Organized crime in a network society: an interview with Misha Glenny.

AuthorGlenny, Misha
PositionInterview

The very benefits of the Internet make it susceptible to being used against individuals, organizations, and states. The changing role of organized crime in a networked society demands understanding the risks involved when using new technologies. Misha Glenny, author of McMafia: Journey through the Global Criminal Underworld, explores the transitions and rapid expansion of what he calls the "global shadow economy," which today accounts for approximately 15 to 20 percent of the world's GDP. (1) According to Glenny, the great danger of cybercrime is the high risk of potentially affecting a large part of the world that is linked to the web and that finds significant value in its interconnectedness. In this interview, conducted by Ronald Davis of the Journal, Misha Glenny exposes the inherent problems associated with the nature of the Internet with respect to organized crime.

The Journal of International Affairs: Are there certain aspects of communication and globalization that have changed transnational organized crime today? How complex is the developing relationship between cyber and traditional transnational organized crime?

Misha Glenny: Cybercrime emerged outside of the regions of traditional organized crime because cybercrime requires different skill sets than traditional organized crime. Few organized criminals in the 1990s and early 2000s had any of those skills, nor were they alert to the possibilities of cyber. The tools you require for cybercrime basically include the ability to adapt very quickly to technology or know somebody close to you who possess those skills. Many tended to be young people who lived in areas with high levels of criminality, not necessarily traditionally, but because of the transition that the economies they were living in were going through at that time. That, in particular, explains the high level of cyber criminality in the former Soviet Union and in parts of Eastern Europe. These young people with hacking skills were not necessarily from the criminal milieu.

There are two fundamental skills you need for cybercrime. One is hacking skills, with which you can explore data from computers, and the other is social engineering. The latter involves persuading people to do things with their computer that are not objectively in their interest, such as giving up data or clicking on links that lead to the download of malware, thus compromising their privacy and security. The skills involved in social engineering and hacking are very different skills. The people who have these skills, whether...

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