Cyber Crime in Australian Business - Research Paper Example

1.0 Introduction Cybercrime, also known as computer crime, is a type of crime that entails the use of computer and its network. The computer might be the target of the crime or the tool used to commit the crime. Cybercrime can also be defined as the offensive activities committed to someone or group of people with the intention to harm him or them. The harm might be in form of reputation, mental, or financial and can be conducted indirectly or directly. Cybercrimes are usually committed through the use of mobile phones and the internet thus entails access to private groups, notice boards, emails, chat rooms, and even short messages with the intention to harm. The crimes do not only have financial effect but can also affect the security of a given country. Some of the high profile cybercrimes are linked to child grooming, child pornography, copyright infringement, and hacking. Cybercrimes also affect the privacy of an entity through disclosing or intercepting confidential information either unlawfully or lawfully. At the global arena, both the government and non-state actors are involved in cybercrimes such as cross-border crimes, financial theft, and espionage. When a cybercrime is done across international borders with interest of a particular country, it is called cyberwarfare. In such circumstances, the perpetrators can only be held accountable through the International Criminal Court. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) indicates that cybercrime rates have been increasing over years. As per 2014, the crime cost the international economy approximately $445 billion per annum out of which the business damage based on the stealing of intellectual property costing more than $160 billion courtesy of hacking.1The CSIS report indicated that cyber crime is a threat to the economy since it affected innovation, competitiveness, and damaged trade. The global losses that the businesses incur can be approximated to be between $375 billion and $575 billion according to the study that was sponsored by McAfee, a security software company.2 However, the losses associated with online scams and online card frauds are still low compared to those of tax evasion and welfare fraud.3 Some of the major businesses that have experienced cybercrimes include Sony Pictures Entertainment, EBay, GoDaddy and Gigya, and Morgan Stanley among others.4 A study by Juniper Research indicates that cybercrimes will cost businesses more than $2 trillion by 2019.5 Some of the causes of increase in cybercrime rates include rapid digitalisation of the lives of consumers and the business records. Furthermore, increased professionalism in the cybercrime activities due to emergence of products that encourage the vice such as the sale of software that creates the malware for cyber attacks will increase the rate of cybercrimes thus costs. Cybercrimes can be classified to several subsections depending with the activities entailed. First, computer fraud is a misrepresentation of facts with the intention of making someone to commit or omit something that results to a loss. The criminal in the context gains through altering the information of the victim. In some of the instances, the criminal alters, destroys, suppress, or steals outputs to help conceal the processes that are unauthorised.6 It can also entail deleting or altering the stored information. Other kinds of fraud can be enhanced through the use of computer systems and include stealing of classified information, extortion, identity theft, carding, and bank fraud. Furthermore, a several internet scams can be used to target businesses and consumers based on social engineering and phishing. Second, cyber terrorism is where terrorists use the computer to commit crimes. It is defined as the terrorism act committed through the use of computer resources or cyberspace.7The terrorists are also called the cyber terrorists and can be defined as people who coerce or intimidate an organisation or the government to advance their social or political objective through launching an attack against networks, computers, or data stored in them. Cyberterrorism entails and not limited to internet propaganda that there will be a bomb attack and hacking activities that tend to cause fear among the public. Third, cyber extortion is when a computer system, email server, or website is threatened or subjected to several service denial or malicious attack. In most instances, the hackers end demanding payments so as to end the attacks on the corporate networks or websites thus crippling the operation ability. The perpetrators usually use the distributed denial-of-service attack to tamper with the business services.8 Example of cyber extortion is the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures.9 Other types of cybercrime include cyber warfare, computer as a target of the crime, computer as a tool for the crime, drug trafficking, harassment, and offensive or obscene content. On cyber warfare, Russia has been described to use cyber attacks on her counterparts with the trend projected to be common in military in the future.10 Cybercrime that target computers are those that aim at the computer devices and networks. They include malware or malicious code, denial-of-service attacks, and computer viruses. On the other sides, computer can be used as a tool of conducting cybercrimes. Such kind of crimes include propagation of illegal offensive or obscene content, spam, phishing scams, information warfare, fraud and identity theft. 1.1 Background of the Study 1.1.1 Cybercrime as a Global Economic Threat Cybercrime has a great impact on the global economy. It is estimated that the cost of cybercrime is more than $455 billion at the global level.11 However, it is argued that the financial cost is much greater since most of the countries fail to report on such crimes. According to Samani, cybercrime can best be measured through the quantification of job losses in which more than 150,000 jobs are lost per year in Europe.12 A single cybercrime attack can have a great impact on the economy. For example, the United States retailer Target in 2013 that affected approximately 40 million debit and credit cards.13 As the world develops and the use of internet increases, cybercrimes grows stronger.14 Dependence in the internet and growth of the internet users increases the security risks thus need for efforts to prevent or mitigate the risk.15 Terrorist organizations also have taken advantage of the technological development thus the need of international organizations and governments to help fight cybercrimes. 1.1.2 Threats of Cybercrime to Australian Businesses According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre, cyber crimes cost the businesses in Australia approximately $ 1 billion each year.16 The report indicates that cyber crime has increased by about 20 percent between 2014 and 2015 making Australia one of the greatest online threats victims. It is, therefore, important that Australia raises awareness among the entrepreneurs to reduce the impacts. The sectors that are mostly affected by cyber crime include banking, energy providers, and communication providers. In response to the problem, cyber insurance has grown to be the most common insurance cover in Australia.17 Cybercrime can affect businesses in a number of ways. The impacts can be either through protection costs, lost sales, and influencing the methods of doing businesses.18 In explanation, it is costly to protect a business entity against cyber crime thus additional costs. The other expenses entail the buying of protective hardware and software. Furthermore, the running of the software entails monitoring thus additional costs. The costs might lead to the increase in the prices of the services and goods as they are transferred to the customers. Cybercrime has gone a distance further to interrupt the sales of the businesses. Most of the cybercrime offenders have been targeting some of the businesses that base their practices on the internet.19 Their acts have included shutting down of the online operations of particular companies. Some of the corporations that have been victims include MasterCard20 and PayPal.21 Pay Pals website was attacked in December 2010 by hackers claiming to be from the group Anonymous that saw most of the perpetrators arrested.22 Such attacks can make a business to lose revenue in long-term as people decide not to do business with them due to their vulnerability.23 Cybercrimes effects to the business can be beyond the financial status. As a result, companies have to adjust to how they do business if they will have to address cyber crimes. Many companies no longer store customers' financial and personal information including birth dates, social security details, and credit card numbers.24 Some of the companies have also been forced to close their on-line operating stores since they cannot protect themselves from cyber theft. Customers have also developed precautionary redundancy that seeks on the assurance that the companies they are dealing with are not vulnerable to cyber attacks. 1.2 Justification of the Study Information and Communication Technology have been deemed as an important tool for development in all the investments. All businesses irrespective of their sizes engage in the use of intent technology due to its efficiency and effectiveness. However, cybercrime has proven that the overreliance to internet technology such as ‘Cloud’ storage is no longer safe due to cybercrimes. Cybercrime entails a myriad of criminal activities that aims at breaching the computer security of a company.25 According to the National Computer Security Survey that was conducted in 2005, at least 67 percent of businesses that use the internet have experienced a cyber crime.26 Fight against cyber crime is expensive and dynamic since new methods and threats emerge. It, therefore, needs well stipulated legal and institutional framework to ensure that businesses are safe. 1.3 Objective of the Study The main objective of the study was to determine how Australia can improve its legal framework to address the impacts of cybercrime on businesses. In specific, the study compared the management of cybercrimes in the Australia, Europe Convention, and the United States. In specific, the study aims to determine how Australia can improve its legal framework to address the impacts of cybercrime on the businesses. It also identified the weaknesses of cybercrime in Australia and gave suitable recommendations. 1.4 Significance of the Study The study enlightens the public on the importance of cyber security. It also captures the status of cyber security in Australia compared to the European Convention and the United States. Furthermore, it elaborates on how cyber security can be ensured among the entrepreneurs to ensure business sustainability. The study can also be used to advice the policy developer on suitable legal framework to develop or strengthen to ensure cyber security in Australia. The audience of the study include the institutions that develop laws and policies in Australia and other countries. In addition, the study is of interest to computer software developers and the firms issuing internet security. It is also of benefit to the legal practitioners and students since it enables them expand their knowledge on cyber crimes, how they impact businesses, and how they can be mitigated. 1.5 Structure of the Study The structure of the study is in the order of abstract, introduction, and the background that entails cybercrime as a global threat and threats of cybercrime to Australia. It is followed by justification of the study; objective of the study; and significance of the study. In addition, there is the literature review; methodology of the study; results and discussions; and summary, conclusion, and recommendations. 2.0 Literature Review for the Study 2.1 Impacts of Cybercrimes to Businesses In Ghana, the use of internet has grown steadily and rapidly over years thus leading to the development of businesses linked to internet access points and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).27 As a result, the country has managed to gain several positive impacts such as educational and socio-economic developments. However, the growth has not been without challenges as some of the Ghanaians have used the internet as a tool to commit crime. Due to its cheapness and ease of access, some of the Ghanaians have used internet to conduct cybercrimes in the country. Cyber fraud has been growing in Ghana thus increase the rate of direct financial loss to the businesses and consumers. In agreement, Das and Nayak argue that computer technology has cybercrime as the main drawback despite making the life fast and speedy. 28 However, it might be a struggle for the government and businesses to operate today without the internet. The cheap, user-friendly, and powerful computers have enabled people to rely on the internet world including individuals, agencies, government, and businesses. As a result, cyber crimes can only be restricted through proper analysis of the crimes and impacts that they have on Read More