Cyber Crime

Cyber Crime

       Cybercrime is an illegal act punishable by the government or state in which digital computers and the internet are used as an object in committing the crime. Cybercrime incorporates anything from downloading criminal records to taking cash from online financial balances (Dennis, 2019). Some of the most noticeable types of cybercrime include disavowal of administration assault, online extortion, online tax evasion, and fraud. Lawbreakers may utilize the web to take individual data, through hacking, phishing, and spamming, by drawing clients to counterfeit sites and unlawful access to co-corporate databases.  In addition to that, criminals also use computers and the internet in bullying and trafficking children pornography materials. In the recent past, cyber crimes have increased tremendously with the USA, Russia, and China reporting most numbers of cybercriminals.

The most common place where cybercrime and cyber terrorism takes place is through the darknet, which is a network built on top of the internet that is purposely hidden or created for anonymity. Such sites are accessible only with special tools, software, browsers, and other protocols beyond direct links or credentials.  These sites are also ideal for the underground market where selling of hardy drugs, body parts trafficking, and child sexual exploitation.

Cybercrimes can be classified into violent and non-violent forms.  Cybercrimes that are associated with terrorism and cyberspace cyber crimes include cyberstalking, pornography, and cyberbullying. The critical understanding of terrorism marks a complex form of criminal action  portrayed by the merger between violence and politics (Shoudhgang, 2019). Cyberbullying is an extension of physical bullying through which victims gossip, verbally harassed, and threatened. Cyberstalking is a form of violent cybercrime and mainly originates from the actual world stalking (Dennis,2019). It comprises of badgering, shame, and mortification of the victims. Non-violent cybercrimes entail cyber theft, cyber fraud, cyber trespass, and destructive cyber crimes. Cyber theft is a crime committed by the use of computers and the web to steal money and data. It incorporates cyber misappropriation, Unlawful apportionment, corporate secret activities unoriginality robbery, and data fraud. Cyber trespass or hacking is where the hacker gets unauthorized access to the network with an aim to prove himself or steal data and other vulnerable from the system. Destructive cyber crimes are whereby criminals disrupt network services, or data is damaged or destroyed. The two types of Destructive cyber crimes are cyber vandalism and the spread of new viruses (Shoudhgang, 2019).

There are many factors that motivate cybercriminals to commit cybercrime. Most of the cyber crimes are driven by the need for financial gain. In this case, the cybercriminals hack online bank account and steal vast amounts of money while some scam and fraud other people online. Other cybercriminals are motivated by sexual impulses, entertainment, emotional motivators, sexual impulses, and political motive.

With cyber fraud, data being collected by a variety of institutions that include banks and government agencies, it can easily be measured in different ways to assess the potentiality of using innovative methods to estimate the cases of cyber frauds.  The first method is through interviewing organizations such as banks and government agencies. The second method is through carrying out surveys to the members of the affected population and also by keeping records of cybercrimes, as suggested by (Maxfield & Babbie, 2018).

It has not been possible to measure indicators and dimensions of cybercrimes and related criminal activities due to a lack of national data hubs that record and measure exact data relating to cyber frauds. A central data bank of known cyber fraud and cases has not been formed in many countries. Hence it’s tough to come up with the exacts records of cybercrime cases

There are many ways to prevent or reduce cybercrimes. Firstly, its good to maintain different strong passwords and username combinations for every account because a weak password can be easily hacked. You should also make sure that you do not save your passwords in your computer to ensure that in case of any phishing malware, your personal information is safe. Secondly, one should ensure that social networking profiles are set to private, and if possible, he/she should avoid the information he posts online. In addition to that, one of the best ways to keep hackers away is by applying patches and other software fixes. By doing this, you can block any attackers that may take charge of software vulnerabilities. Furthermore, it would be best if you also protect your computer with security software such as the use of firewalls and virtual private networks and any hardware that will protect you from attack by hackers.

References

Anderson, R., Barton, C., Böhme, R., Clayton, R., Van Eeten, M. J., Levi, M., … & Savage, S. (2013). Measuring the cost of cybercrime. The economics of information security and privacy (pp. 265-300). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/cybercrime

Maxfield, M. G., & Babbie, E. R. (2018). Basics of research methods for criminal justice and criminology.

Belmont, CA: CENGAGE Learning.

Dennis, M. A. (2019, September 19). Cybercrime.