Privacy, Security, and Cyberspace

Digital technology has caused governments, businesses, and individuals to rethink long-held notions of privacy and security. Extensive government databases and the increased use of the Internet for text, audio, and video communication make it possible to monitor every Web site a computer user visits and every conversation that they have. Although such monitoring can be used to perform surveillance on actual or suspected criminals, it can also be used to spy on innocent individuals if sufficient technology and legal constraints are not in place. Privacy, Security, and Cyberspace illustrates how digital privacy and security is often a cat-and-mouse game in which owners of computers and digital data constantly update their defenses in response to new threats, while black hat hackers (those who break into computer systems with malicious intent) develop new ways to break through such defenses.