**8. Interested parties**

The list of interested parties has grown in direct proportion to the number of connected entities. It would probably be much easier to list those who need not be concerned with cyber crime, because IT has become an integral part of companies, government agencies, the military, our infrastructure (including water, electricity, roads, bridges, natural gas, etc.), health care, research, and our personal lives, and because a very large portion of all IT is now connected via the Internet. Anyone who has any device connected via the Internet – and this includes cell phones, MP3 players, computer gaming equipment, and ALL forms of computers – anyone with any of these devices should be concerned about cyber crime. All of these devices have fallen victim to cyber crime, and it is unlikely that this will change.

Perhaps the parties most difficult to convince of this are the general public. Only a small percentage of the population is deeply aware of how easily the security of their connected devices can be compromised. And because only a small percentage are affected by cyber crime each year, the general public remains relatively uncommitted to deploying the latest and best security software. And as long as this remains true, it is inevitable that cyber crime will continue to increase.
