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Surely the one innovation in the past decade that has most profoundly changed our lives has been the Internet. Millions of us use the Internet to shop, pay bills, apply for jobs, and reserve hotels and airline seats. Media organizations and businesses view Internet advertising and communication as the way of the future, and students and scientists see it as an essential research tool.
Unfortunately, with all the innovations and access to information it has brought us, the Internet also has a dark side. Offenses committed over the Internet, known as cybercrimes, are growing at an alarming rate. An increasing number of thieves, called hackers in English, have become adept at stealing our personal information and using it to defraud businesses and the public. And these days, you can buy illegal drugs and weapons, unregulated pharmaceutical products, fraudulent documents, and the most horrific pornographic material imaginable over the Internet.
Cybercrimes may appear to some as little more than a nuisance plaguing governments, businesses and the financially successful. But the truth is that ordinary citizens are the ones most often being targeted by cybercriminals.
Certainly, the worst cybercrimes involve the exploitation of women and children. The Internet is used by criminals to promise illicit relations with minors of all ages. Impoverished families and their most vulnerable members – the young - are often easy prey for sex tourism promoters and people traffickers.
A few weeks ago, Americans and Mexicans were horrified when undercover journalists and law enforcement agents from both countries taped criminals in Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo using an Internet chat-room to sell an infant. Fortunately, the “buyer” in Dallas, Texas, was a reporter who worked with police authorities to arrest the sellers. No one knows how many crimes of this type go undetected and unstopped, but evidence tells us that sadly, it happens all the time.
Public officials in the United States and Mexico are taking important steps to combat cybercrime. Legislation passed by the Mexican Senate would make trafficking in persons a federal offense and would significantly help victims of trafficking if adopted by the Chamber of Deputies and written into law. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency program “Operation Predator” is identifying child pornographers and rescuing their victims world-wide. Just this week, on June 6-7, U.S. government experts are participating in an important conference on cyber security, taking place in Mexico City.
But more must be done by both countries to stop cybercrime. Policing the Internet involves a variety of complex issues, some of which are highly technical in nature. Governments must find a way to reconcile the complexities of protecting privacy rights and free speech, and protecting the victims of cybercrime. A lot of powerful interests have a financial stake in selling child pornography and other illegal products over the Internet-- only cooperation and hard work by developing and industrialized countries can stop them. I am convinced that Mexicans and Americans can prevail against cyber criminals if we work together.
For more information on U.S. efforts to combat cybercrime, go to http://www.cybercrime.gov or http://www.ice.gov/pi/predator/index.htm.
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