The attack surface
grew considerably, preparing us for the next wave of
cybercrime.
Technology improvement favored a growing mechanization of
company processes, both in terms of internal procedures and
cross-entity communications. Today in the United States, you
can visit a doctor you have never seen before, yet your insurance
number will be enough for him to know the last prescriptions
issued and your medical history; the Social Security
Number can induce even bigger miracles, and let??™s not even
mention the power of those 16 digits embossed on your Visa. In
another Catch-22 pattern, those evolutions both enabled and
were driven by the growth of online activities.
We will lightheartedly ignore all details of the dotcom bubble
here, fast forwarding beyond that crazy collective hallucination:
Let??™s just say that in the past ten years the usage of computers for
online activity grew dramatically, and companies were quick (if
not always effective) in jumping on the related business opportunities.
The time that consumers spent online became signi?¬?-
cant, and self-sustaining breakthroughs such as the fax-to-email
evolution happened many times, in many ?¬?elds. Banks offered
account management and easy access to wire transfer, tradi-
More and more
identity information
is projected online
Ecommerce
becomes the killer
application for the
Internet
The Advent of Pro?¬?table Digital Crime 13
tional media companies found ways of providing their offerings
as premium content, telephony and brick-and-mortar service
providers opened their billing processes to online access, airlines
devised more agile processes for ticketing and checking in,
governments opened bureaucracy procedures, gaming companies
created shared environments and charged for access.
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