It was not very long after we had found computers as a usable technology in our lives that we found ourselves under attack from the newly found digital crimes. They started out simple, but as they progressed, the computer crimes started becoming more and more damaging not only to the people but also for a number of corporations worldwide. Today, these computer crimes have put at risk our financial information like credit card and social security number and are also bringing down giant corporations just by using their sensitive information against them.
There are many types of cyber crimes a few of which are explained in the following few paragraphs. The most common and recognized type of cyber crime is the use of malware. Malware could be described as the sum total of viruses, Trojans, worms and other software that gains access to our systems without making us aware of its entry. The malware of the present day is being used to urge the computer users to spend money on the removal of pretending viruses on the computer itself following which, the malware becomes embedded in the system, and its removal then requires a system clean up. This is only one of the uses of malware nowadays. Identity theft is another very common internet crime where a crook gains access to other people’s personal information mostly to be used for his/her own benefit. In the States alone, more than 9 million people fall victims to identity theft each day.
Cyber stalking is yet another one of these cyber crimes where a person is repeatedly harassed by another either for sexual motives or from hostility or hatred towards that other person. There is one cybercrime that progresses in the US, which is not just limited to the world of the internet rather its negative implications stretch far beyond that and spread to the society. That
crime is child pornography. In this type of crime, many children are abused to very disturbing levels so that some of the very sick-minded people could earn money from such torture. Spam is also another cyber crime which benefits the big corporations and the little websites alike. The purpose of this spam is not the intent to harm rather effective marketing, but it again makes way for most of our e-mail inbox without our consent or permission. Although steps could be taken to prevent this spam from showing up in our inbox, it is hard to completely eliminate this problem.
The harm that these computer crimes spread is not just limited to individuals rather they also can be designed to affect the different organization. So while identity thefts could be implemented to make accounts under fake names just to inflict damage, the same technique could also be employed to steal the employee information of any organization which could then be used to gain unauthorized access to the organization’s information and the facility. In a similar fashion, malware could also be planted and sent through the e-mail so that the outside criminals could intercept the communication of company personnel either with each other or sometimes even with outside parties.
Cybersecurity, as well as the ramifications of all of these cyber crimes, has been costing the American taxpayers millions sometimes billions of dollars. When looking into the sum that we expand in the aftermath of the cyber crimes, the Americans suffer losses upward of 21million dollars on copyright infringement, 23million dollars for the patent infringement of several software’s, 72million in the patent infringement on pharmaceuticals and as much as 574million dollars in scams on the internet. The online and offline card frauds have been costing the
Americans 1.56billion and 2.23billion dollars respectively. The story is not much different when we discuss the sums that we spare on security from these cyber crimes. The Americans have been spending 4.96billion on antiviruses, 447million on cyber command budget, and 10billion dollars is the US federal spending on cyber security.
Not very long ago, a network of around five million zombie processors located in homes and offices all over 90 countries started taking orders from a cybercriminal linchpin. These cyber criminals recorded the keystrokes, registered the login information and made a record of millions of social security numbers. The purpose of this activity was to spy on people’s financial information that was also very sensitive. During 18 months following the inception of the attack the attacker stole close to half a billion dollars from the student, bankers and from as many businesses. The attack took the FBI, Microsoft, bank investigators and technological researchers to team up and try and stop the attack.
Cyber crime is the type of crime where the criminal has the greatest chance of hiding away and for this reason, could inflict the greatest damage. It is a type of crime that takes a lot of effort to stifle, and the fact alone requires that we act fast and do in fact put a stop to it before we have to see a time where we again sustain losses from this type of crime.
List of References
Dean, B. (2015, January 16). Hard Evidence: how much is cyber crime really costing us? Retrieved from The conversation: http://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-how-much-is-cybercrime-really-costing-us-34473
Pot, J. (2010, May 13). Top Five Computer Crimes & How to Protect Yourself From Them. Retrieved from Make use of: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-five-computer-crimes-protect/
Warwick, J. (n.d.). Digital Detectives. Retrieved March 02, 2016, from Microsoft: https://news.microsoft.com/stories/cybercrime/index.HTML
