Digital Fraud Common Forms and Preventative Measures Essays

In the early days of computing, a hacker was primarily referred to as a computer guru, someone who is extremely technical with a high expertise in computer also known as “Expert Programmers”. Nevertheless, as technology is advancing at a face pace, hacking has adopted a completely different definition. The modern definition is someone who access a computer system primarily to steal or destroy information. Hacking has caused major harm in the realm of technology. Over the years, hackers have become much more lethal in their craft. They manage to break into complex information systems from entities such as banks, government agencies, and private businesses. Furthermore, they often manipulate their victims through social engineering in order to obtain financial benefits. Hackers hold different label such as: black hat hacker and white hat hacker in which all have their own motives.

new advances in the electronic technologies during the past decades have administered a new wealth of criminal activity. Software like Computer viruses, malware, software privacy, spam and etc. Technologically savvy artist replicate websites, so when a person's online activities occurs in a virtual world it can be compromised.Many times Cyber intrusions rely on human interaction and it often involves tricking people into breaking security procedures.

The internet has brought upon a new revolution of global interconnection where contacting someone on the other side of the world is just a click away, but with this international phenomenon comes an increased susceptibility with unfamiliar technology. Internet crime is compiled of all non-physical crime with the aid of a computer. Although broad in definition internet crimes are largely composed of acts such as cyber fraud, ‘phishing’ (username and password hacking), cyber stalking and hacking. Internet crime does not pose an overwhelming issue in society in terms of its

Over the past few years the internet has become a tempting place for criminals to acquire identifying information, such as passwords and banking data. In criminal’s haste to explore the exciting features of the internet, many people respond to “spam” unsolicited emails that promise them benefits, but request identifying information, without recognizing that in many situations, the requester has no intention of keeping their promise. In some situations, criminals reportedly have exploited computer technology to acquire large amounts of personal information. With enough identifying data about an individual, a criminal can take over that individual’s identity to conduct a wide range of crimes: for example, false applications for loans, credit cards, fraudulent withdrawals from bank accounts, acquiring other goods, or privileges which the criminal might deny if they were to use their real name. If the criminal takes steps to ensure that bills for the falsely acquired credit cards, or bank statements showing the unauthorized withdrawals are sent to another address other than the victims, the victim may not become aware of what’s happening until the criminal has already inflicted substantial damage on the victim’s assets, credit and reputation (Identity Theft).

“Identity Theft” is a term that frequently arises, however, countless times, most do not associate theft with technology based upon the internet. Identity theft rings have targeted consumer users, via online banking systems and different forms of social media to gather enough information on individual users to steal identities. These theft rings are rampant and widespread. Capturing and punishing these kind of criminals is time consuming and difficult at best. Unfortunately, even if you are not a frequent user of computers you are still vulnerable to having your identity stolen over the internet. Each of us has to equip ourselves to the best of our ability to prevent such theft from happening to us.

Throughout the everyday lives of people all around the globe, they are constantly bombarded with the use of technology in its many shapes and forms.

Today, in 2065, technology has all but taken over the lives of everyday people.Cars fly, robots/computers do our cooking, cleaning, shopping and pay our bills. Slowly, without realizing it, we’ve given technology control of our lives. People love the convenience it offers.

As the world has slowly transitioned into a more technological era, almost everything is handled online. Despite its advantages, it has left some sensitive areas vulnerable. One of these vulnerabilities is Identity Theft, a crime that occurs when someone uses a victim’s personal information to pose as the victim in order to obtain goods, services, or other valuable items. In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission reported that 13.9 million Americans had their identities stolen. Almost every year, the amount of money stolen from these victims measures to around a billion dollars. Statistically, 1 out of every 20 consumers will have their identities stolen this year alone (Theoharis, 2015). Different penalties have been created for this specific

Outside of the classroom and the office, technology is still omnipresent. The internet, like most advancements and perhaps the best known example of modern technology, began at a military level (“Information Technology” 2) and wound up eventually landing in the laps of businesses and the common person. With this, the normal way of conducting business changed dramatically. Instead of physically exchanging money, it is now possible to use a website like PayPal to make transactions (Friedman 84). This transaction can occur from a computer, smart-phone, or some other electronic device, possible because an extraordinary amount of people, especially young adults, now carry them around constantly (Champy 1). It may have been inevitable, but it is still staggering to see how much these advancing technologies has become commonplace.

In this modern digital era as the physical and digital worlds are becoming universally connected,

With the creation of the Internet came a whole new list of crimes targeting U.S. Banks and Financial Institutions. Crimes involving phishing, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), and Malware to name a few are becoming more advanced and widespread on a global scale. The motivations behind these cyber-crimes are the safety of hiding behind a computer, can easily be conducted without being an expert at hacking, and profitability for the perpetrators is worth the risk (Singleton, T., Singleton, A., and Gottlieb, 2006). The data demonstrated that cyber-crimes targeting banks and financial institutions have overtaken the traditional bank robbery or bank fraud (Lesk, 2011; Holt& Lampke, 2010). An analysis of the literature confirms that the U.S. economy is negatively affected by the cyber-hacking of U.S. banks and financial institutions, through monetary losses, and stock market loses. The literature acknowledges that banks and financial institutions are under a constant barrage of various forms of cyber-attacks in order electronically steal money, account credentials or create new fraudulent accounts. Lastly the literature reports that banks and financial institutions underreport or do not disclose the impact of cyber-crimes, and offers a few theories about why there is a lack of disclosure or no disclosure at all.

Worldwide credit and debit card fraud resulted in losses amounting to $16.31 billion during the year 2014. The United States has been disproportionately affected by this fraud, due to their lack of adoption of the EMV Chip security measure. According to the 2012 Nilson Report, American card issuers lost $3.4 billion and merchants lost another $1.9 billion. America makes credit card fraud easy for fraudsters, by still relying on cards with magnetic strips which are less secure than EMV Chip enabled transactions.

There are millions of ruthless criminals around the world. They break into homes, shoplift from stores, and rob banks. The most cunning criminals, perhaps, are the one’s that are not easily seen. Computer hacking is a serious crime and criminals with enough experience can hide themselves among cyberspace. ­Crackers, or criminal hackers, convert computers into “zombies” by using programs to exploit the vulnerability of a computer's operating system (Strickland 2). “The user [of a computer] generally remains unaware that his computer has been taken over -- he can still use it, though it might slow down considerably” (Strickland 1). This is true in many cases, and hackers can steal personal information, delete important files, and crash entire computer systems if the hacker is not caught in time. Though computer hacking is illegal, it does have some beneficial effects.

Internet fraud is a problem that has become very widespread in recent years. Internet fraud was first monitored by the Internet Fraud Watch organization in 1996. The Fraud Watch has stated that each year after its inception internet fraud has increased. In 1998, the Securities and Exchange Commission established the Office of Internet Enforcement to fight online securities fraud which was another sign of how large the problem is becoming (Clausing). Despite the SEC¡¦s efforts this problem has not been alleviated, but instead continues to grow. According to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), ¡§the total dollar loss from all referred internet fraud cases was $54 million in 2002; this amount is almost three times as much than was

Cybercrime and internet hacking has been an ongoing issue in contemporary life. “Internet hacking is the practice of modifying or altering computer software and hardware to accomplish a goal considered to be outside of the creator’s original objective.” (Merriam-Webster). Any individual, business, or even government with a computer is not safe from these computer criminals. So, the main question is: How do we fix this cybercrime that does millions of dollars in damage, and should we implement “ethical hacking” to improve the security of the internet?