Lisbeth Salander is not just a character in a
novel. She exists. Misha Glenny, author of 'McMafia - Seriously
Organised Crime', and specialist on Southeastern Europe. He has known 'hackers' like the ones in the
''Millennium' series. In the course if his investigation on how the
cyberspace is the fertilized ground for Mafia activities and stage of
underground wars amongst the most potent, leaving no stone unturned (and no failed state unexamined) in his excavation of criminal globalisation.
His
new book 'The dark side of the Net', result of his 2-year
investigation of on-line criminal activities of the new generation of
the CyberMafia, the 'Hackers'. They are young creatures who install
themselves in crime before becoming men. About a hundred countries are
developing capacities for the cyber-war. Glenny admits that the
Millennium trilogy had helped him to understand a lot better about
hackers, and during his investigation he had come to know several
Salanders and Plagues (Plague: Salander's partner in crime in
Millennium).
These
young hackers are usually between the age of 13-14 when they started,
very dedicated to their tireless searches and exploration in science
and technology, not like other children of that age. There are even
special on-line courses to study how to become a hacker! And
organisations who set about to seek out intelligent, keen and skillful
youngster offering them 100$ (75€) a month. Small sum, but to a
teenager of 13 or 14, it's a lot of regular pocket money. Plus the fun
similar to hunting hidden treasure or peeping into people's secrets.
Is
Internet guilty of creating such crime formation? Difficulty question
to answer. Internet offers thousands and thousands of good things, if
fact, we can't imagine how we ever managed life before it's existence,
and now most of us practically can't live without it. The thing is also
that, without Internet, there won't be so much on-line fraud and
crime, and teenagers being 'recruited' and trained for evil purpose.
