Cybercrime - Research Paper Example

People want their personal information to remain that way, personal. But can this really be achieved? Daily there are headlines telling us of yet another story of information being stolen by a criminal or looked upon by the government. There’s also the issue of wiretapping phones and having hidden security cameras. Some time ago, AT&T mentioned, “While account information may be personal to you, these records…are owned by AT&T and it may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business records, safeguard others or respond to legal process.

” (Lamb, 2011) As history shows, there are truly malicious people among us, and even the most meticulous people can make mistakes, and security experts are becoming very wary of the privacy future for America (Marks, 2008). With such statements, it’s easy to feel that privacy may as well become a thing of the past. Cybercrime can be done in different ways and can occur anywhere. There are two categories of cybercrime. The first type involves crimes in which information and communications technologies are the target of offenses.

Examples of this are computer vandalism, viruses, and the like. The other type involves crimes where technologies are used as tools to commit an offense, such as computer hacking. These two types are the umbrella categories, but there are many other subcategories involved in cybercrime. The computer may be the agent of the crime, the facilitator of the crime, or the target of the crime. The crime may take place in one location or sometimes in a network of locations. The end results of this type of crime include, to name a few, cyber drug trafficking, child pornography, identity theft, and phishing.

But exactly what is being done to fight this? One may ask. The President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board (PCIPB) has come up with a draft plan for upgrading the nation’s cyberspace infrastructure. This strategy calls for the cooperation of home computer users, business users, state and local governments, with the overall goal being empowering all Americans to secure their portions of cyberspace. The executing of the plan requires six steps, they being: educating and creating awareness among users of cyberspace, producing more secure technologies, developing a large and well-qualified cyber security workforce, fostering responsibility among individuals for security at all levels, increasing accountability and updating security practices, and finally developing early warning and sharing of information that will help with early detection of attacks and leading to the appropriate response.

The US also seeks to ask for the participation of foreign counterparts as well in a peer-to-peer dialogue that aims to make an effective business case for cyber security and attain successful means for partnering with governments on cyber security. (Washington File, 2002) Other states have enacted what is known as a “security freeze” legislation which allows its citizens to lock their credit files against anyone who tries to open a new account or gain new credit, and they’re hoping this will keep thieves from exploiting stole Social Security numbers.

(Lamb, 2006) There are also propositions of making of a “new internet”. “The whole notion of privacy and security has become so elusive that the