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 threat of cybercrimes as seriously as we should because unfortunately we don’t realize just how real these threats are until it’s too late. There are many types of cybercrime being perpetrated on a daily basis that we all need to protect ourselves from such as identity theft, fraud, and cyber bullying. There are laws on the books and others being written constantly to help protect the consumer, but the only true way to help make the internet safer is to take all the necessary steps that we can to protect ourselves.
The first step to protecting ourselves against cybercrime is to understand what cybercrimes are and how they happen. One of the most common types of cybercrimes is identity theft. Marriam-Webster defines identity theft as the illegal use of someone else's personal information such as a Social Security number in order to obtain money or credit (”identity theft”). Along with the extreme popularity of the internet to make every day purchases comes the inherent risk of being victimized...
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...name. We all share in this responsibility to police our own lives, and do all that is necessary to prevent ID Theft. If we use all the available tools to combat ID Theft we significantly reduce our risk. We always need to remember to “Do Our Part” not expect someone else to do it for us.
Works Cited
"identity theft." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010. Merriam-Webster Online. 27 June 2010. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/identity theft
Identity Theft Resource Center. 2010 Breach List. Identity Theft Resource Center, 2010. Web. 27 June 2010.
Cornell University. "U.S. CODE". US Government, 2010. Web. 27 June 2010
FTC. Identity Theft. Federal Trade Commission, 2000. Web. 27 June 2010
Rather, Phil. “Identity Theft and Fraud – Here’s Some Key Statistics You Need to Know!” ezinearticle.com. EzineArticles.com, 26 Feb. 2009. Web. 27 June 2010.
Identity theft is a term used for describing criminal that uses individual’s identity without consent. A common crime of identity theft would be identity fraud. Many of the crimes are regularly connected with money-related issues (Reyns, 2013). With technology being commonly used nowadays we are getting more dependent on it for business, financial, medical, and other forms. As a result this became a target for identity thieves as well. The Internet provides us information and accessibility, but information being stored on the Internet eas...
Identity theft is an increasing epidemic. Some of the ways a person can commit identity
In modern days, there is a type of crime that is growing very fast. It has become a very popular crime because it’s easily done, and it doesn’t leave a big trace, whether the crime is successful or not. The crime in question is Identity theft. Identity theft is a crime that involves a person or group pretending to be someone else for their own personal wants. The criminals use personal financial information such as social security number, bank and card information, your address and other personal information. According to the Insurance Information Institute, 15.4 million U.S. consumers have been victim to this crime, amounting to a loss of $16 billion, making it the most growing crime
Journal of Internet Banking & Commerce, 18(2), 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/jibc/. Sullivan, C. (2009). The 'Standard'. Is identity theft really a theft? International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 23(1/2), 77-87.
In today’s society technology is used for everything. With the invention of computers and the internet this open doors to the cyber world. Today you can do almost anything without having to leave your home. The internet gives us the opportunity of shopping online, ordering food online, working from home and video chatting with friends and family across the world. Everyone has a computer and internet access in their homes. While the internet is really convenient it also opens doors for cybercrimes, loss of privacy and the need for computer security.
The 90's internet boom gave rise to new ways of writing in through access to cyberspace. What used to be printed or handwritten on physical surfaces such as paper, cardboard, or bulletin boards has changed to 0's and 1's, bits and bytes of digitized information that can be displayed thru the projections of computer screens. Moreover, the internet has made the process of publishing one's works, writing letters, or chatting with one another much easier and convenient for everyone around the globe. The internet became a universal tool, giving much freedom and flexibility to the users; it gave them opportunity to deliver their thoughts with little or no restrictions. Since it's impossible to regulate all cyber-activities, internet users are often unrestricted by the normal laws or authorities that would set boundaries around the various online transactions. More importantly, the fact that a net user can take on different identities in cyberspace brings about several ethical and social issues. These anonymous and unrestrictive characteristics of cyberspace often permite abusive users to easily involve themselves in serious cybercrimes such as cyberstalking, cyber-rape, and cyber-harassment through chatting services, emails, cyber communities, and other online communication.
Have you ever received a credit card bill at the end of the month with a ridiculous amount of money needed to be paid that you never spent? This is because of identity theft. The FTC estimates that each year, over 9 million people are affected by identity theft. According to Sally Driscoll, this is because almost anyone with a computer and a slight bit of computer knowledge can pull off identity theft. Experts also claim that identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the world. Identity theft is a global problem that cannot be stopped without effective measures. The problem is, effective measures are very hard to come by when dealing with identity theft because almost any security protocol can be by-passed.
III. Thesis Statement: Identity Theft is rapidly becoming a national issue because anyone of us could be a victim of identity theft. How we protect our self, keep our information private, identify any signs of identity theft, and report and repair our credit is up to each one of us. We have to be vigilant about our protecting ourselves from criminals.
The biggest case of cyber crimes are cases of fraud. “Online fraud comes in many forms. It ranges from viruses that attack computers with the goal of retrieving personal information, to email schemes that lure victims into wiring money to fraudulent sources” (What is “online fraud”). When browsing the internet, people will often stumble upon free trial websites. Some of these websites are real, but many are fake. Real examples can include ones like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. The fake websites, such as one offering to great of a deal to imagine are often attempts of fraud, to gain access to credit card information.
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 conclusion, identity theft is illegal, unethical and very dangerous to the victim. This is because identity theft can cause a lot of financial and reputation damage to the victim and his/her family. It is a shame that there are so many cases of this crime in the world today. Having said all of this, it is really important to prevent identity theft by being careful of your actions. However, as technology is advancing, it is becoming more and more harder to do so. Due to this fact, it is important for each individual to know what identity theft is and what they can do to prevent it from happening. After this is accomplished, identity theft will be minimized and this world will be a better and safer place.
Privacy security breach, social networking, on-online data security and phishing can all in some way lead to identity theft. When one's personal information is overriden by an unknown person, either because the information was leaked from an agency or given by yourself on a social networking website. You may just have clicked on an URL that your not aware of, and given your information.
How does online identity theft occur? Identity theft is a growing concern because of the ease of the attack and how it is very accessible to the thief. It can be done from anywhere and to anyone. Due to how technology has developed, there are many different methods on how online identit...
America,” (Weidenfeld 1). Being the number one crime, identity theft is very dangerous. If your
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.