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\n“In the past few years, the number of cybercrime complaints being filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has surged, but, oddly, the number of cases being prosecuted has plunged,” states the original article on Wired.com. This peculiar vacuum begs the question, is the ghost in our machine getting craftier, or is our legal system losing its digital edge?<\/p>\n
To put it in context, the IC3 has seen a whopping 240% increase in complaints from 2013 to 2019. Now, we’re no mathematicians, but it’s pretty evident that cybercrime isn’t a dinner party trend fading out with the end of bell-bottom pants. It’s here, it’s clear, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. However, the tale of the prosecution numbers is a different kind of story entirely.<\/p>\n
Here’s the less-than-funny irony: while cybercrime complaints in 2019 increased by 16% from the previous year, prosecutions decreased by 12%! One might wonder if there’s a secret ‘Catch-and-Release’ policy for cybercriminals that the public is not aware of. Or perhaps, lady justice is on a sabbatical!<\/p>\n
Exploring possible explanations for this widening justice gap is akin to breaking down a big-budget sci-fi script – complex and somewhat perplexing. Could it be due to prosecutors’ overdependence on evidence that’s difficult to obtain? Certain protocols require evidence to be under one’s nose – ideally in a neat little file held in the criminal’s hand, with a neon sign overhead reading, “Guilty. Seriously, it’s right here.”<\/p>\n
For all the fascination and fear cybercrime evokes, one critical thing it doesn’t seem to inspire enough of is cybercrime prosecution. The trouble with the digital world is that evidence isn’t preserved in a neat little box with tidy bow ties. It’s buried under layers of code, hidden in servers oceans away, sometimes even evaporating the moment someone unplugs a server.<\/p>\n
Then there’s the complication of jurisdiction. Unfortunately, “the internet did it” doesn’t translate perfectly into our three-dimensional legal system. Trying to trace a criminal who used a VPN with an IP address bouncing from Timbuktu to Tokyo and back again isn’t analogous to a quick game of Clue. Not exactly a Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick, is it?<\/p>\n
In all seriousness, this eye-opening reality serves as a stark reminder that our efforts against these digital devils must be redoubled. Because while we might like a good round of guess-who, cybercriminals are not playing games. It’s about time our strategies reflect that.
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