DailyPost 1023
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES – FUTURE CRIMES
The technology landscape in changing by the hour and criminals being the first and best adopters of technology, it is bound to have a harrowing time for the Police. Edward Snowden remains the watershed between the two worlds, old digital technology and the path breaking world of emerging technology. He got Glenn Greenwald initiated into world of internet relay chat and through it gave him a peep into the arsenal he was sitting on. He then went to Hongkong as meticulously planned by Snowden and then came the NSA leaks and rest is history. NSA’s lack of grip over technology and its incapability to take care of its own secrets dented its image for all times to come.
The grip of Bitcoin over money laundering globally remains unknown. The Silk Road investigation gives an idea about what can happen, its control of over 20% of US drug sales and still having the capability to he remain unknown. A drone load of drugs over the US border from Mexico can mean up to 2 million dollars. If neatly orchestrated with state of art drone technology, mass scale delivery can happen, with precision and stealth. The Gatwick airport closure around Christmas last year is all too well known. The drone army of mafiasos or terrorists can be a nightmare, and drones getting manufactured by 3D Printing, which can manufacture weapons too.
Military level isotopes can be used at will, may be it can delivered by a drone too. Skripals at Salisbury has been a scary story. Close access hacks for buffered systems can also become a reality. Who knows tomorrow by this method, the test report could be manipulated. The capability to hack SWIFT banking system is still there, it can become hazardous in the days to come. If only Lazarus, Anonymous, Syrian Electronic Army come together, they can wreck havoc on the financial and other systems.
How the technology will be used by the criminals is anybody guess? A drone and Alexa combined might give the best reconnaissance for planning any crime. From Estonia to Baltimore the nature of attacks is getting more and more destructive, it can scale exponentially as well. The real is beyond Sci-Fi. Future is what we make of it. If we don’t, future crimes may even turn out to be beyond our comprehension.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AS EARLIER, WILL CONTINUE TO BE DOUBLE EDGED SWORDS.
Sanjay Sahay