Information age can bring a lot of security problems with it

The information age has brought us so many capabilities that we couldn't dream of 15-20 years ago. Today you can go to BestBuy and purchase a computer for a few hundred dollars that has the full capabilities of an IBM system 360 mainframe that was released in the late 70's and cost tens of millions of dollars. The little iphone you can hold in your hand has the power of the computer that landed Apollo capsule on the moon. But occasionally we are reminded that horrific events can also happen as a result of having this technology around us.I was informed a few days ago about a horrific event that shocked me. A friend of ours informed us that while she was dusting in her 13 year old daughter's room, she couldn't help but notice a little red thing on the wall. She looked at it closely, it looked like some kind of electronic gadget, she immediately informed her ex-husband to come and and take a look who happens to know a lot about computer security. To keep the story short, the little gadget turned out to be a tiny little video camera. Law enforcement was notified, the suspect was quickly identified and arrested, the person happened to be a close friend of the family and admitted looking at videos of this girl without clothing, all recorded in the privacy of her own room. It is not clear yet if any videos have been posted in Youtube, we hope and pray that this is not the case. The suspect who has admitted his guilt and is now free after posting a bail pending court proceedings, happened to be an IT manager at a local catholic school. The school has fired him immediately as soon as they were notified by the police about this incident.There are two different conclusions that can be drawn from this. First, the obvious one that in-house IT can't always be trusted, people who hire in-house IT help, should occasionally check to make sure if the person is doing the right things, an audit done by an independent IT service like CMIT would find problems like this. Secondly, all businesses should be aware that this can happen to them. Someone easily can plant a little video camera in a meeting room along with a tiny microphone and watch and listen what is being done behind closed doors and rush that information to the competitor. In any case, we are reminded that just as you can use a hammer to build a house or injure a person, you can also use the computer to do good things and immoral things, the choice is up to the individual to make.