Craiglist Killer

I recently read an article on the Vanity Fair website, talking about a number of murders that we facilitated by technology. In this post, I not only want to talk about the subject of the article, but also the way in which technology and news have combined.
The article, entitled, "Killer@Craigslist" talked about the lack of safety and awareness that people have regarding the internet. The article also made a really interesting point about the fact that no one actually knows who anyone is on the internet. It began, "He was Andy and she was Morgan. Both were fake names. They never actually spoke to each other; all their communication was by e-mail or text message. He used a disposable Trac phone that would be hard to trace; her friend and employer pretended that she was Morgan when setting up their meeting via cyberspace." The article goes onto say that they "met" via Craiglist. Her name was actually Julissa Brisman, and his Philip Markoff. After a long string of text messages, im messages, and emails, they finally decided to set up a meeting at 10:00 pm. As the article states, "A few minutes after 10, all pretense and politesse were dropped. Julissa Brisman was dead." She was found in a local hotel, dead and bound by plastic ribbons. A similar case was also reported, but the victim remained alive. Both crimes were commited in a very "personal, violent way,” which almost makes them even more frightening.
Crimes such as these have been reported way too frequently. From facebook, to myspace, and in the case, Cragslist, there have been countless crimes, often murders, regarding identitfy and safety. As our world progresses, especially in the field of technology, I think it becomes more and more important to learn how to stay safe; a skill that many are lacking in. Even with fake names, numbers, and so-called "untrackable devices," the internet is the unknow, the mystery. Even with years of experience and training, even a minute of letting your guard down can lead to bad situations. I think that for all of history, mankind has been used to adapting to new technologies, but I don't think that it is even possible to become totally aware of and about the internet; I think that people are mistaking time and experience with true knowlegde when it comes to the intnet, assuming that just because they have been using it for a couple of years that they've learned everything they need to know. This is not to say the the victims of cyber-crimes are at fault; just that you can never be too safe. It is frightening the number of articles that I have read in the last couple months concerning this topic. I take them as cautionary tales, and hope that others do to.