Published August 15, 2010
By Alexandra Kapitanskaya
Briefing TTCVR1001
Report available in PDF and Flash formats

In much the same way that ungoverned regions of the world pose significant risks to global security and nonproliferation efforts, ungoverned swathes of cyberspace contain inherent security vulnerabilities which offer criminals opportunity to conduct illicit activities through the use of information technology (IT).

The rapid growth of IT and its spread around the world has facilitated international trade, finance, communication and human development, offering new opportunities for the exchange of goods, services and ideas. However, the requisite measures to ensure that the IT medium would not be exploited by criminals and terrorists for financial and political gain have been slow to arrive and, in many cases, simply have not been considered a priority for national governments, international organizations and the private sector. The result of this approach has been a marked rise in serious crime committed with the help of modern technology: of the more than 55,000 instances of wire fraud committed since 1998 in the United States, over half have occurred over the past two years in cyberspace.

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