I sometimes consider how viewing a system organically makes a difference. "Organically" may be open to interpretation, so I'll clarify that a little. It means thinking of systems as things that grow and develop (and also can die, evolve, and more). I'm not a biologist, of course, so this may not be accurate...it's more like an explanation for a heuristic of mine.
So, for example, almost two decades ago when one of my political science classes talked about the tendencies of organizations to continue to justify their existence (hence why it's so hard to get rid of various organizations), it resonated with my own inclinations because it's a very organic concept. Organizations grow for various reasons, but they don't want to die so they will try to evolve and/or change their purpose in order to continue to stay in existence. It has some implications for anyone wanting to reduce the size of the government, in that you'll obviously face resistance of some sort...but (again with an organic reference) sometimes a little healthy pruning is good for the organization as a whole. Doing so in and of itself is not good or bad, it depends on how well you know the system and how well you prune without cutting out the critical bits.
I brought that up because it helps explain something I've been considering, w/regards to cybersecurity. It also applies to organized crime.
See - plants and animals are intricate systems where balance is key. Cancers, for example, grow when something happens to the mechanisms that normally keep cell growth under control. (again, not a cancer specialist here. I'm probably oversimplifying this tremendously.)
And aging - well, aging is when cells die faster than they can be replaced. (So businesses, nation-states, and all human-centric organizations can grow as they continue to develop or sustain their 'cells'...and start to die when they lose such things faster than they can be replaced. Of course, it's hard to define what a 'cell' in an organization is...but we still get a sense of when something is growing bigger/dying off.)
So cybercrime and crime in general...well, we'll probably always have some. Stopping it entirely is a pipe dream. But what we can and should stop is letting criminal behavior grow to the point that it interferes with/disrupts everything else. Hence so many comparisons to cancer.
Cybercrime today is dangerously close to metasizing. So many successful attacks are occuring that it encourages interested parties to continue to do so...to a greater and greater degree. It's like, defense isn't just difficult in and of itself...it's difficult because there are just so many attackers out there at the moment.
It's getting to the point where you sort of expect to get hacked, or your identity stolen, or something malicious to occur.
The same thing can happen with organized crime. It's like, sure...most of us enjoy movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas. But that's fiction, and it's entirely different when they organize to steal millions of dollars of nuts. Now you see a very real interference with the economy, with the ability of hard working farmers to make a living, and/or with insurance companies that have to pay for the loss.
That's enough to start with. I'm actually heading to visit some relatives for my birthday, so I've got to finish up packing and hit the road.
So, for example, almost two decades ago when one of my political science classes talked about the tendencies of organizations to continue to justify their existence (hence why it's so hard to get rid of various organizations), it resonated with my own inclinations because it's a very organic concept. Organizations grow for various reasons, but they don't want to die so they will try to evolve and/or change their purpose in order to continue to stay in existence. It has some implications for anyone wanting to reduce the size of the government, in that you'll obviously face resistance of some sort...but (again with an organic reference) sometimes a little healthy pruning is good for the organization as a whole. Doing so in and of itself is not good or bad, it depends on how well you know the system and how well you prune without cutting out the critical bits.
I brought that up because it helps explain something I've been considering, w/regards to cybersecurity. It also applies to organized crime.
See - plants and animals are intricate systems where balance is key. Cancers, for example, grow when something happens to the mechanisms that normally keep cell growth under control. (again, not a cancer specialist here. I'm probably oversimplifying this tremendously.)
And aging - well, aging is when cells die faster than they can be replaced. (So businesses, nation-states, and all human-centric organizations can grow as they continue to develop or sustain their 'cells'...and start to die when they lose such things faster than they can be replaced. Of course, it's hard to define what a 'cell' in an organization is...but we still get a sense of when something is growing bigger/dying off.)
So cybercrime and crime in general...well, we'll probably always have some. Stopping it entirely is a pipe dream. But what we can and should stop is letting criminal behavior grow to the point that it interferes with/disrupts everything else. Hence so many comparisons to cancer.
Cybercrime today is dangerously close to metasizing. So many successful attacks are occuring that it encourages interested parties to continue to do so...to a greater and greater degree. It's like, defense isn't just difficult in and of itself...it's difficult because there are just so many attackers out there at the moment.
It's getting to the point where you sort of expect to get hacked, or your identity stolen, or something malicious to occur.
The same thing can happen with organized crime. It's like, sure...most of us enjoy movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas. But that's fiction, and it's entirely different when they organize to steal millions of dollars of nuts. Now you see a very real interference with the economy, with the ability of hard working farmers to make a living, and/or with insurance companies that have to pay for the loss.
That's enough to start with. I'm actually heading to visit some relatives for my birthday, so I've got to finish up packing and hit the road.
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