ABSTRACT
Citizen concern about the availability of undesirable content has given rise to the private monitoring and surveillance of cyberspace. Computer security is a thriving industry. The status of information security as a profession, and within organ-isations generally, is destined to increase as a result of the heightening awareness of risk. In cyberspace, as in health policy, prevention is better than cure. Telecommunications technology was first created in 1837, while the earliest example of illegal interception occurred in 1867. The reluctance of telecommunications carriers to report security breaches is a clear example of this, as is the reluctance of banks to declare that their funds transfer systems are less than secure. In a survey of hacking conducted by the Computer Security Institute in the United States, less than 17 per cent of respondents had reported incidents to law enforcement agencies, with 70 per cent citing fear of negative publicity as the primary reason for non-reporting.
