Feature Articles

The Godfather, Il Mafioso dei Mafiosi, is off stage, now an historical oddity, as is the term mafia, now called Cosa Nostra. Times are a-changing. No more blood rites or gergo mafioso (mob speak), or yearning wannabes, or classic rubouts, or risk of exposure while doing �a piece of work,� or the tingling thrill following a successful score. No more dingy clubhouses where criminal solidarity blossomed and schemes hatched. Our mobster of legend, the Goodfella, has been replaced by a phalanx of mumbling cyberexperts of sallow complexion, poor posture, having never witnessed sunlight; radar focused, typing furiously, hacking into the infinite cybernetic expanding universe. The cybernerd is not alone. He is part of a mafia-like structure, composed of professional hierarchies. Cybercrime can be seen as a very sophisticated model of racketeering. It is the new normal, difficult to combat, the least visible and most intractable.

A special agent of the FBI�s Cyber Division was given the task of going undercover to immerse himself in the web�s expanding pool of orgcrime in cyberspace. Other nations joined this international police force to develop strategies to infiltrate and neutralize cyberdynasties. There will be degrees of success. Cyberdudes will continue to hone their skills, keeping one step ahead.

The old mafia was small potatoes compared to the whole of cybermafia: cyberspace is unlimited, cybercrooks have sophisticated tools on hand; and the potential for profiting from cyberracketeering is out of sight. All is possible in the cyberkingdom. The wizardry of the cyberwhizkids reveals a never ending story of policing failures: firewalls are fallible; hacker penetration is inevitable. The WikiLeaks crowd, with its liberal journalistic bias, has become an irritant that won�t go away.

Cybercrime is today�s story. Criminal deviance comes in all forms. It is said that each generation deserves the crime it gets. There was a time in the fabled history of the classical American mafia that those fancy and arrogant gangsters of the day viewed themselves as invincible, not just �Our Thing� of the moment, but much more; to quote from The Godfather film, �Bigger than General Motors,� they were here to stay. Well, step aside old timers, there is a new kid on the block, who probably has that refrain going through his head.