Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.

According to the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, crimes facilitated through technology encompass a wide variety of offences that pose different levels of threat to consumers, businesses and more generally, society at large. There are two broad categories: new crimes committed with, and born out of, new technology, and traditional crimes committed with new technology. Newer crimes include hacking and “spoofing” websites, while traditional crimes using technology, particularly the Internet, include identity theft, extortion and fraud.

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Throughout the corporate world, normally, we care about safe IT environments when exchanging information. We have thousands of hardware devices and software programs in our companies that make us feel protected.

We keep our teams up to date with the latest developments in information technology security. So we think: we have trained people with enough knowledge to solve information security issues. We have the best in the world when it comes to hardware and software. So why be worried about invasion? Why be concerned about people watching us to access our information?

Yes, we have a situation here. We can have all the items described above, but without rules and procedures in place so that people in our company can see what must be done and followed, there is a problem.

Without rules, without procedures, it is not possible to keep our IT environments protected. People must be informed about what can be done and cannot be done. Otherwise, they will do everything without thinking about the consequences.

Imagine all the situations that could happen at your company without information technology rules . . . and after that, imagine what could happen in our country without Information Technology laws.

Digital crimes are increasing. We have to react to them. We have to show people how to deal with information in a safe way, not just in the corporate world but in society at large. We have to show everyone what is correct under the law. We must act very fast in order to elaborate and deliver information technology laws, otherwise crime will increase rapidly.

Cibele Andrea de Godoy Fonseca is CIO at the Brazilian construction company Andrade Gutierrez.