Mis - Tech - nology

By profession, I'm a designer, working for hours on my computer and communicating mostly through the Internet and mobile phone. I have always kept writing the positives of technology and how it helps our society in various ways. But that is about to change because more and more cyber crimes and frauds are appearing out in the news, which shows us the dark side of how technology can be used… or misused.

Mobile phones are already causing disorders in children and newborn babies. The waves emitting from mobile phones and their receptors can cause harm to your heart, brain and reproduction system in turn bringing to life children with disorders. Mobile virus has already occupied its share of newspaper space. Now there are even softwares available, which load on your mobile, you make a call and someone else pays your bill. Seems interesting? Then why not circulate porn MMS within your circle of friends. As per the rumors, it takes just $5 for anyone to download such a movie on your handset. Why not use different mobile phones for single mobile card making it unable for you to be tracked down for bills? Do you feel already out of place? Wait, there's more…

In a recent case in India, a 32 year old man, living in a posh suburban area in Delhi, was arrested for conspiring a neatly orchestrated plan, whereby he demanded $2 million from 3 parties and communicated everything through his mobile and internet. He told these parties, how and where to deposit the amount through online banking, send him the passwords, etc. Failure to deposit money by any party would result in the death of his/her son/daughter. In another case of technology becoming cheaper for common people, a person was arrested for keeping hidden cameras in rooms meant for hostel girls. Cameras nowadays are very cheap and affordable, making it possible for him to hide them in various places of the girls' room.

Predictions are already being made, that the next world war would not be waged in open fields and water and air, but will be organized and played on the Internet. Hackers would be generals, commandants and captains. Keyboards and screens, their ultimate weapons. Your borders will be servers that the other country would try to hack upon. Once you lose control of your servers, you lose the battle. Instead of multi-million dollar deals involving tanks, guns and missiles used for defense, we'll have million dollar deals with Anti-Virus and Anti-Cracking companies.

Might sound like imagination gone wild, but taking into consideration the speed at which the technology is changing the world around us, this sort of future seems much closer than expected. Beware of the Digital Virus.