In his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon likens
history to “little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes
of mankind”. And when the history of the Internet comes to be
written—hopefully not after a demise of Roman proportions—crime will
certainly figure big time. So much so that the US government has just earmarked
an incredible $2 billion to fight cybercrime—and US Attorney
General Janet Reno wants a big slice of it to set up a Net crime squad
(www.naag.org/features/011500reno.html).
Her zero-tolerance round-the-clock online
army would comprise detectives, lawyers and…
Technology
Casting the net
22 January 2000
