Digital Crime, Cybercrime - Essay Example

Running Header: Digital Crime Analysis Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 15, 03, 2011 Introduction Cyber crimes can be described as malicious or illegal activities that are carried out in the internet as a result of developed technological advancement that foster smooth communication process in a closely knit network. The internet has developed over the past several years; the increase in dependents on the internet cannot be overemphasised in this information age. The fundamental platform that aids internet development is utilized by criminals to carry out their malicious activities. Most common cyber crime activities include but not limited to the following, drug and arms trafficking, spying, money laundering scams and credit card theft or fraud. Many people have experienced cyber crimes without their knowledge because of the anonymity created by the online environment. Policy makers and law enforcement agencies have continually developed ways of dealing with the ever increasing cyber crimes. The vastness of the internet and the development of both hardware and software have intensified the number of cyber crimes occurrence. In essence, policy makers lag behind cyber criminals in advancement mainly because of the relative low cost of committing a cyber crime. This paper presents an analysis and discussion of Burden and Palmer’s perception of cyber crime. Their perception shades more light on the implication of cyber crime to criminology. Digital crime analysis Burden and Palmer explains true cyber crime as crimes which happen in an online environment. Such malicious activities emerged as a result of technological development and specifically the advent of the web technology. Cyber crimes are done by dishonest people mainly with an aim of financial gain through their activities. As an example, the use of credit cards to buy products online has been fostered by the development of technology. It is now possible to purchase a service or a product from any region in the world using the internet. Cyber criminals take advantage of the loopholes that presents themselves as a result of many online transactions that are undertaken in the world. Cyber criminals hack into the credit cards and access the victim’s money in the account. Such activities can only be carried out in as a result of technological development which has allowed online trasactions. Other forms of crimes also include money laundering; there are several new forms of money laundering activities that have been fostered by technological advancement or development. On the other hand there are traditional crimes which were present even before the advent of the internet and the web technology, such includes fraud, illegal arms trafficking, drug trafficking, smuggling and kidnapping. Such crimes existed even before the advent of the internet and its technologies. As Burden and Palmer explains, the internet has only escalated their presence in the world because of the developed infrastructure that allows a person to obtain all the information regarding the victim online by a simple click of a mouse. These are what Burden and Palmer refer to as crimes which were traditionally present but have increased as a result of internet development. Implications of digital crime on criminology Criminology is the essentially a study of crimes, criminals and they behaviour, it also focuses on law enforcement procedures necessary to ensure justice when a crime is committed. Traditional criminology required that investigation be done in the crime scene where evidence of a crime is collected and examined for authentication as valid evidence in the court of law. The suspects are also detained and the justice process carried out to ensure that the outlined laws are adhered to. Criminology has been studied with an aim of aligning the justice process and also reduce crime rate as a result of an effective system in place (Wall 2007). The emergence of digital network has provided a major challenge to the study of criminology. In essence the entire framework of evidence collection and suspect detaining has became more complicated as a result of the vast coverage of the internet and ever increasing rate of crimes called cyber crimes. Cyber crime has presented a challenging situation to law enforces and thus forcing criminology to find ways of handling digital crimes (Yar 2006). The ever increasing dependence on the internet and other forms of digital networks has created more new vulnerabilities and hence new ways that criminals can exploit. Many crimes can be replicated in an online environment and novel crimes which take advantage of specific digital networks features have emerged (Reyes & O'Shea 2007). Criminology has thus been forced to establish new ways of policing and even new standards of surveillance. According to Balkin (2007, p2-4) digital environment has changed our comprehension of crime in about five different ways. First, it changes the scene of crime; second, it enhances commission of new forms of crimes. Third, it alters the traditional law enforcement ways as it changes from prevention to new corporations between the private and public sectors. Fourth, the law enforcement is given modern digital surveillance equipments and ways of organization and controlling risks associated with online activities. Fifth, it presents new challenges to traditional legal process and spurs improvement of new forms of procedures and attestation of digital crimes. The online environment is structured in the following manner, it is digitized a factor which enables manipulation and transmission of digital information over the vast network infrastructure. The online environment supports anonymity which allows an individual to spy on people without revealing themselves. Interconnectivity is another feature that enables all people connected to the internet to be connected together. Decentralization is also another feature of the internet that describes its lack of control since there is no centralized control like in the case of a local area network or a traditional physical social environment (Brenner 2010). The last important feature of online environment is interdependence where there is a shared vulnerability that cannot be avoided by all people who use the internet. According to Balkin (2007, p 2-4) digitization, interdependence, anonymity, decentralization and interconnectivity provides fundamental environment for the emergence of digital crimes. Law enforces and policy makers are thus mandated with the task of redesigning digital architectures that will reduce cyber crimes and breaches of security. Criminology faces an increasing challenge as a result of the architecture of the online environment; it is difficult to structure laws or guidelines that will manage online processes mainly because of the fundamental difference between an online environment and an offline environment. It is far easier to manage an offline environment because of the political, social and economic set up that is highly predictable. On the contrary, digital environment poses more challenges and demands more sophisticated measures of countering criminal acts because of the vastness and united community fostered by the structure of the protocols governing an online environment (Broadhurst & Grabosky 2005). There are also many technological flaws that allow criminals to utilize while carrying out their illegal activities, the anonymity of people in the online environment is not only important for a criminal activity to occur but also saves on the cost of concealment unlike on an offline situation. Criminal activity in an online environment is much easier to commit as compared to a criminal activity in an offline condition. With the right tools and knowledge, the crime can be committed almost instantly. Most transaction are done through digital network by millions of people in the world and hence making traces of personal data to be present in the web making it possible for hackers to acquire and study our behaviours. Despite the ever increasing policies that monitors internet activities that concerns violation of intellectual property rights and other cyber related crimes, the perpetrated of cyber crime is on the increase as technological advancement increases. In order to foster criminology in the information age, policy makers have increased their pace against crimes using the same technology that creates conducive environment for cyber crimes. Increased CCTVs and online monitoring software’s like firewalls developed using different operating systems like Microsoft based or Linux/Unix based software. Antivirus and antimalware’s have been developed to counter illegal intrusion over the internet. According to Platt & Townsen (2005)Despite these developments, hackers still find ways of conducting their crimes in a more sophisticated ways, in the U.S. alone, statistics reveals that almost half of a billion US $ is lost as a result of Cyber crimes. The UK has also reported close to the same statistics as a result of increased clever cyber crimes targeting credit cards and other online related transactions that are constantly increasing with time. As Burden and Palmer describes crimes according to their nature, both true cyber crimes and normal crimes that are e-enabled continues to threaten personal privacy and increases cases of crimes that result to financial losses or involvement in activities such as drug and arms trafficking (Schell 2004). Computer forensics has developed ways and means of handling cyber related crimes by optimizing on their sophisticated hardware’s and software’s. The fundamental role of computer forensics is to gather adequate and authentic evidence of crime that can be used in a court to law to sue the suspect. Computer forensics is able to trace emails and other critical information which had been stored in the computer but deleted to conceal the evidence. The major problem that forensics face is the vastness of crimes committed and the legality of how the investigation was conducted, it also faces challenges of increased cyber crime options at the disposal of the criminals. These challenges are not limited to forensic scientist but also policy makers as a whole (Gerdes 2008). As stated in Great Britain: Home Office (2010, p.5), there is need to fight cyber terrorism because of the high dependence of the internet to perform online transactions. The UK leads in terms of online market in the entire European community with revenues up to £48 billion. It is also revealed that about one in three people do not perform online shopping because of the low confidence of online shopping in terms of security. Cyber crimes significantly reduces consumer confidence, the statistics showed that about £328 million was lost in 2008 in the UK as a result of cyber crimes. This was an increase of about 13 percent from the year 2007. The UK economy has been hampered with online issues which cost roughly £55 million per year. The consequences of cyber crimes are thus far reaching and may be a major obstacle to economic growth if measures to curtail the vice are not developed as soon as possible. With the need to encourage online transactions for economical reasons, the government together with policy makers are working on fundamental ways of ensuring that online transactions are safe. Economic development can thus be stimulated by boosting consumer confidence through institution of framework that fights against perpetration of cyber crimes. Conclusion As discussed in this paper, cyber crime are undoubtedly a major world crisis that has increased cases of frauds, theft and even terrorist perpetration. Despite the increased efforts of countering the vice, the rate of cyber crime is grows exponentially mainly because of the less cost of committing the crime and the anonymity of the perpetrator. Policy makers have constantly focused on developing ways of decreasing if not eliminating cases of crimes unsuccessfully. This is basically because these criminals have an upper hand in an online environment as compared to an offline situation. Cases of cyber crimes that have been reported in the recent past includes but not limited to drug and arms trafficking, spying, money laundering scams and credit card theft or fraud. This analysis focused on the distinction that was provided by Burden and Palmer about digital crimes. A lengthy discussion and analysis on the implications of cyber crimes has shade light on the fundamental rationale for the increasing rate of cyber crimes and the laxity of law enforcement agency and policy makers. The consequences of cyber crimes are far reaching especially with consideration of criminology development. Criminology study and understanding has been re-shaped by the advent of digital crimes. The process is largely dissimilar to the traditional offline crimes that have been clearly handled by policy makers and law enforcement agencies over the years. Read More