The Rise in Cybercrime and the Possible Remedy - Research Paper Example

Computer Science Contents The Rise in Cybercrime and the Possible Remedy 3 Introduction 3 Losses in the Business Sector 3 The Reasons Behind Rise in Identity theft 4 Remedy to Cybercrime 6 Conclusion 7 Works Cited 8 The Rise in Cybercrime and the Possible Remedy Introduction Online security is one of the most crucial concerns of computer technologists who have the role of protecting organizational systems. In the contemporary business environment, identity theft has become a source of financial risk in the banking industry. In the 21st century, the proliferation of the internet technology has become a source of business opportunity as well as risk. Most banking organizations have put their business online as one of their strategies to push their business to the international market. However, the evolution of internet technology has come along with the financial insecurity especially in online transactions. Many banking organizations have received complaints from their customers regarding loss of money from cyber-thieves. Hence, many bank organizations have lost a large portion of their revenue to cybercrime reducing their competiveness in this industry. In addition, the organizations lose their customers who feel that they do not get enough security of their money in these organizations. Therefore, the system designers are now facing a serious challenge of having to protect organization from cybercriminals who each discovering new approaches of stealing from organizations. Losses in the Business Sector Identity theft is the illegal and the unconsented acquisition of another person’s personal information such as identity card number, bank account number and password with an intention of using it in fraudulent operations. With the current embrace of technology in the business sector, the internet has become a new platform for theft especially with most internet users being ignorant of their privacy and security in their online presence. In the US, the banking sector loses over £1 billion every year to identity theft which is already sending warning signals to the online bankers. With more banks venturing in online services and online financial transfer is dominant in these sectors, the banks and the customers are at a very high risk of losing their money to fraudsters. Statistics indicate that the number of cases of identity fraud increased in the recent past (Ryckman 12). In 2010 and 2012, the US banking industry has registered a loss of 80 and 101.3 dollars, which marks an increase of about 27% in financial loss (PR, Newswire Para. 1). As more customers complain about the loss of their monies, victim organizations continue to experience loss both in terms of money as well the outflow of customers. Consequently, this has become a great business risk that requires immediate attention if banking organizations have to run profitably. The Reasons Behind Rise in Identity theft Identity thieves get access to the personal details of banking customers and use this information to access to their financial accounts. Most customers who use the online banking services are unaware of the risk of identity theft and most of them realize after they have already suffered financial loss. The perpetrators of cyber-theft have a wide knowledge and experience in the internet technology and often apply this technology to capture customer’s details such as names, account numbers, age and other small details that may assist in executing their functions (Krebs, Para. 4-6). With the current development of internet technology, hackers are finding it easier to access information from insecure bank systems. In the banking sector, there has been an upward trend of identity theft in the banking sector. In the US banking industry, there was a 27% increase in financial loss between 2011 and 2012 because of the escalation of identity theft. The statistical projections indicate that the financial loss due to identity theft is expected to increase unless effective risk management strategies are launched to mitigate the problem. Risk management is an important subject for strategic managers as it is involved with the identification of business risks and strategizing on the best approaches to curb the problems. Identity theft poses business organization to the risk of losing their revenue and having a massive outflow of customers. This would be a great business loss that can lead to the failure of predisposed organizations in this industry. A research by the European commission (5) found out that cyber-crime has underpinned identity theft as most online service users lack the knowledge to enhance privacy while conducting online transactions. Loza (15) found out that more than 70% of the online bank customers are unaware of the cybercrime threat and are at high risk of suffering from identity theft. 8% of the online PC users in the US have already fallen victim of identity theft and only 15% of the PC users are aware of the dangers of online business transactions in the banking sector. From this point of view, most online bank customers are ignorant of the looming threat of identity theft, hence do not find the need to engage in security measures. Currently, over five million individuals have access to broadband internet connection without even being aware of the security threats that are posed by these access points. The banking sector has adopted a global strategy by engaging in the development of sophisticated online services that include the purchase of goods, online bank transfers, credit purchase from the bank, online digital signatures and the online purchase of stock shares. These services prompt the customers to input their credit card numbers, passwords, identity card numbers, years of birth, and digital signatures. Supplying this information provides fraudsters with opportunities to have access to this information. As online business hits the £3.5 trillion mark and attracting over 60% of bank customers in the US, exposes more and more individuals to identity theft (PR, Newswire Para. 5). Technological development has pushed the level of cyber-crime to higher levels giving attackers more advantage to capture personal information from bank customers. Attackers have advanced internet culture skills that enable them to develop fake online websites to capture personal information from the public. Shinder (102) points out that hackers have more than a hundred tools for password cracking to help them decrypt passwords that are encoded through the use of simple algorithms. Customers who use WEP security in their wireless internet access point and MD7 encryption algorithms while transmitting data are at the risk of supplying fraudsters with their bank credentials. Moreover, attackers introduce viruses and Trojans in online websites to make the process of acquiring personal information easier and undetectable. Considering the sophisticated technology used in hacking and cybernetics to acquire information from bank customers, it is important for customers to be aware of the need for effective security measures while conduct online bank transactions. Remedy to Cybercrime The Rise in the level of Cybercrime today is a big challenge for computer scientists and information technologists. There seems to a great need to develop more secure systems that will prevent hackers from accessing personal information. To provide remedy to this problem, it is crucial to develop systems that use safe encryption algorithms that are hard to crack. Instead of using the MD7 encryption technique, it would be crucial to ensure that all sensitive personal information is coded using the MD5 encryption procedure. This procedure beats the signal with a more complex code, making it hard for crackers to decode. Secondly, it would be more crucial for the system administrators to shift to the use of virtual private networks, which are more secure systems (Gandhi 28-38). The VPN clients request passwords for systems which are hard to guess or even crack (Martin and Rice 803-807). Therefore, VPN networks will allow organizations to protect customer information to ensure that the organization log-in credentials are known only to their employees. Conclusion In conclusion, cybercrime is a persistent challenge for many business organizations. As more businesses get online and the online population increases, the risk for cybercrime becomes higher. As the organization provide online services to expand their business, hackers and eavesdroppers are becoming more vigilant in accessing personal information and using it for fraud purposes. As a result more companies and customers are losing their money to cybercriminals making customers lose their loyalty for the organization. The computer scientist and information technologist have a challenge to look at new ways of solving this challenge. Since cyber-crime has increased due to low system security and public and organization ignorance, it would be crucial to identify more secure systems to ensure that information is secure at its storage point or even during its transmission. To do this, it is the high that organization adopts the use of MD5 data encryption procedures to ensure the risk of losing information during its transformation is minimised. Secondly, it would be crucial to use VPN to ensure that log-in information is secure and reduce the probability of hackers accessing it. This will help to protect the client whose systems are often comprised and at higher risk of cybercrime. Securing the system will ensure that organization reduce their losses and continue to benefit from their online presence. Works Cited European Commission. New Legal Framework: Identity Theft. 2012. Accessed from: < http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/e-library/documents/policies/organized-crime- and-human-trafficking/cybercrime/docs/final_report_identity_theft_ 11_december_2012_en.pdf>[Accessed on 12th May, 2013] Gandhi, Robin. "Dimensions of Cyber-Attacks: Cultural, Social, Economic, and Political." Technology and Society Magazine, IEEE 30.1 (2011): 28-38. Krebs, Boniface. "European Cyber-Gangs Target Small U.S. Firms, Group Says," Washington Post, 2009. Loza, Eliza. Internet Fraud: Federal Trade Commission Prosecutions of Online Conduct. In: Communications and the Law, 23(1), 2001. Martin, Nigel, and John Rice. "Cybercrime: Understanding And Addressing The Concerns Of Stakeholders." Computers & Security 30.(2011): 803-814. Science Direct. Web. 12 May 2014. Paget, Fyn. Financial Fraud and Internet Banking: Threat and Countermeasures. 2012. Accessed from: < http://www.mcafee.com/uk/resources/reports/rp-financial-fraud-int-banking.pdf> [Accessed on 12th May, 2013] PR, Newswire. "As Cybercrime Threats Continue to Escalate, 2013 State of Cybercrime Survey from PwC and CSO Finds Companies Arent Doing Enough to Defend Themselves." PR Newswire US 21 June 2013: Regional Business News. Web. 12 May 2014. Ryckman, Paul. "Owners May Not Be Covered When Hackers Wipe Out A Business Bank Account. The New York Times, 2014. Shinder, Daniel. Scene of the Cybercrime: Computer Forensics Handbook. London, UK: Syngress Publishing. 2007. Print. Read More