E-commerce raises the threat ante -- GCN

E-commerce raises the threat ante

Apr 27, 2001

One of the CyberSmuggling Center's major challenges is keeping up with constant changes in technology.

'Most of our offices do not even have high-speed access to the Internet,' said Kevin Delli-Colli, director of the Customs Services center. 'They still use dial-up stuff. So you try to juggle training needs and equipment needs constantly.'

Another concern is the growth of electronic-commerce, a billion-dollar-per-year industry that's concentrated in North America, Delli-Colli said. By 2004, e-commerce is expected to reach about $8 billion, with nearly half of that volume outside the United States, he said.

'What you are going to have then is a lot of cross-border transactions,' he said. 'Each time you see an increase in the number of legitimate transactions, traffickers are going to find a way to mask and hide [illegal] goods within that.'

But the center is prepared for the challenge.

'I look at the Internet as our own little world,' Delli-Colli said. 'I think we have the right idea, but this place is not yet fully staffed. We are doing a fairly good job, but like the war on drugs, we are not seizing everything that comes in.'

'Preeti Vasishtha

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