Published 18.10.2010 ‘Feature’ Engineering & Technology Magazine
Barely out of its teens, the Web has a plethora of noble achievements as well as a few skeletons hiding in the closet. A shadow is cast by the growth of criminal activity online, dampening spirits and emptying pockets of users worldwide. Network resources are choking under the strain of botnets sending spam and phishing emails. Denial of service attacks and the looming threat of cyberwarfare are fuelling a digital arms race. Fraudsters, identity thieves and extortionists scour home pages and online profiles in search of their next victim. Will the Web survive as a tool of global progress and innovation, or will the Shadownet extinguish its short-lived spark, making life online unbearable?