An intentional breach to digital security often involves a deliberate act that is against the law.1 Cybercrime refers to online or Internet-based illegal acts such as distributing malicious software or committing identity theft. Perpetrators of cybercrime typically fall into one of these categories: hacker, cracker, script kiddie, corporate spy, unethical employee, cyberextortionist, and cyberterrorist.
The term hacker refers to someone who accesses a computer or network illegally. Some hackers claim the intent of their security breaches is to improve security. A cracker also is someone who accesses a computer or network illegally but has the intent of destroying data, stealing information, or other malicious action. Both hackers and crackers have advanced computer and network skills. A script kiddie has the same intent as a cracker but does not have the technical skills and knowledge. Script kiddies often use prewritten hacking and cracking programs.
Corporate spies and unethical employees are other types of cybercrime perpetrators. Some corporate spies have excellent computer and networking skills and are hired to break into a specific computer and steal its proprietary data and information, or to help identify security risks in their own organization. Unethical employees may break into their employers’ computers for a variety of reasons. They may want to exploit a security weakness, receive financial gains from selling confidential information, or even to seek revenge (Gonzalez).
A cyberextortionist is someone who demands payment to stop an attack on an organization’s technology infrastructure. For example, these criminals threaten to expose confidential information, exploit a security flaw, or launch an attack that will compromise the organization’s network. A cyberterrorist is someone who uses the Internet or network to destroy or damage computers for political reasons. Cyberwarfare is an attack whose goal ranges from disabling a government’s computer network to crippling a country. Cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare usually require a team of highly skilled individuals, millions of dollars, and several years of planning (Zheng and Rutherford).
Why do hackers go through all the trouble to do what they do? Most people in society do not spend the time to break into computer systems. It does not have much appeal to them. Why then do certain people spend so much of their time and energy accomplishing these feats of technological wizardry? What is the cause that turns those mostly above-average intelligent people to pursue a criminal career, and destroy their otherwise very successful careers? Why do they commit these computer related crimes as an obsession?
Cybercrimes and Cyber Protection in Canada Whenever a new technological advancements are made, laws and agencies must be implemented and amendments must be crafted to protect its users. As personal computers became available to Canada’s population, information became more accessible than ever before, and personal information such as a person’s address was easier to obtain. The computer and new technological advancements led to a new branch of criminality; cybercrimes. Cybercrimes are computer-related crimes defined by the Council of Europe (2001) as offences against the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer data and systems as well as computer-related and content-related offences.
Hacking is the term used to describe the process of breaking into and obtaining access to a computer system or network. It’s essentially the modern successor of the age-old breaking-and-entering. In this information age, information is power. Those who obtain a person’s personal information can use it to for various crimes including identity theft. Companies and corporations are not exempt from this either. Nowadays, many companies store their customer’s personal data in their databases (a massive collection of data, similar to a giant, virtual phonebook). As a result, they become targets of hackers who, if successful,
Robert Moore’s Cybercrime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime is an informative text that supplies the reader with basic understandable knowledge of increasing cybercrimes and strategies that law enforcement are taking in order to catch cyber criminals. Moore’s work has a total of thirteen chapters that are full of information that help the reader better understand the different cybercrime threats such as, hacking, identity theft, child pornography, and financial fraud. Moore also goes into detail on different law enforcement tactics that help catch cyber criminals such as, the seizing of digital evidence, executing search warrants for digital evidence, computer forensics, and cybercriminology. Moore’s main goal is to help the reader grasp a better understanding of cybercrime that faces the world today. Through reading this book, I can validly say that Moore’s thorough work, perspectives, and examples helped me better understand high-technology computer crime and investigative strategies as well.
The documentary Rise of the Hackers, focuses on the rising criminal use of hacking and how it is effecting multiple areas of technology. The documentary describes simple and complicated situations concerning hacking, but there still questions that must be answered when it comes to hacking and crime. The main question is in trying to determine why a person would choose to commit computer hacking. There are various theories already present within the criminal justice system that may explain at a micro-level and macro-level. These theories would explain why offenders would commit the crimes, but it may not answer the full scope of the question. The Routine Activities Theory would help to explain why offenders offend, why victims are victimized,
There are different types of computer crimes that many people become victims of every day. Computer crime is any crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target ("Computer Crime: Chapter 2: What Are the Crimes? ", n.d.) - " Crimes such as data diddling, pump and dump, social engineering and spoofing are computer crimes. Even though these crimes are difficult due to privacy issues, the new technology has made investigations and prosecutions well organized and effective.
Hacking was once a term that was used to describe someone with a great deal of
The term “hacker” has been in use since the early 1980’s due to mass media usage to describe computer criminals. The use of this term is vastly used by the general population and most are not aware that there are different meanings to the word. People within the computing community especially within the programming subculture emphasize the use of the term “crackers” for computer security intruders (cyber criminals). Early hackers rarely used their skills for financial gain as a motivation for their criminal behavior in that time cybercrime was infantile and largely seen as a practical joke or game by those who committed it. Bob Thomas created the first credited computer worm n...
Just as traditional criminal activities, cybercrime can take many forms and occur virtually anytime and anywhere. Criminals committing cybercrime use very different methods, depending on their abilities and goals. This should not surprise anyone after all cybercrime is merely an activity "criminal" to the ingredient that adds a computer or an electronic network for its commission.
In today's society, many aspects of crime are committed on a regular basis. Civilians take advantage of people all the time using online resources such as fraudulent websites requiring credit card information to get a free monthly trial. Other examples of cyber crimes include online chat websites, full of predators, or websites needing a downloadable program that contains a hacking virus. Sadly, there are many cases of cyber crime all over the internet. The acts of cyber crimes are considered violent acts like any other.
The Internet is a connection of computers across the world through a network. Its origin dates back to the 1960s when the U.S Military used it for research, but it became more available to the public from the late 1980s. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 and browsers began appearing in the early 1990s. Over the last 24 years, the Internet has enabled people to shop, play, do research, communicate and conduct business online. It has also become cheaper and faster in performing different tasks. As much as the Internet has done immeasurable good to society, it has also dominated people’s lives and brought with it an array of cybercrimes. According to Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way we Think, Read and Remember (Carr, 2010). He debates on whether the Internet has done more harm than good. People use the Internet daily to exchange accurate information and constantly personal data such as credit cards, passwords and Social Security numbers are travelling through the network from one computer to another. With security measures put in place on the Internet, personal information remains confidential. But unfortunately, criminals have adapted to innovations in technology, and today, more people are increasingly becoming victims of cybercrime. The Internet has had profound effects on the public, both positive and negative. In this paper we will examine how access to personal information has led to an increase in online and offline crimes. The essay will particularly focus on ecommerce and hacking.
In Computer security terminology Hacker is a person or group of persons, who exploit, modify and identify weakness in a computer system or network. Hacker may be motivates of reasons such as profit, protest and challenge. based on attitude, belief, and goals hacker groups are categories such as
The Art of exploring various security breaches is termed as Hacking.Computer Hackers have been around for so many years. Since the Internet became widely used in the World, We have started to hear more and more about hacking. Only a few Hackers, such as Kevin Mitnick, are well known.In a world of Black and White, it’s easy to describe the typical Hacker. A general outline of a typical Hacker is an Antisocial, Pimple-faced Teenage boy. But the Digital world has many types of Hackers.Hackers are human like the rest of us and are, therefore, unique individuals, so an exact profile is hard to outline.The best broad description of Hackers is that all Hackers aren’t equal. Each Hacker has Motives, Methods and Skills. But some general characteristics can help you understand them. Not all Hackers are Antisocial, PimplefacedTeenagers. Regardless, Hackers are curious about Knowing new things, Brave to take steps and they areoften very Sharp Minded..
Computer crime or Cyber Crime is defined as any type of crime that involves or regards a computer or computer network. Cyber Crime mainly means that the computer may be used as a tool in the commission of the crime or the computer may be the main target of the criminal’s crime. The rapid growth of technology and gadgets as well as the further de...
Cybercrime is a global issue plaguing the world. The dictionary defines cybercrime as “crime conducted via the Internet or some other computer network”(Merriam-Webster). The definition remains very broad because the word “cyber” is defined as “relating to the culture of computers, information technology, and virtual reality.” Due to the growing number of people gaining access to the internet, rapid development of technology, and the globalization of the world, more of the world population is becoming susceptible to involvement in cybercrime – whether it be as a victim or a criminal. Cybercrime involves different levels of the world on both the victim and criminal side from an individual citizen, to small groups, businesses, and the government, to the countries of the world. There are different groups from law enforcement agencies to the U.S. Secret Service, that are attempting to combat the problem through cooperation and preemptive efforts. If these groups combined with the public to protect themselves and the country from criminals that commit cybercrime, the nation’s network and technology servers would be much safer for technology users. Clearly, cybercrime is a problem because it puts internet users at risk of being taken advantage of or harmed.