DigiCrime is a joke!!!
While this site might seem real at times, it is not. There are certainly
people with criminal intent in the world, but I am not among them. Actually, some
of us working in the field of information security have noticed many
vulnerabilities of information systems that can easily be exploited by a
technologically advanced criminal element. We don't advocate doing this, but
we often find it both amusing and alarming to ponder the possibilities.
DigiCrime was founded to lampoon these corporate values, and has been in
operation since 1995.
But seriously...
Our society is currently undergoing a radical change in the way we
use information, brought on by a fusion of communication and computation
technologies. In particular, we are rapidly changing to an
information-based economy and there are huge consequences from
the decisions we make in building the infrastructure during the next few
years.
- When your toaster is an Internet node, can I send email to burn your toast?
- When your car is an Internet node, can I make you run out of gas?
- When your house is an Internet node, can I open the doors to let myself
in?
- When your airliner is an Internet node, can I make it crash?
- When your business depends on the Internet, will you be a good credit
risk?
There is no reason why these things should be possible other than the public's
willingness to buy crap and the software industry's insistence on
implementation before design and testing after shipping.
DigiCrime is a satirical attempt to point out some of the potential threats
we face. Nothing on the DigiCrime page should do any damage to your machine,
but it may damage your confidence in your machine. I simply use satire as
a vehicle to inform and stimulate thought.
If you are a US resident, you should also ask yourself the question of whether
the US government is helping or hurting the security of the country by
restricting access to strong encryption. Tools to strengthen Internet
security exist, but are currently treated as a munition by US government laws.
The justification given for this is to keep strong encryption out of the hands
of criminals, but this policy has the unfortunate side effect of rendering the
US civilian infrastructure extremely
vulnerable to attack.
We make all sorts of tradeoffs in life in order to maintain a level of
freedom promised by our constitution. The second amendment to the
constitution is a good example. I believe in the statement that
when encryption is outlawed, only outlaws will have encryption.
Therefore I think the choice is clear. Restrictions on encryption
should be removed.
DigiCrime is comically hosted at
Southwest Cyberport, in Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
They are responsible for competent service, but not content. Complaints
should go to the Thief Scientist.