Internet is the most powerful tool, but......

Internet has become the most powerful medium in the world today; otherwise everything will come to a standstill. Especially all financial transactions will come to standstill, if the internet crashes world over. To prevent such catastrophe many layers of safeguards have been introduced in all banks, leading stock markets and other Central Banks, the world over!

Besides finance, every known discipline in health, education, employment, are connected throughout the globe. Anyone can access any information about anything on earth in a few seconds with the click of the mouse if one is connected to the net. With the advancement of technology, smart phones have become mini computers to access any information on earth. The only disadvantage of a smart phone is that we can not use it to type lengthy documents. For that tablets have come handy and we can attach keyboards etc.

Around fifty years ago, the net was the sole property of a selective few groups like the ‘Arpanet”. Later, the scientists have found that the internet can aid their research in a monumental way. Now 90% of research papers on any subject is accessible through the net. Though it helped many genuine researchers, plagiarism too spread. Due to that single flaw, we can not ignore the contribution of the net in every field of human life and existence. It is a boon to the senior citizens who had to get out of their homes to pay bills, purchase grocery and daily needs. It was really a taxing exercise. But with the advent of internet and e governance adopted by many governments, it has become possible for paying all bills, sitting in the comforts of the home. I myself suffered a lot few years ago. I need to walk miles for paying my telephone bills, electricity bills and other payments in public domain like the water tax, property tax etc. With the net connection and the technology, I started paying everything online, instantly generating the receipt also.

But, I am staying in a city where there is net connection all the twenty four hours. I am ruminating about the condition of remote villages where even a telephone connection is luxury. Hence, the state owned telecom operator is planning a big way to connect all the villages through fiber network or microwave towers. Wherever mobile towers are placed, the wireless connection helps the mobile phone owners. But it is quiet impossible to connect all the remote villages which are situated in hills and valleys, in thick forests and obscure places in high altitudes. Unless the government implements the schemes to connect all the villages by any of the technology, social welfare programs planned by the government to benefit the poor illiterate spread among the far most corners of the Nation is a distant dream.

Every technology has got its own negative points. It is like handling a sharp knife. If the knife is used by a housewife, it will be helpful in cutting and chopping the vegetables and green leaves. If it is held by a surgeon, he could cure many by operating on the particular part of the body which is affected. Unfortunately, if it falls in the hands of a terrorist, it will be utilized for destruction and killing of lives. But there are many cyber criminals who are worse than known criminals. They not only siphon off money from the accounts of innocent citizens, they systematically browbeat many youngsters in terrorist activities through the net. Also many young girls, boys and children, who surf the social platforms without the supervision of elders, might fall into the trap laid by the cyber criminals and their personal data divulged over the net, might cause much sufferings to the youngsters as well as to the parents.

As the cyber cell attached to Police headquarters try to crack such crimes, the criminals have become more sophisticated to hack even the most guarded sites which are vital for the administration of the Nation and their security. In the past, we had read from media reports how blatantly criminals have hacked many such sites, stole personal data of many millions of people without the knowledge of anyone. It is the newspapers which publish such acts and we have to think twice before logging into the net to pay the bills or transfer money to others.

Ultimately, a day may come that we need to prove our identity through finger print technology or scanning the palm or iris. Then only we can be sure of our privacy and security of our hard earned cash!