Research Methods Applied to Cyber Crime - Thesis Example

Research Methods for Cyber Crime (Identity Theft) Research Methods Applied to Cyber Crime (Identity Theft) Affiliation Introduction After entering into the twenty first century, there has emerged a lot of new technological revolutions and inventions, which has impacted the ways of life to a great extent. It has created a lot of easiness and diverse ways to lead the lives. People are experiencing quite different methods of learning, how people are getting education, doing shopping, seeking entertainment, and also most importantly doing the businesses. Due to the fast developments happened in the information technology as well as computer technology, the human life has been totally advanced and revolutionized. Such developments has made communication a second’s task, where a large amount of data and information can be collected and used for a number of purposes easily. However, these developments can be seen as positive for human beings, but these can also be seen as a negative phenomenon. It is usually called as the “double edged sword”, where it has both bright and dark sides. Though computer and information technology has proved to be much useful for communication and business development, but it has also created new ways for doing illegal or criminal activities (Gordon, Hosmer, Siedsma, & Rebovich, 2003). A number of commercial websites are performing business activities online, or others using computers to gather and accumulate critical information in order to use it for business purposes. Such businesses have been nowadays facing the issues of misuse of information or other kinds of crimes with regard to the sensitive information. In order to combat these criminal and delinquent activities, they have to perform overwhelming, and expensive job of safeguarding their critical information, which can be used for delinquent actions. In these days, it is easier to do crime, as criminals are able to encode the data, which is showing some proofs against their delinquent actions, and also transfer such data regardless of having fear of being noticed from Police side or Law agencies. Such criminal activities has made it more complex to detect any corruption. As the internet has astonishing effects on this area, where it is being impossible to detect a person due to the fact that the crime can be held regardless of any geographical area. This situation has convoluted the enquiry of cybercrime to the greater extent (Gordon, Hosmer, Siedsma, & Rebovich, 2003). In this regard, there are a number of new studies and fields of a study are emerging, and among these a Cybercrime Science is such an evolving field of study targeting to thwart the cyber-crime by merging the security shielding methods from IS (Information Security) and the experimental research approaches employed in Crime Science (Hartel, Junger, & Wieringa, 2011; Wall, 2007). The purpose of this research paper is to evaluate the research methods being applied to the cybercrime, and in this paper, one kind of cybercrime is mainly focused and comprehended in this regard. The paper has different sections, where the first section has elaborated the cybercrime phenomenon and its types, and then second section has also focused on the “Identity Theft” crime. The second section has reviewed the previous studies over the research methods used in the identity theft. While the third section has put more attention towards the author’s own analysis over the research methods employed up till now, and this analysis is performed on the basis of literature review and statistical data researched already by previous researcher. Then the conclusion is made and the author has suggested some important recommendations based on the analysis. 2. Literature Review 2.1. Cybercrime Before introducing the specific kind of cybercrime like identity theft, it is important to make a distinction for the Cybercrime. Newman has defined the cyber-crime as, def. “the behaviour in which computers or networks are a tool, a target, or a place of criminal activity” (Newman, 2009, p. 552). As suggested by Wall (2007), this definition has narrower scope as it is only addressing the deterrence or recognition of the delinquency or criminal activities with regard to the information assets, however it can be considered wider concept with inclusion of the employment of computers in order to commit the conventional crimes (Wall, 2007). Cybercrime is such an evident kind of world-wide crime, where it has impacted the worldwide developments and advancements in Information and communication Technology. As per a research conducted by Mcconnell (2000), it is found that cybercrimes can be distinguished from other crimes in four concerns: as, “They are easy to learn how to commit; they require few resources relative to the potential damage caused; they can be committed in a jurisdiction without being physically present in it; and they are often not clearly illegal.” (Mcconnell, 2000, p. 60). In this regard, it can be said that such new kind of crime needs to be detected and investigated form new perspectives and can be studied through different research methods. These cybercrimes are posing new threats to legislators, law implementation organisations, and global institutes. According to Morris (2004), such level of crime compels the presence of an active, international based along with national appliances, which can control and explore the employment of ICTs in order to perform any criminal actions in World Wide Web (Morris, 2004). There are number of types of cybercrime, such as malware, unlawful funds transfers, plastic card skimming, Wi-Fi, identity-related deception, scam solicitations, auction scam, Phishing, Non-delivery and faulty products and services, and Money upfront fee systems, unauthorised trades, online financial transactions scam etc. Such are just little examples of the cybercrime. But for the purpose of this paper, the major requirement is to evaluate the Identity related crime. As the Federal Trade commission found that among all cybercrimes, the identity theft is the major threat, which must be researched over and be comprehended more. Following shows the results of the research conducted by the Federal Trade Commission about the complaints data. Figure 1. FTC Top Ten Complaint category for 2012. Source: federal trade Commission, 2012 As the above figure shows that the major complaints recorded by the Federal Trade Commission were about the identity theft category in 2012. So, it is more important to find the research methods about the identity theft category in the cybercrime. 2.2. Identity Theft Identity theft is the most prevalent criminal activity found to be threatening to most of the people and businesses, as shown above in figure 1. But there is little empirical and experimental research is conducted over this issue, due to some important reason, such as the detection rate, demographical dimension of the crime, and the criminals; identify-ability (Allisona, Schuck, & Lersch, 2005). Identity theft is a form of cybercrime, which can be defined as, “identity theft is a misuse of a another person’s identity, such as name, social security number, driver’s license, credit card numbers, and bank account numbers” (Denning, 1999, p. 241). In an another definition of identity theft given by US legislation, it can be demarcated as, def. “It is the act of knowingly transferring or using, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law” (U.S. Code, Chapter 47, Title 18, Section 1028(a)). This definition is broader than the previous one. It has detailed the Identity Theft phenomenon. As the definition suggests that identity theft can be done from a number of ways, so there some different kinds of the identity related crime, but the most usual type is the credit card theft, where the credit card numbers are used in order to steal a heavy amount. There is an evidence as per a research conducted by Newman and McNally (2007) that the degree of credit card theft through internet has been snowballing as internet setting provides such chances to commit such crime (Newman & McNally, 2007). The identity crime is developed along with the increase in the internet users. But it has been common type of fraud, where the credit card is involved, and now there are solutions to this but the statistics related to credit card crimes are shown in the following graph. The graph shows the data of different countries. Figure 2. Credit Card Frauds Trends. Source: APCA, UK Payments Association, Observatory for Payment Card Security (France) and Visa Inc. Moreover, the survey conducted by the Smith (2011) for the Australian criminology report, it is evident that the credit card fraud was at 2.4% in 2007, but there was 73% increase in the fraud level recorded in 2011, which is 3.7% (Smith, 2012). Such statistics are pointing out one important point that the crime of identity theft has been increasing mostly. The above graph suggested that it was greatest in 2001 – 2002, which is the era of start of 21st century. But the credit card theft is not the only one which is related to identity theft. Rather, many of researchers do not consider it a truly identity related theft, they argued that it can be done only one time for one person, and it is detected very soon (Newman & McNally, 2007). There are many other kinds of identity theft, for instance, account hacking which more time is taking and one cannot detect it easily and quickly. There are the seven general categories of the identity theft as defined by Newman & McNally, (2007); such as, Take advantage of flaws in particular technologies, Monetary Frauds, Small Crime to do a bigger crime (for instance, paying off employees to get the PINs or secret codes), Assisting in other frauds, Dodging detention, Recurrence victimization (typical form of identity theft), and Systematized identity theft (Newman & McNally, 2007). However, another survey was conducted by Federal Trade Commission (2012) in order to find out the categories of the identity theft. As stated by this report, the identity theft can be decomposed into the three major categories of misapplication, which are mistreatment of prevailing credit cards or its numbers (financial theft), opening up new bank accounts with intention of other scams (criminal identity theft), and misapplication of current non-credit card (cloning) (Federal Trade Commission, 2012). It was also pointed out that “almost 10 million Americans have discovered that they were the victim of some form of ID Theft within the last year,” (Synovate, 2003, p. 4) where this number is snowballing day by day. Another research over the identity theft has identified the stages of this crime, which can be classified in three steps, such as getting another’s identity by means of theft, using that identity for getting monetary returns or fame, the detection of that crime. These stages are identified by researchers with the help of survey method of research. But this area of research about how the offender or criminal perform this kind of theft needs to be researched over. It is not much researched and literature has not provided adequate information regarding the “how” question about identity theft (Compomizzi, D’Aurora, & Rota, 2013). There are number of reports and statistical data which are prepared by Federal Trade Commission in order to see the level of identity theft and ways of doing so, but much of literature lacks the subjective interpretation of the question, “how such ways adopted by criminals helped them to commit crime”. So, there is need to develop a framework, which would identify the whole process, which can be beneficial in terms of the prevention of such crime. 2.3. Research Methods Applied to the Identity theft This section has discussed the research methods which have been used for conducting the research over the identity theft. The research for this phenomenon which is considered to be prevalent from centuries ago is quite complicated and there is need to identify about which kind of research method can be best employed and delivered the desired results. It is important to know that what is identity theft and its types, which has been elaborated from different sources in the previous section. The features and lack of adequate data and information related to the identity theft has obstructed the proper research ways. It is found that the identity theft is quite complicated to define and detect, as there are various and diverse ways to do this crime, which needs to be elaborated beforehand (Felson, Crime and Everyday Life, 1998; Felson & Clarke, Opportunity Makes the Thief, 1998). This lack of data about the identity theft also impede the identification of the costs involved in the identity theft and also the research cannot identify the potential ways to apply any safety measures in order to protect from the damage. Another important kind of data in this regard is also not sufficient, as it is not identifiable which one was the main place of this crime and the victim’s residence (Newman & McNally, 2007). The research cannot be conducted or if conducted would not realize much benefits for the crime solutions. However, Apart from the lack of data, it is also important for the research that it must stress upon exposure of the opportunity structure for this crime related to identity. As Newman and McNally (2007) has suggested that it can be performed by the decomposing the identity theft process into the well demarcated and particular actions or patterns of behaviours, as well as all the chances or opportunities which the criminals can exploit in this era of technological development and information period. Though a substantial research is conducted through the case studies method of data collection and analysis, and it has also recognized a number of crime related components. In such researches, as Felson (1998) has found that it is considered that internet is the major source of this criminal activity, but such researches did not reveal the information regarding the criminal and the exact way how he commit this crime (Felson, Crime and Everyday Life, 1998). This entails that there must be proper research method used, such as interviews, which can provide more specific as well as more detailed report about the crime (Newman & McNally, 2007). Such kind of research can provide more insights. In addition to these, there are some studies, which has provided the empirical evidence about the crime, and used the cases where the victims are in focus. A research on the identity theft cases was conducted by Gordon, Rebovich, Choo, and Gordon (2007) where the empirical evidence was provided by emphasizing on the victims of the crime. It was found that in this case the minorities and majority people were same to commit this crime, while there were more young and female criminals in this regard (Gordon, Rebovich, Choo, & Gordon, 2007). Another finding consistent with the Newman and McNally (2007) was that there was mostly cases which were based on the use of internet and online resources to do such crime, so it is mostly evident in the literature that such criminal activities related to identity occurs due to the internet and its developments in information and communication technology (Gordon, Hosmer, Siedsma, & Rebovich, 2003). References Allisona, S. F., Schuck, A. M., & Lersch, K. M. (2005). Exploring the crime of identity theft: Prevalence, clearance rates, and victim/offender characteristics. Journal of Criminal Justice, 19–29. Compomizzi, J., D’Aurora, S., & Rota, D. P. (2013). IDENTITY THEFT AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES: THE COST IS ALL YOUR’S. Issues in Information Systems, 162-168. Denning, D. (1999). Information Warfare and Security. Boston: Addison-Wesley. Federal Trade Commission. (2012). Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. Retrieved from FTC Government: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/itada/itadact.html Felson, M. (1998). Crime and Everyday Life. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. Felson, M., & Clarke, R. (1998). Opportunity Makes the Thief. Police Research Series, 98. Gordon, G. R., Hosmer, C. D., Siedsma, C., & Rebovich, D. (2003). Assessing Technology, Methods, and Information for Committing and Combating Cyber Crime. New York: U.S. Department of Justice. Gordon, G. R., Rebovich, D. J., Choo, K.-S., & Gordon, J. B. (2007). Identity Fraud Trends and Patterns: Building a Data-Based Foundation for Proactive Enforcement. Ctr for Identity Management and Information Protection, 1-82. Hartel, P., Junger, M., & Wieringa, R. (2011). Cyber Crime Science = Crime Science + Information Security. Twente: University of Twente. Mcconnell. (2000). International, Cybercrime...and Punishment? . Global Information: Archaic Laws Threaten. Morris, S. (2004). The future of netcrime now: Part 1 threats and challenges. Online Report: Home Office. Newman, G. R. (2009). Cybercrime. In M. D. Krohn, A. J. Lizotte, & G. P. Hall, Hand-book on Crime and Deviance (pp. 551-584). Online: Springer. Newman, G. R., & McNally, M. M. (2007). Identity Theft Literature Review. New York: National Institute of Justice. Smith, R. G. (2012). Cyber Crime Research. Sydney: Australian Institute of Criminology. Synovate. (2003). Federal Trade Commission—Identity Theft Survey Report, Report prepared for the Federal Trade Commission. McLean, VA: Federal Trade Commission . Wall, D. S. (2007). Cybercrime: The Transformation of Crime in the Information Age. London: Polity Press. Read More