Platypus Magazine June 2000

June 2000

cover photograph depicting the information superhighway

In today's world the information superhighway has made geographic borders increasingly meaningless. The globalisation of crime, the reality of the Internet and e-commerce and the way in which technology is transforming markets and enterprises combine to make many traditional laws redundant.

Featured in this edition is this year's Police Commissioners' Conference. The timeliness of the theme for the conference, Crime @ the Speed of Thought, was illustrated by international news soon after the meeting that a ‘love bug' virus, allegedly perpetrated by a ‘hacker' in the Philippines, had infected millions of computers around the world causing severe disruption to business, industry and communications systems. Telecommunications analysts estimated the global cost of the virus would be billions of dollars.