The Founding Father of the World Wide Web on His First Experience with Online Crime.

Just last week, we let you know of  the 20 year anniversary of the creation of the world wide web. The founding documents, written by Tim Berners-Lee , have transformed the way we work, live and communicate today.

Sadly, the mam himself has not been immune to the darker elements of the web.  In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he describes his first encounter with online crime:

“The worst thing that has happened to me was when I tried to buy a Christmas present from a company that looked like a bona fide company on the internet and then actually they were a completely fake company. I think I am yet to get the money back, but it wasn’t a lot.

The moment I called the 0800 number listed on the website, there was a very polite message saying this number is available if you would like to use it, so a little bit of due diligence on my part would have revealed it wasn’t what it was set up to be.”

The pioneer maintains a level head regarding the matter:

There have been many positive things about the web, but there are also some nasty things out there too. You can find out how to cure diseases, but you can also find out how to make bombs.

Sometimes we need new laws, but in other cases we need to realise that old laws can still be applied to the web.

We need to tackle issues of enforcement instead, as the laws on fraud, for example, already exist but is hard to find and catch the people responsible.

Despite the crime the internet has brought – which seems to still be actively growing despite the economic downturn – we are unquestionably fortunate to have the internet at our finger tips today. In time, like in any other new environment, I’m certain we will learn to control and manage better than ever before.