Internet Crimes - Literature review Example

? Internet Crimes Muhammad Assubaiai ESL Teaneck May 3rd, Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION 3 II. Governments 4 A. Cyber Crime Units 4 B. Internet Crime Reports 5 III. Companies and Business 6 A. Dealing with Internet Crime 6 B. Effects of Internet Crime to Companies and Business 6 IV. Individual People 7 A. Dealing with Internet Crimes 7 B. Personal Computers as Target of Internet Crimes 8 V. Conclusion 9 References 10 Internet Crimes I. INTRODUCTION Nowadays you will not be shocked if one of your friends told you that he was cybercrime victim by stealing his credit card number or his identity information. It is becoming common to see it on the news or listening to people complaining that they found some purchases on their credit card bills that they know nothing about and never bought them. The past week CNN showed a report about Sara who was send to life in prison; because she was a leader of global organization, committing crimes through the Internet by stealing credit cards ,stealing government secret information, selling weapons to terrorist groups and selling drugs around the world. Slowly the members of the organization started to fall one by one, it took a long time because they were not only from different countries but also different continents and here is the difficulty. This was the first difficulties and not least, this case was pending in the court for years , it was not like other cases; there are no concrete nor concrete evidence in addition to all this there were no witnesses saw the moment of criminals commit crimes and this was the real challenge for the prosecution. Tools execution of the crime was unusual, as the items used did not iclude a knife, pistol nor usual weapon. In some situations, they were creating fake pages to sell things. Most of the victims were not familiar with the internet on the other hand some were specialists and even professionals. II. Governments C. Cyber Crime Targeting Governments Governments in different countries are focused on issues regarding national security that are associated with internet crimes. For instance, the military has been applying e-mails as a preferred way of communicating. Furthermore, increased development of World Wide Web has led to significant induction in the public domain (Middleton, 2013). Therefore, World Wide Web became a point to be utilized as a virtual medium by criminals. In fact, due increased growth of terrorism, these criminals have commenced to adopt technology as one of their tools to execute their attacks against governments. In this case, terrorists are increasingly applying internet as a way of disseminating their ideology and facilitating their ability to undertake their activities against a large society and governments. Terrorist organizations focus on using internet to make attempts of disrupting communication hubs, which affects various governments. Therefore, through internet crimes these terrorist are able to undertake substantial activities that has a great effects that cause loss to the governments (Middleton, 2013). Military application of information has a significant role in the context of national security and this can affect decision-making processes. Other attackers are focused on hampering activities undertaken by intelligence and counter-intelligence in virtual medium such as military activities and management of information among advanced nations (Agustina, 2012). Furthermore, attackers are able to disrupt information’s network of advanced nations via virtual medium. Therefore, due to cost effectiveness of virtual medium, developing countries have applied their techniques in order to attain military supremacy through the internet, but this has led to increased vulnerability and compromised national security (Middleton, 2013). B. Internet Crime Reports There are cyber crimes units made by governments and law enforcement agencies deals with internet crimes through teams that are focused on tracking down cyber criminal. For instance, in America, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a unit that engages with special Cyber investigations (FBI Fraud Alert, 2011). In fact, this unit has established Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) (BBC, 2011). This center offers public and reporting systems, which offers notifies authorities regarding suspected criminal violations. On the other hand, numerous police department are training Internet and Computer Crime Units in a way that they can offer information and assistance to people faced with problems regarding internet crimes (FBI Fraud Alert, 2011). Furthermore, these units are supporting law enforcement, whereby they are able to investigate cyber crimes and capture criminals (Agustina, 2012). Attackers are gaining unauthorized access to crucial government records, whereby they can falsify information regarding passports, driver’s licenses or alter tax records, while others may chance land records or access intelligence files. Governments have not yet unveiled their strategies to alleviate cyber crime, thereby ensuring that these criminals are caught and prosecuted. Governments have agreed to collaborate with other groups within the industry in order to deal with internet crimes (BBC, 2011). For instance, governments have made reasonable effort to control the problem, though there are challenges posed resistance from the firms that are not willing to cooperate. In this case, numerous organizations are not willing to accept that they are victims of these internet attacks since it can lead to ruining their reputation (BBC, 2011). Furthermore, activities undertaken by cyber criminals that are sponsored by the government, there are chances that other government may focus on striking back; therefore, the governments are focusing on making necessary effort in order to defend their country against cyber attacks. Nonetheless, governments are formulating and implementing effective strategies that can assist in dealing with attacks through internet crimes. III. Companies and Business A. Effects of Internet Crime to Companies and Business Companies and businesses are suffering from cyber crimes and other illegal activities that committed by criminals, who use computers, Internet and World Wide Web as their medium. In this case, criminals use these medium to undertake activities such as defrauding people, organizations and financial resources (Jaishankar, 2011). Besides, these criminals steal confidential information, marketing information, thereby disrupting services offered by various companies and business. Therefore, this results to significant losses to the business and even lead to inconveniencies to the customers (Krebs, 2009). On the other hand, the customers may have decreased confidence in dealing or using technology to conduct businesses (Jaishankar, 2011). For instance, internet crime has led to illegal intrusions into files containing customers’ personal information held by companies and businesses. Moreover, this has also led to business account holders to seek shorter reporting timelines that require less protection (Jaishankar, 2011). Nonetheless, this call for higher liability for fraud compared to customers, through businesses are reducing the fraud reporting timelines even further, while other are disclaiming some obligations. Reforms of policies involved in commercial agreements are aimed at coping with increased cases of internet crime around the world. B. Dealing with Internet Crime Companies and business are focused on making necessary advancements in security protection among in all their operations involving technology (Felson, 2003). Moreover, these companies focus on making effort to improve, adopt and integrate their operations with digital technology in a way that does not leave them vulnerable to attackers. There are collaborative researchers have focused on identifying strategies that can be used by these organizations to deal with vulnerability to these attacks (Felson, 2003). Furthermore, there is higher learning serving as repository to develop best practices regarding business security. On the other hand, business and companies are developing systems that are equipped with anti-virus, and anti-spyware and software that can prevent intrusion. In this way, these organizations attain ability to prevent malicious people and programs from intrusion or affecting their operations. Furthermore, organizations are focusing on developing software that are equipped with backup and ability restore filed that are damaged or deleted as a result to intrusion (Felson, 2003). Therefore, business and companies are able to recover from cases of losing data after a cyber attacks. Nevertheless, these organizations are expected to understand that there is a significant risk posed to the business and companies due to their employees, who might lack the basic understanding of issues regarding cyber security (Agustina, 2012). Business and companies are focusing on implementing strategies that can assist in establishing regular training session for employees in order for them to familiarize with security measures. IV. Individual People A. Personal Computers as Target of Internet Crimes There has been a significant growth in the use of personal computers or Home PC, and this is increasingly making these computers to become target of internet crime. In fact, this targeting is focusing on physical and virtual way, whereby there are cases where computer parts are stolen through physical break-ins (Suler, 2004). On the other hand, there are cases where people suffer from attackers gaining unauthorized access to computers leading to confidential data loss. Virtual targeting of personal computers has caused increased level of internet crime that involves data theft that can be termed as hacking (Ryckman, 2012). Some people have been suffering from other forms of internet crime involving their personal computers through offences such as blackmail, which can be undertaken based on information stolen after a successful intrusion. For instance, attackers may manage to acquire information from a personal computer that relates to their medical records, thereby using it to blackmail them (Suler, 2004). Moreover, attacks targeting personal computers are categorized under offences such as theft of intellectual property. Therefore, crimes perpetrated against a person may lead to substantial impediments of their socialization through the internet. D. Dealing with Internet Crimes People can deal with internet crime by taking preventive measures that can help them avoid becoming victims of internet crime. For instance, people should not open or read emails from unknown senders or else visit unknown Web sites. They should avoid following suspicious links or attachments (Jaishankar, 2008). Therefore, a person should ensure that they are opening links or attachments that are known in order to reduce the risk significantly. On the other hand, the internet users should be aware of substantial feature if increasing gap between the law enforcement agencies and cyber criminals. In this case, the users are expected to understand ways through which they can contact law enforcement agencies in various countries that have necessary dexterity and techniques to investigate virtual medium (Jaishankar, 2008). Furthermore, complexity if trans-national nature of internet crimes cannot be solved with conventional methods of crime investigation and collection of evidence is increasingly becoming obsolete (Jaishankar, 2008). Besides users are expected to have necessary knowledge to make judgment regarding the agencies that can assist in dealing with problems cause by internet crime. V. Conclusion The paper has explores issues regarding internet crime, where this discussion was based on three dimensions; in this case, internet crime has been explored in terms its effects on the government. The other section covered internet crimes perpetrated against companies and businesses, while the other section covered internet crimes against individuals. These discussions are segregated in two sub-divisions each, whereby the first section focused on indentifying these internet crimes and their effects, while the other section covered ways through which these problems are approached by different parties. Therefore, this paper has achieved by the objective that was set by the thesis statement aimed that exploring internet crimes. References Agustina J. (2012). Book Review of Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behavior. International Journal of Cyber Criminology. Vol 6 (2): 1044–1048 BBC. (2011). UK cyber crime costs ?27bn a year - government report. News UK Politics. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12492309 Felson, M. (2003). The Process of Co-Offending. In M. J. Smith & D. B. Cornish (Eds), Theory for Practice in Situational Crime Prevention. Crime Prevention Studies (pp.149-168), Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press. FBI Fraud Alert. (2011). Fraud Alert Involving Unauthorized Wire Transfers to China. Retrieved from: http://www.ic3.gov/media/2011/ChinaWireTransferFraudAlert.pdf Jaishankar, K. (2008). Space transition theory of cyber crimes. In F. Schmalleger & M. Pittaro (Eds.), Crimes of the Internet (pp. 283?301). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Jaishankar, K. (2011). Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behavior. New York: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group. Krebs, B. (2009). European Cyber-Gangs Target Small U.S. Firms, Group Says. Washington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082402272.html Middleton, B. (2013). Cyber Crimes against Individuals in India and IT Act” Retrieved from: http://www.siu.edu.in/Research/pdf/Vishal_Dhotre.pdf Ryckman, P. (2012). Owners May Not Be Covered When Hackers Wipe Out A Business Bank Account. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/business/smallbusiness/protecting-business-accounts-from-hackers.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1& Suler, J. (2004). The Online Disinhibition Effect. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 7(3), 321-326 Read More