iPredator is a global term used to describe all online users who engage in criminal, deviant or abusive behaviors using information and communications technology (hereafter, ICT.) iPredator includes all online users engaged in nefarious and/or abusive online behaviors. Whether the offender is a cyber bully, cyber stalker, cyber criminal, online sexual predator, internet troll or cyber terrorist, they fall within the scope of iPredator.
By virtue of this proverbial cloak of anonymity so conveniently provided by ICT, iPredators troll cyberspace with a distinct advantage in that they may represent themselves in any way they choose. Furthermore, they can secretly stalk their prey by tracking the potential victim’s path from an undetectable, safe distance. Not only can iPredators become anyone they choose to be, they can also become anyone their victim may subconsciously desire them to be.
The repercussions of the unrestricted latitude of iPredators will be catastrophic for not only the individual, but for society, and potentially, the world over. Therefore, before it is too late, we must re-examine the phenomenon of “social networking†via technology. We must become educated in the Dark Psychology of ICT and learn to respect the mighty potential for harm that lurks beneath its surface. Society has now become ripe for the birth and growth of a new human predator advanced in all things internet.
This deviant’s name is iPredator. The arena iPredators stalk their targets is cyberspace with physical contact often a secondary objective. Cyberspace is a hypothetical environment involving all online users interconnected through computers, telecommunications and the internet without regard to physical location. William Gibson invented the term cyberspace, which he used in his 1984 novel, Neuromancer.
In 2012, cyberspace describes the non-physical terrain created by information and communications technology (hereafter, ICT). In its advanced form, cyberspace has evolved into virtual reality. Online users presented with visual, auditory and tactile feedback experience virtual reality in cyberspace as a realistic domain. Thus, virtual reality creates a perceptual illusion mimicking a realistic atmosphere.
Whereas virtual reality is positive and artificial, iPredator is both very real and potentially very dangerous. In all cases, iPredators exhibit minimal disquiet for the victim’s psychological welfare by injecting fear, embarrassment and distress into their lives. As stated, iPredator is the antithesis to the positive environment created by virtual reality.
Unlike traditional human predators prior to the information age, iPredators rely on the multitude of benefits offered by ICT. These assistances include exchange of information over long distances, rapidity of information exchanged and the seemingly infinite access to data available. Malevolent in intent, iPredators rely on their capacity to deceive others using ICT in an abstract electronic universe. Within the next three decades, iPredator acts of theft, violence, abuse, cyber warfare and cyber terrorism will grow into a global plague if not quashed and thwarted.
iPredators use a tactical weapon I have termed “Cyberstealth†furnished by ICT. Cyberstealth is a method iPredators create and implement while they taunt, troll and stalk their prey. iPredators target online users and corporate entities oblivious, inexperienced, ill-informed or unaware they’re covertly being evaluated as a potential target or cyber-attack.
In nature, wild animals stalk and measure their prey using stealth and tactical strategies increasing their probability of success while decreasing potential for injury. iPredators also use stealth, cyberstealth, to stalk online users to increase the probability of achieving their aims while decreasing potential of identification and punishment. As I illustrate in my theoretical report, Dark Psychology, humans are the only living organisms that stalk, attack and victimize their own species without the primary instinctual drives of procreation, survival or food.
The prime targets sought by iPredators are online users not intellectually, psychologically and technologically equipped. Their targets lack ICT safety strategies and technology, heightened levels of awareness online, a healthy level of skepticism, comprehensive digital citizenship practices and C3 (cyber safety, cyber security and cyber ethics) plans.
Using cyberstealth, iPredators have considerably lower probabilities of identification, legal ramifications or injury. Prior to ICT, assailants had to be far more creative in their methods. Now equipped with ICT and trained in cyberstealth, they can create counterfeit identities or manipulate others using embellished personas of who they envision themselves to be most influential to others.
Computer science experts, sociologists and psychologists tend to describe ICT as beneficial tools for humanity. Based on my investigative findings leading to the creation of iPredator defines this new dimension quite differently. Although I view the World Wide Web, Telecommunications, Digital Technology and Mobile Educational Technology as highly beneficial tools and areas helpful to society, I do recognize tools have many different purposes. When chosen for nefarious reasons, ICT are tools that become weapons. iPredators primarily use ICT as weapons in their efforts to offend, dominate or steal.
Prior to ICT, all methods of communication involved some form of identification and response recognition skills using at least one of the five senses. Although deception, crime and immoral acts were committed, they entailed far more creativity, design and planning than what is required online. In cyberspace, our physical senses are relatively subdued as we exchange and/or verify information as valid in isolation from the source. The “veil of invisibility†ICT offers has numerous benefits, but the detriments can far outweigh the assistances for the vulnerable or high-risk target unaware or vulnerable given the talents of some iPredators adept at using cyberstealth.
