The role of technology in global crime - Research Proposal Example

Just like when youve bought the latest model of cell phone, before you know it, its obsolete. Okay, that was quite an exaggeration, but you get the point. Alongside its being fast-paced is price cutting, which is probably the reason why technology became so conventional, of course next to its main purpose—that is, to make mans life easier. However, though men are said to be good in nature, we always had the weakness for wealth, luxury, power, etc. Also, another sad fact that we have to put up with is that, technology cant choose its user, good or bad; it would facilitate his or her life all the same.

Looking on both edges of the sword, "in the right hands, technology has the power to transform our lives in ways that only a generation ago we could never have imagined, but, in the wrong hands, technology can lead to identity theft, online auction fraud, child abduction, and many other crimes" (NCPC 2008). Yes, in a worse case scenario, technology could bring about such felony. The question is whats the role of technology in global crime? Does it resolve crime or only make it worse? Well, according to the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), technology played an increasing role in the serious crimes they handled, that groups of criminals worldwide are collaborating over the web (Heath 2008).

In line with SOCAs view, last August 11, 2008, Brad Stone of The New York Times reported on "Global Trail of an Online Crime Ring" that Albert Gonzalez, 27, and his two Miami-based accomplices, Christopher Scott, 25, and Damon Patrick Toey, 23, were storing millions of stolen credit and debit card numbers on servers in Latvia and Ukraine, which they got from a server-breach of a Dallas-based restaurant chain together with other members of a ring that extended from Ukraine to Estonia, and imprinting some of those numbers on blank A.T.M.

cards supplied by collaborators in China for use in cash machines. Furthermore, this