see moments like this when priorities are shifting to follow possibilities.

That last statement refers entirely to the quoted article.