Evaluating the Risk of Cybercrime Victimizations
Cybercrimes are one of the significant types of crimes that make various individuals vulnerable to victimization. Numerous types of cybercrimes exist throughout the world, including identity theft, spam, phishing, and online consumer fraud that relies on computer-based technology to facilitate criminal activities. The risk of cybercrime victimization influences individuals who differ in age, gender, ethnicity, and social class. This conveys that certain individuals are more likely to face cybercrime victimization than others. It’s also important to understand that certain countries are at higher risk of cybercrime victimization due to the level of access towards technology and the effectiveness of different approaches to target these crimes. In this paper, I will discuss demographics such as age, gender, and level of education to predict the risk of cybercrime victimization and emphasize on different approaches that reduces the likelihood of cybercrime victimization. Demographic variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, level of education, and social class are immensely helpful in understanding the influence of cybercrimes because these variables predict various types of cybercrimes to a greater extent. The age of a cybercrime victim is significant because certain aged individuals are at greater risk to be victims of cybercrimes. For example, 17% of individuals aged 18 to 24 years “were more at risk of being bullied,
Cybercrime has experienced significant progress during recent years, as its advance is directly proportional with the advance of technology. In spite of the fact that the authorities devise new and better strategies to fight cybercrime, the fact that the number of people online is constantly increasing means that cybercrimes occur even more frequently. Dishonest people who seek opportunities have discovered how the internet stands as a perfect environment for them to commit crimes by taking as little risks as possible. Computer fraud generates a series of benefits for the person committing it, as he or she can either profit financially from the enterprise or can simply alter files in order for his or her image to be positively affected. Identity theft is a major form of cybercrime and it is essential for society to acknowledge the gravity of the matter in order to be able to effectively fight against criminals using it.
As technology is used worldwide, it is in no way hard to get your hands on, or learn how to use computers etc. One of the most significant problems with cybercrime is it’s secretive nature; many protection devices which can be cracked will not pick up that they have been, therefore the majority of cybercrime will go unnoticed for a substantial amount of time. Combined with the world wide web, hackers can use the computers to gain information from any organisation around the world, penetrating even the most impenetrable organisations to get what they want, highlighting how technology has led to the process of globalization within the criminal world.
It’s no secret, the internet sensation has made many people redundant, however, over the past decade this global phenomenon has seen the birth of over 1.2 million jobs, dawning a new era for humanity. With rapid developments occurring in the design, development and implementation of technological discoveries. Traditional legal principles and processes are constantly challenged by the need to keep pace with new technologies. in particular, identity theft has skyrocketed since the rise of the internet; a 2012 survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed 7% of respondents were directly affected by identity crime in the preceding six months. Identity theft not only affects Australian citizens it’s also a cancer to national security, in order for the government to beat this epidemic it’s imperative that harsher punishments are imposed on cyber criminals.
At the beginning of the semester, my policy was seeking to stop the repeal of Net Neutrality laws, in other words, stop government from allowing big telecom businesses from giving network speed priority to services they provide or approve of while in effect slowing down competing services. While I think net neutrality is extremely important, the current administration wants to remove the laws put into place in 2015, not strengthen them so ultimately I thought it would be better to look somewhere where not as much legislation has been put into place, and thus I decided to focus my efforts on data breach disclosure and reporting. For the last 15 years, cybercrime has grown dramatically with the continued advancements in technology and is now
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
Just in the last decade, there has been a 29% increase in crimes committed against residents and a 22% increase for business losses due to online crimes (Meyer). Another large issue with technology is that they monitor an individualś every move, for example, a phone company, AT&T, was monitoring their customers phones to be able to “use your individual Web browsing information, like the search terms you enter and the Web pages you visit, to tailor ads and offers to your interests” (Silverman 282). Although the increase in such crimes can potentially cause many issues and obstacles for an individual, they do not physically harm anyone. Such crimes as internet fraud and any other crime that can be committed online, are all fixable and can be prevented. There are security systems that can help protect against frauds and prevent any more from occurring, which makes this issue much less crucial to stop. It is also possible to contact police and bankers to stop this from occurring and they can help you regain all of your losses. The government also has the NSA, the National Security Agency, to monitor all internet movements, which helps stop many of these issues. New technology has helped prevent an immense amount of street crimes, that without the internet, would have only continued to rise, while millions of people would have continued to be murdered.
Times have changed what was known as organized crime has been replaced by Cybercrimes (Heists: Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley). Cybercrimes have risen dramatically in recent years and have become a major issue the United States and company’s face today jeopardizing as well as threatening the critical infrastructure of America (Cyberwar Threat, 2005). Sadly, the status quo of cyber security is very unstable with the advancements and growth which has put most individuals and businesses into an enormous threat (Agustina, 2015).
At one point in our lives we have felt a sense of inequity or strain. There are people struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table for their children. But there are some people who take the feeling and run with it, with no thought to who they may be hurting. They commit digital crimes such as identity theft, credit card fraud, or any other type of internet fraud scheme. Since the crime is committed via cyberspace versus on the street, victims have become faceless, therefore allowing digital criminals less incentive to feel guilt.
Identity theft is one of the growing crimes in the United States due to the fact people do not know how to properly protect themselves against it. Criminals use different methods to acquire the information necessary to steal someone’s identity. Some of the techniques used to commit identity theft are; stealing wallets, acquiring bank information or pilfering through trash to find documents containing PII (FBI, n.d.). Nowadays criminals are able to steal people’s identity using different procedures over the internet without having to compromise their identity. Some of the methods are social engineering, phishing, sending spam messages and malware (OLI, 2013). Criminals use these methods because with the use of technology, identity theft could be accomplished anonymously and without much effort. Also because people lower their guard about securing their personally identifiable information when using the internet, especially when using social networks, they become easy targets to
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).
It is shown that most cyber criminals target the younger and older generations when trying to invade our personal information. Online shopping is a huge target when it comes to these categories because, many teens use online shopping to buy things such as clothes,
The agencies employed by governments to police the web in order to protect the vulnerable have seen an increase in child pornography and online fraud. The speed at which information can be distributed and the number of people that can be reached attracts those that are intent on causing harm. The term “cybercrime” is becoming more widely used. The financial gains that can be made and the anonymity the internet can provide, make the virtual world of cyberspace a haven for criminals. Although the internet has huge benefits for information gathering and social networking, in the wrong hands it can cause harm to the vulnerable and criminals are able to vanish into the underground with the use of false identities that are hard to track online.
In today’s world, we are all in some way connected to or involved with the internet. We all use different services that we feel either enrich our lives or make them more enjoyable every day, from email to FaceBook, MySpace, and e-commerce. We all take a sort of false comfort in the basic anonymity of the internet; however, when we think about it, that could end up being the single biggest risk to our own safety today. When we typically think of crimes committed against us, we could probably name several: mugging, theft, scams, murder, and rape. For these, things we all take as many necessary steps as we can to help lower the chances of them happening to us because they are on the forefront of our minds. However, most of us don’t take the
In accordance with many decades of cyber evolution, a cybercrime is shown in different ranges of crimes, which depend on the spread of technology and law. From the introduction of computer in the 1960s to the rise of personal computer in 1980s, cybercrime began to appear. The crimes can vary from piracy of software to patent-related crimes. This caused a surge in the introduction of relevant legislation in many countries and international organizations involved. In late 1990s, when Internet and transnational crimes were born, the international community cooperated in many instances such as the passing of the UN General Assembly Resolution 45/121 in 1990 and the manual for the prevention and control of computer-related crimes issued in 1994. Despite all the
Cybercrime has become a fast growing concern for the 21st century as businesses, institutions and individuals grow into an interconnected web of computer networks. Online business transactions, along with the sharing of personal information, are vulnerable to a host of disasters that can reap economic and social havoc. Some sources say that today, cybercrime costs more than $1.0 trillion to society--Global Industry Analysts, Inc. forecasted the world cyber security market to reach $80 billion by 2017 (Gale, 2011).