Cyber Crime
Introduction
In the current technology-driven period, keepingprivatedatareservedis turning out to be challenging. The extremelycategorizedinformationis turning out to bemoreaccessible to the public databases, as a result of extensive interconnections being experienced by technology. The datais made available and many people can sift through it due to this interconnectivity. This processcastigates negative perception about technology. Technology is persistently turning out to be significant in easing people’s daily lives, nevertheless, there are perilsassociated with technology. Cybercrimes is one of the main dangers that are associated with technology use. Normal Internet users may be unacquaintedwith cybercrimes, and theybecome victims of cybercrimes.Several innocentpeople have fallen victimsof cybercrimes globally,particularly since technology is sprouting at a fast pace. Cybercrimes refer to any crimes that cause harm to other people using a computer and a network (Dalla & Geeta, 2013). Cybercrimes can take place throughinfiltration of privacy and confidentiality. This means that when privacy and confidential information is lost or interrupted by illegitimately individuals, it allows for high profile crimes, for instance, hacking, cyber terrorism, espionage, financial theft, copyright infringement, spamming, cyber warfare, and many more crimes, which occur across borders. Cybercrimes can happen to anyone once their information is breach by an unlawful user.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolving nature of cyber-crimes,find out the role of Interpol in fighting cybercrime, technologies being used to fight cybercrime, and ways of enhancing cyber-crime.
There are several factors that lead to the increased rates of cybercrime. In the first place, the aggressive advancement of current technology is making these rates of crime to be very difficult to be detected. Moreover, law enforcement agencies and people do not have required methodical proficiency to counter with felonious activity. In some cases, once a criminal activity has been discovered,the affected parties, for instance, businessmen getunenthusiastic to lodge a report and further investigationdue to the fear of antagonistic publicity, awkwardness, loss of public poise, investor loss, or other economic ramifications. As a result of these factors, the rates ofcyber-crime cases and the statistics across the world cannot be detectedand recorded accurately.
There are three main categories of cybercrimes. These are crimes against the person, property and the government. Cybercrime against a personentails harassment through email or cyber-stalking. Cyber Stalking refers to the deliberate process of following the moves of an individual’s doings over internet. This is achieved throughnumerous protocols accessible, for instance e- mail, chat rooms, user net groups while. At the same time, harassment entails sexual, racial, religious, or others aspects among others. Women and children are the predominant victims in this kind of crime.
Under the crimes against property,it incorporates aspects such as computer defacement by diffusion of harmful programs to other computer through internet. Furthermore, cybercriminal can also entail taking contents of individual bank account online. The most common method ofachieving this is through the money transfer email scam like when individuals receive emails invitingthem to help with transmitting funds from other nations. Hacking into organizations websites involves property trespass, and pilfering information is property theft. The third category involved cybercrimes against governments. The most common example of this category is cyber terrorism that affects so many lives.It involves hacking into a government website, predominantly the military sites, and also web jacking. Through web jacking, hackers gain admittance and control over the website of another entity and can go ahead and change the content of website in order to fulfillpolitical impartial or for monetary gains.
The Evolving Nature of Cybercrime
Currently, new trends entailedin cybercrime are evolving each passing moment with projected costs to the international economy running to billions of dollars. Earlier on, cybercrime was devotedand practiced largely by specific persons or small groups. At present, there are evident compound cybercriminal networks from different individuals across the worldwho are committing crimes in an extraordinarymeasure. Criminal groupsare turning progressively to the Internet to facilitate their activities through criminal actions and they maximize their profit within the least time possible. The crimes that are committed online are common, for instance, theft, fraud, and illegal gamblingamong others. However,these crimes are evolvingin terms of opportunities being innovated and presented online and,consequently,turning out to beprevalent and destructive.
Distinctwith other legitimate businesses, cybercriminals are not inhibited by national limitations and function under a cover of obscurity. This factor has enhanced online criminal activities since it makes it hard for law enforcement agencies to detect the perpetrators to discover their next move. Initially, cybercrime focused on single person operating criminals who took the advantage of weaknesses in the computer operating system or computer network. In as much asthere was some degree of damage financially and the security risks, the crimes by a single persondid not have the motive and determination of traditional criminal gangs. Therefore, cybercrime was infantile during this era with no huge damages. Currently, there are advanced cybercriminal activities organized and focused everywhere. Like in the olden times,thecurrent hardened criminal gangs are working on the Internet in a safe domain that operate and generate large profits. They have incorporated proficient elements into the world of cybercrime in using computer networks to penetratethe systems for huge financial gain. The new cybercrimes that have evolved include cyber-extortion, information theft, fraud,identity theft, exploitation of children, intellectual property theft, phishing, and vishingamong others.
The Role of Interpol in Fighting Cybercrime
Interpol is one of the ancient and prevalent forms of global police collaborationinternationally. It entails 190 member states that aggressivelyunite on numerous crime capacities. It is significant to note that from the legitimatestandpoint, Interpol is aworldwideassociationdespite the fact that it was not established through a worldwide accord (Broadhurst, 2006) The main objectives of the entity are detailed in the article 2 of its own Constitution and are “To guarantee and encourage the extensive possible mutual assistance between all criminal police establishments within the limits of the laws existing in the different nations and in the spirit of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”” and “To establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary law crimes”. Through the Interpol Global Cybercrime Expert Group, the organ assemblesprofessionals from diverse cyber-related arenas to offerguidance on establishing cyber strategy, research, training, forensics, and operations.There are noboundaries in cyberspace, thus, giving rise to challenges for the police and other law enforcing agencies in investigating cybercrime occurrences, which may encompassrespondents, victims, and crimes coveringseveralnations.Interpolsupports member republics in distributingas well as consolidating information on acknowledged cyber happenings, and it scrutinizes this data with an intention of coming up withapplicableintellectto be used by police and other law enforcing entities on the ground.Apart from intelligence sharing, Interpol alsoprovidesdirection on best applies in carrying out cybercrime inquiries. It is evident that most of cybercrimes are transnational in nature, therefore,the entity becomes a natural partner for all the law implementation agency searching to investigate these crimes on a compliant level. Through collaboration with the private industry, Interpol is able to offerhomegrown law implementationfirms with intensive cyber intelligence, resulting from coalescingefforts on a global scale. The main organization resourcefulness in cybercrime focus on functioning and investigative support, cyber intelligence and examination, digital forensics, invention and exploration, capacity building
and national cyber reviews.
Use of New Technologies to Fight Cybercrime
The currentpersonal, commercial, and government migration to the digital demesne has made criminals to carry out their activities easily and accurately. Large-scale cyber-attacks are turning out to be more regular and expensive for businesses and organizations across the world. The assailantsare having enough resources and sophistication as well as being betterplannedthan ever before.Several banks, especially in the United States, havefallen victims of cyber-attacks over the past period of time. For instance, cybercriminals managed to take 3.6 million social security numbers as well as almost 400,000 credit card numbers and tax figures from South Carolina Department of Revenue computers, burdening the state with a total of $20 million in onslaught costs (Be’ery,2012). Therefore, improvedtechnology security needs to be developed and invested. Financial services organizationsneed to enhancea yearly average cyber security spending to address the issue of cyber-attacks.
Therefore, as organizations and administration agencies progressivelyembrace cloud, mobile and social computing, information technology (IT) environments are turning out to be more hard to protect.Progressively, the entities need to consider that online security threats are inevitable.Technological approaches need to go beyond defense to entail detection, response, and recovery. These requirements necessitate the need forimproved skills andstrategies as well as distinct tools and technology,for instance, unremittingobserving and risk forensics powered by analytics. Cyber security is progressivelyturning out to be a point of focus among companymanagement.
With cloud, mobile, and social computing making new security exposures, customarycyber security products, such as firewalls and antivirus scanners are not in position tohandle every threat. Applications, such as network security analyzers,on the other hand,can be challenging for some entities to efficientlyapplythem without external assistance and expertcyber securitycapacity, which isa short supply. Specializedamenitiesorganizations are responding by integrating security offerings that espouse the computerization and analytical abilities of IT platforms with human intelligence to assist in detecting criminal activities.These improvements are vital in assistingfirms to monitor, gather, and investigatehuge data sets and detectarrays that designategaps or attempted breaches. In this manner, organizations are empowered to respond to dangers with more alertness. Establishmentscan no moredepend onunreceptiveresistances against cyber-attacks. Incorporating combinedastuteness and linkingmechanizationas well as analytics to human judgment is vital forfirms to lessen the danger of a cyber-attack and decrease the expenses of extenuatingoccurrencestake place.
Ways of Enhancing Online Safety
Different legislations against infringements of privacy have been adopted in several nations of the world. Moreover, data protection laws have also been set up to address the concept of cyber-crime. A critical observation of the laws indicate that diverse worldwide conductshave been attainedsubstantialconsistency in the commonorganizational and civil law regulations of the national privacy laws.Therefore, there is a need for a global criminalization to address the cybercrime menace. Nevertheless, some nations, especially developing countries, may lack the required investigative ability or technological capability to handle the issue of cyber security. This calls for measures toharmonize and alignglobal cybercrime laws by entities and bodies, for instance, the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime (COECC) as well as the United Nations Convention against Transnational organized Crime. Global co-operation by nations across the world isnecessary to comply withthe Conventions to ensure the laws are applied uniformly since the problem is universal. The main objective of the laws should be to settle for a homogenous criminal approach policythat is objected to guard the society against cybercrime, specifically through integration ofeffective legislation and enhancing global co-operation.
Conclusion
Cybercrime will always be a continuing confront regardless of the development being witnessed in several nations across the world. Numerous nations have established their own rules and regulations toaddress issues ofcybercrimes. Nevertheless, some nations do not have any laws and regulations but they exclusivelydepend onordinaryglobal law to put these crimes on trial. Besides the outdated laws and regulations to deal with cybercrime perpetrators,there are also delicate consequences in place to chastisecyber-crime perpetrators, an aspect that has lessimplication on the preclusion of cybercrimes, which have an effect on the financial system and individuals’ socialwellbeing on a large scale by the perpetrators. Therefore, there is a franticrequirement for all nations across the global scale to put up joint efforts and decide on what amounts to cybercrime, andestablish ways to address the problems of cybercrimes globally.
Hackers and cyber criminals will remain to be in existence so long as computers have will exist. In recent times alongsideadvances of technology and the rise of the internet, cybercrimes have progressed in astonishing ways. Currently, individualsmuch of their day connected to the internet than they do without it. Cyber criminals have taken this opportunitythrough manipulating e-commerce and misusing intellectual properties across the whole world
Several cases of cyber-criminal activities are being witnessed every day. In numerous scenarios, the legal system has failed to address the issue fully despite the efforts being put.In olden days, the internet was associated to the wild west, having no rules and regulations tocontrol it. However, cyber law is becoming progressivelybecoming in place and harder to break the law online. However, the system is not faultless since many people are stillfinding it easier to get away with a crime on the online than it is in real life.
Regarding the laws that on cybercrime, some facets of the law are functional while other arenot working. Technology is here to remain, therefore individuals will continue to spend much of their time and resources online. Every time an individual is online, he or she is a susceptible target of a cyber-criminal. Criminals od perpetrators are complex to deal with since they are anonymous and located in different parts across the world. This is why it is critical to carry on working with our foreign partners to fortify cyber laws not just in one nation but across the whole world.
Recommendations
It is recommended that unless effectivelawful actions are applied toindividual’snational and international ways of harrying criminals, self-protection is key and represents the first mechanism of controlling cybercrimes. Every person and organizationsneed to ensure they are familiar with cybercrimesbecause they can be victims of the peril. This fundamental awareness is significant inthwarting possible cybercrimes against individuals.
Furthermore, the law protecting intellectual property owners against online piracy should be enhanced. Numerous cases of file sharing sites are still in actuality since they function in nations where online piracy is permissible. A focus should be placed on these nations and force put on them to prohibit these websites to function, particularly when thepopulations have access to them. These can also be enhanced through cracking setting stringent penalties on the people who usethese sites to download pilferedinformation or content.
As indicated before, cybercrimewill remain as long as technology is active, if anything it is even becoming resilient. Through an analysis ofoccurrences, lesson can be learnt from them and apply that information in the thwartingimpending crime. Cyber law will also have to be transformed in order to keep in shape with theevolving nature of the criminalsin order to be able to control cybercrime. There should also be a balance in law regardingprotecting citizens from crime and invading on their rights.
Another way in improving the problem of cybercrime is through education. As we have seen the challenges of cybercrime, governments and other concerned agencies should in strategies ways of fighting them through education and not depending on law alone.It has been evident that several organizationsas well as government agencieshave identifiedloopholes with which cyber criminals or even cyber-terrorist could can make use in conducting future crimes.In most cases,organizationsinvolve them as specialistsin helping them to construct solid security for their systems and data. Through learning their techniques and methods, organizations should come up with skills learned from these activities to be able to bar their activities. Furthermore, these entities should invest in providing more skills and knowledge to the technological experts in order to counter methods that are employed by the cyber criminals.
Moreover, it is becoming almostimpracticable to condense cybercrime from the cyber-space. As it is evident from different acts passed, it is proven that no legislation has attained the level of total abolition of cybercrime across the globe.Therefore, the onlypotentialmechanism is through individuals understanding their rights online and coming up with morestringentrules to punish cybercrime perpetrators.
Nonetheless, the corporate world needs to come up withapproaches to ensure that their employees are guided and they follow thesafety conducts to make sure thatuprightness and privacy of stored datais maintained at all times to contest cybercrimes. Safety practices,for instance, staying off work sites during an organization working timesare crucial to reduce the chances of viruses being downloaded to infringe the system and forward chain emails. Others include not leaving an open workstation unattended or security key sharing over implicit mediums. If all these strategies are observed, chances of cyber-criminal work are minimized.
References
Be’ery,Tal. (2012). The South Carolina Data Breach: A Lesson in Deaf and Blind Cybersecurity. Retreived from http://www.securityweek.com/south-carolina-data-breach-lesson-deaf-and-blind-cybersecurity
Broadhurst, R. (2006). Developments in the global law enforcement of cyber-crime. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 29(3), 408-433.
Dalla, E. H., & Geeta, M. S. (2013). Cyber Crime A Threat to Persons, Property, Government and Societies. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 3(5), 997-1002.