Crime in the information age

Crime in the information age is one of the biggest problems in our society. I’ll talk about this issue with two aspects.

First, crimes targeting the elderly. Let’s take "Ore ore" ("It's me") frauds for example. Swindles call targets and persuade them that they are relatives in trouble and need quick cash. They pose as grandchild, police officers and lawyers to gain victims' trust using bunch of detailed information. They can be an easy pray for fraud due to impaired judgment. We can consider that banking facilities also have hand in this fraud. To prevent this, banking facilities should have responsibility not to be withdrawn money by such as redundant confirmation.

Second, extremely high technology. Let’s take Electric train pass – SuiCa of JR.

With just one quick touch, you can pass through JR EAST ticket gates and your fare is automatically deducted! No need to buy a ticket every time you ride a train. You can recharge and reuse the card an unlimited number of times. I have a hand in R&D related to this train pass. We got information that the card is targeted by fraud aiming at stealing private information. Engineer including me are making strong effort to preventing from being stolen personal information from the card. Literally, night and day. The technology implented in SuiCa card is so called high technology. The attempt used by fraud also becomes high technology. We have been in the rat race. Ironically, this vicious cycle enhances the great leaps in technology though.

In conclusion, we are living in high crime risk environment. Victims could be not only the elderly but also various generations targeted by fraud