Trends in Cybercrime

There are many examples of cyber crime and computer related crimes. There is a certain case that interested me very much when I was reading through a website of real life cyber forensic cases. The case interests me because I just went through some problems with fraud online. I was hacked on either Facebook or PayPal and I had $100 dollars stolen from my account. This, of course, was handled, but I was very curious to know how this could have happened which made this case interesting to me. I found a fairly recent case based out of

Examples of internet activity that could be considered a crime is the search and sell on the black market, cyberterrorism (when people use the internet as a threat to the government computers and the information stored on them). As well as the use of the dark web which includes the act of human trafficking,

The creation go of the Internet has helped spawn new forms of criminals and crimes, and has always helped make older criminal schemes easier to execute, identity theft, child pornography, copyright violations, hacking and you could go on and on. In a 2003 survey conducted by the CSI with the participation of the San Francisco Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Computer Intrusion Squad, of the 530 respondents made up of U.S. corporations, government agencies, financial institutions, medical institutions and universities, 56% reported unauthorized use of their computer systems (2003 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey).

With the dramatic development in the technology of computers and communications, the entire world has certainly benefited a great deal, but the purchase price of computers might also be very expensive. Computer crimes are now becoming very serious problems that are costing as much as billions of dollars. Also, computer crimes are threatening the continuing future of communication, confidentiality, and even the integrity of businesses and organizations.

Cyber-Crime can be defined as the action of making an offence using computers, information technology and virtual reality that is punishable by law. Cyber-Crime can range from fraud, hacking, money laundering and theft, through to cyberstalking, cyberbullying, identity theft, child sexual exploitation and child grooming. The specific type of Cyber- Crime that will be explored sexting. Which can range from sending sexually explicit pictures and messages and also, others taking sexually explicit pictures of you.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the three general types of cybercrime are “Cyber-attacks are crimes in which the computer system is the target. Cyber-attacks consist of computer viruses (including worms and Trojan horses), denial of service attacks, and electronic vandalism or sabotage. Cyber theft comprises crimes in which a computer is used to steal money or other things of value. Cyber theft includes embezzlement, fraud, theft of intellectual property, and theft of personal or financial data. Other computer

Cyber Crime is described as criminal activity committed via use of electronic communications with respect to cyber fraud or identity theft through phishing and spoofing. There are many other forms of cyber-crime also such as harassment, pornography etc. via use of information technology.

The dependency over internet has led to increase in cyber crime. Some criminals use the internet for spreading computer viruses and also fraud. Cyber crime is a new type of crime that occurs in this Science and Technology years. There are a lot of definitions for cyber crime. According to Wikipedia.com cyber crime is known as computer crime that refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network. Besides that, cyber crime is also defined as crimes committed on the internet using the computer as either a tool or a targeted victim. One of the cyber crime is the internet fraud. The most severe form of internet fraud involves identity theft, which is illegally getting a hold of someone’s personal information in some way that uses fraud or deception and is used for financial gain. One method of getting people’s bank account details is the money transfer email scam. People receive emails requesting help with transferring funds from another

One needs to understand that there are many different classifications of cybercrime.(Richards 69) The first classification is that when a computer is a target of the crime thus named a target cybercrime.(McCoy, 303) In our textbook McCoy states that the intent of a target cybercrime is “either to take information from the computer or to intentionally damage hardware, programs, or data files.”(McCoy, 303) Brenner focuses on hacking, malware, and Distributed Denial of Service attacks as the primary ways a target cybercrime is carried out.(Brenner, 49) Next, is the category of tool cybercrimes. These type of cybercrimes use a computer to commit a more traditional crime rather than the computer be the source of the crime.(Brenner, 73) This category of cybercrime can include any type of crime that can be aided by the use of a computer, but it most often includes fraud.(McCoy, 304) A tool cybercrime can affect property and persons.(Schell & Martin, 30) Cyber vandalism, viruses, and theft can all fall under the damage against property that can come from a tool cybercrime.(Schell & Brenner, 30) If a tool cybercrime is going to injure a person it is usually done through the means of cyberstalking or cyber pornography.(Schell & Martin, 30) Often times criminals will use the web to harass and abuse a person without having to physically put themselves near the victim, which, in the perpetrator’s mind, makes them less

This paper was prepared for CIS522, Cybercrime Techniques and Response, taught by Dr. Jodine Burchell

Internet crime is any illegal online activity committed by using the Internet, through the Internet or on the Internet. This type of crime is a constant threat to large organizations, individual sellers and small businesses. An example of a common way of

Traditional crimes, otherwise known as street crimes, violate state and federal laws without the use of a computer and/or internet. Rape, homicide, distribution/using of illegal substance, assault, burglary, breaking and entering, possession of unregistered firearm, etc. are some examples of traditional crime. Just like traditional crime, cybercrime is inevitable and unavoidable as long as computers and the internet are around. It can pick and choose its victims at random and although there are ways to lessen the chances, it is still virtually inescapable.

Theft is when someone violates copyrights and illegally downloads movies, games, software, and music. Cyber stalking is another form of computer crime. Cyber stalking is where someone is stalking someone online through online messaging, emails, and social networks. The cyber stalkers usually known their victims, but if they feel that internet stalking isn 't enough they begin stalking the person in real life. Another form of computer crime is identity theft. An identity thief steals information about a person 's bank account, credit cards, debit cards, and other private information to steal the persons money and buy things online or even sell the information to other criminals. Malicious software is another type of computer crime. Malicious software is internet based software or programs that are used to get into a system and steal sensitive information or they use it to cause damage to the system. The last type of computer crime is child pornography. Criminals try to make money off of minors by using chat rooms and websites for the purpose of producing child pornography.

In addition, the state of affairs has made it even more complicated for law enforcement to keep up with the pace at which cybercrime is evolving. To begin with, computers and networks continue to become more vulnerable than ever. In a rush to reap the numerous benefits of the internet, individuals and organizations alike are overlooking some of the very important aspects that are supposed to enhance their security on the internet. Likewise, other issues like the virtual nature of this type of crimes, increase and ease in availability of attack tools, competing regulating priorities, and an inadequate worldwide legal landscape have intensified the complexity of the fight against cybercrime for law enforcement (Lovet, 2009).

Cybercrime is one of the fast-growing areas of crime we are facing right now. More criminal’s everyday are taking advantage of the convenience and preying on people use of the Internet to commit a series of criminal activities that has no boundaries physical or virtual. Attacks against computer hardware and software, for example, malware and network intrusion; Financial crimes and corruption, such as online fraud, phishing; are some ways these criminal use to get your personal information..