The Electronic Masque of the Red Death

"...the critters are already out of the box..."

Richard Mandel
Senior Editor

I imagine the first medieval knight felled by a crossbow shaft must have had a shocked expression on his face. His thoughts, as life ebbed, may have included "...it came through my armor and mail...from out of nowhere!" Progressively over the centuries, the distance grew between assailant and opponent, reaching our modern technological potential for destroying whole cities half a world away with the pressing of a button. Click. Boom. Never saw it coming.

Quietly, almost insidiously, we are bearing witness to an entirely new weapon that is already rampant amongst us. And curiously, the business end of the projectile is aimed straight back at each of us. It is the resultant backlash of democratizing this Age of Information.

Have you not received warnings about your e-mail content at work? If not, you will. Companies large and small are finding out that electronic notes don't necessarily go away with the delete button. Lawsuits and leverages are blooming across the markets like mushrooms after a spring rain, nurtured on a diet of information acquired from leaking information sources and talented hackers who can crack into your company's server. The very essence of what you write, because it lacks your spoken inflection, is terribly prone to misinterpretation, and you're on the street between jobs again because your company had to dismiss you as an expedient for the good of the working environment. Paranoid? Perhaps you should be.

And what does one say about the unimpeded flow of information and ideas on the internet? Certainly a great tool for the design and sales staffs, but undeniably a contributor to the tragedy in Colorado this past April, succoring teenagers with themes and ideas that reinforced their own beliefs, then supplying instructions for the manufacture of effective bombs. It's ten o'clock -- do you know what your kids are downloading?

So, do we demand government intervention and regulation? Heavens, no, we've seen what fiascoes that has produced. (Can you say Superfund?) Besides, the critters are already out of the box, Pandora; ain't no way you're gonna get them back in.

Simplistic as it seems, the best way to survive this may be for each of us to take responsibility as individuals for the actions of ourselves and our loved ones. Our companies and careers have all benefited from electronic commerce, but many individuals are using these resources like someone cruising the freeway without having first taken driving lessons. It's imperative to learn, very quickly, the dangers that await us around the bend. Click.