An Age of Lawlessness

With the emergence of the Internet, not only has it aided us in our everyday lives where most things such as research and shopping are at the tip of our fingers, it has also converted most of us into little criminals of our own. The World Wide Web is filled with an abundance of information although a bulk of it are copies of similar content. The virtually limitless amount of space and data creates a playing field for people to roam around in to explore and exploit the net for their individual purposes.

For most of us, we indulge in the guilty pleasure of downloading data whether in the form of songs or movies off the Internet for free. Personally, I find this slightly harmless- look at the media giants, they are already earning more than they can reap! – albeit acknowledging that it is wrong and we shouldn’t be doing it. But lurking around in the same space are skilled individuals or even syndicates performing professional crime. They steal and trade almost anything and everything, from credit card details, phishing kits, identity information, to credentials at the lowest cost which further encourages such activities.

Practically every person or party using the Internet is leveraging on its anarchy to fulfill their individual agendas; from amateur students plagiarizing work off the net, syndicates who operate across borders selling valuable information, to authorities and governments all over the world propagating their own interest. Today, crimes are committed as easy as a snap of the finger even by the people we see as leaders. In an era of supposed good guys doing what the typical bad guys would do, can we actually believe everything that we see and hear?

I strongly believe that despite the recent whistle blowing stints by people like Snowden and Assange, there are still countless dark secrets in the many layers encompassing the world of media and communications that go beyond our imagination. Thinking about it makes one feel like a little grain in the vast ocean.