In this book, we ve examined the historical background of cybercrime, and discussed how Internet-related offenders can be defended against and brought to justice today. What does the future hold for us in terms of online lawbreaking? Surely we can expect both the cybercriminals and the methods used to combat them to grow more sophisticated. We also can expect more and more legislation regulating Internet behavior. Cybercrime today ranges from the seemingly trivial to the deadly serious and it s likely that in the years to come we ll see more of it, at both ends of the spectrum.

As this book goes to press, United States officials are cracking down on Americans increasingly popular practice of buying Cuban cigars over the Internet. Since the 1960s, the United States trade embargo against Cuba has prohibited United States citizens from purchasing goods made in Cuba, even when traveling outside the country. For years, cigar aficionados have journeyed to Canada and other countries to buy the highly coveted Havana cigars, but in recent years the Internet has made it much easier and less expensive for Americans to break this law.

At the same time, cyberterrorism (a topic we only touched on briefly here) has been in the news more and more, especially during the past few weeks as I ve put the finishing touches on this book. On June 27, 2002, it was reported in the Washington Post that authorities were investigating suspicious patterns of surveillance originating in the Middle East and South Asia, against...