Cybercrime

Cybercrime is something that I know very little about other than to never click on a hypertext link that you receive unless you requested it or you know why you were sent one. 

When we were in school way back in the 50s and 60s, we were entering into what became known as the Cold War and our ally in the Second World War namely the Soviet Union was suddenly on the other side in the Cold War. It was the first time that we actually shared somewhat of a border with a nation (a water border) that was on the opposite side of our ideology and against everything for which we stood. We were actually between the United States and the Soviet Union looking at the globe with the North Pole in our sights and the world beneath that. I always knew that our military was tough; we weren't big but we could and would fight for our freedom.

So what is freedom here compared to life in the Soviet Union and now China (another ally in World War II)? Perhaps the freedom is in determining the people that represent us in our parliament; is that our biggest freedom? Sometimes I think it is. COVID-19 has shown us our freedoms in some ways. We are a managed country both by the Health Department and by our elected officials. Our elected officials though in the long run are the ones who determine just what conditions are imposed on us relying on other Departments like Health to make decisions on what will protect the greatest number of Canadians. That proved to be a problem with elected officials listening to the commerce side instead of Health resulting in sudden and devastating lockdowns. Health should have more say under some conditions that is for sure and they finally did when the infrastructure of the hospitals was threatened by too many COVID-19 cases in the ICU. Of course the dictatorships are busy trying to convince their people that they do the best job of providing the best life for them. That will be the most important item in the future is proving that democratic institutions are the best way for people to survive and that everyone benefits.

But why should cybercrime frighten us? Can it take us over and turn us into dictatorships like China and these days Russia as well? I still think a lot of cybercrime is committed to garner wealth by unscrupulous people who are not linked to any country particularly but countries that want to remain dictatorships use their actions to maintain control in their countries and show that they are more efficient than our democracies. They permit cybercriminals to operate within their borders probably and possibly demand a portion of monies stolen from the democracies. That would be something interesting to know.   

That would be the advantage of having the United Nations tax people who do not pay appropriate taxes to any particular nation. Everyone should pay to support the infrastructure of the world; no one should be exempt.