What is Cyber Crime?
Cybercrime is a fast-growing area of crime. More and more criminals are exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the Internet to commit a diverse range of criminal activities that know no borders, either physical or virtual.
These crimes can be divided into three broad areas:
These crimes can be divided into three broad areas:
- Attacks against computer hardware and software, for example, botnets, malware and network intrusion;
- Financial crimes and corruption, such as online fraud, penetration of online financial services and phishing;
- Abuse, in the form of grooming or ‘sexploitation', especially crimes against children.
The changing nature of Cyber Crime
New trends in cybercrime are emerging all the time, with costs to the global economy running to billions of dollars. In the past, cybercrime was committed mainly by individuals or small groups. Today, we are seeing criminal organizations working with criminally minded technology professionals to commit cybercrime, often to fund other illegal activities. Highly complex, these cybercriminal networks bring together individuals from across the globe in real time to commit crimes on an unprecedented scale. Criminal organizations are turning increasingly to the Internet to facilitate their activities and maximize their profit in the shortest time. The crimes themselves are not necessarily new – such as theft, fraud, illegal gambling, sale of fake medicines – but they are evolving in line with the opportunities presented online and therefore becoming more widespread and damaging.
Preventing Cyber Crime
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Types of Cyber CrimeHacking: This is a type of crime wherein a person’s computer is broken into so that his personal or sensitive information can be accessed. In hacking, the criminal uses a variety of software to enter a person’s computer and the person may not be aware that his computer is being accessed from a remote location.
Theft: This crime occurs when a person violates copyrights and downloads music, movies, games and software. Today, the justice system is addressing this cyber crime and there are laws that prevent people from illegal downloading. Cyber Stalking: This is a kind of online harassment wherein the victim is subjected to a barrage of online messages and emails. Typically, these stalkers know their victims and instead of resorting to offline stalking, they use the Internet to stalk. However, if they notice that cyber stalking is not having the desired effect, they begin offline stalking along with cyber stalking to make the victims’ lives more miserable. Identity Theft: This has become a major problem with people using the Internet for cash transactions and banking services. In this cyber crime, a criminal accesses data about a person’s bank account, credit cards, Social Security, debit card and other sensitive information to siphon money or to buy things online in the victim’s name. It can result in major financial losses for the victim and even spoil the victim’s credit history . Malicious Software: These are Internet-based software or programs that are used to disrupt a network. The software is used to gain access to a system to steal sensitive information or data or causing damage to software present in the system . Child soliciting and Abuse: This is also a type of cyber crime wherein criminals solicit minors via chat rooms for the purpose of child pornography. |