Forms of Cybercrime

Some people have a lot of experiences being scammed or hacked online. These actions are called cybercrimes. Cybercrimes are criminal activites using computer or internet as a tool. Many cases are rooted in this action. Here are some forms of cybercrimes.

One of which is identity theft. In identity theft, people that are involved here are hackers and scammers. What they do is that they make fake accounts to use as their medium to trick victims to give up their passwords. Sometimes they use keyloggers (a specialized program) which also let them see the victim’s personal infos. These allows them to have access to victim’s accounts. Another form is the transaction fraud. This type is also called simple financial fraud wherein a scammer may offer an item for sale through an auction site with no aim on delivering it to the customer. And last example of cybercrime in is the form of hacking. The term hacking refers to illegally circumventing security to access someone else’s computer system. Some hackers are hacking out of curiosity and others intention is to enter accoints to steal informations, gain control over systems
for their own purposes, or to just cause as much damage and chaos as possible.

Causes of Cyber Crime

There are still many forms of cybercrimes. There are also many ways to stay safe online. Some of which is you must be mindful of what you share; read the terms and and condition of a certain system; and mind your own privacy which includes not sharing your passwords and keeping your profile private. To avoid being involved in this case, you must be aware always for you safety.

• Easy to access – The problem behind safeguarding a computer system from unauthorized access is that there are many possibilities of breach due to the complex technology. Hackers can steal access codes, retina images, advanced voice recorders etc. that can fool biometric systems easily and bypass firewalls can be utilized to get past many security systems.

• Capacity to store data in comparatively small space – The computer has the unique characteristic of storing data in a very small space. This makes it a lot easier for the people to steal data from any other storage and use it for own profit.
• Complex – The computers run on operating systems and these operating systems are programmed of millions of codes. The human mind is imperfect, so they can do mistakes at any stage. The cybercriminals take advantage of these gaps.
• Negligence – Negligence is one of the characteristics of human conduct. So, there may be a possibility that protecting the computer system we may make any negligence which provides a cyber-criminal the access and control over the computer system.
• Loss of evidence – The data related to the crime can be easily destroyed. So, Loss of evidence has become a very common & obvious problem which paralyzes the system behind the investigation of cyber-crime.

Types of CyberCrimes

There are many types of cyber-crimes and the most common ones are explained below:

• Hacking: It is a simple term that defines sending illegal instruction to any other computer or network. In this case, a person’s computer is hacked so that his personal or sensitive information can be accessed. The criminal uses a variety of software to crack a person’s computer and the person may not be aware that his computer has been accessed from a remote location. Often, government websites are a hot target for hackers because it helps them gain notoriety which is further fuelled by aggressive media coverage. This is different from ethical hacking which is used by many organization to check their Internet security protection.
• Child pornography and Abuse: The internet is being highly used to abuse children sexually worldwide. This is also a type of cyber-crime wherein criminals solicit minors via chat rooms for the purpose of child pornography. The Cybersecurity department of every nation is spending a lot of time monitoring chat rooms frequented by children with the hopes of reducing and preventing child abuse and soliciting.
• Piracy or Theft: This crime occurs when a person violates copyrights and downloads music, movies, games, and software. There are even peer sharing websites which encourage software piracy and many of these websites are now being targeted by the FBI. Today, the judicial system is addressing this cybercrime and there are laws that prevent people from illegal downloading. Film producers and directors often become victims of this crime.
• Cyber Stalking: This is a kind of online harassment wherein the victim is subjected to a barrage of online messages and emails. Typically, these stalkers know their victims and instead of resorting to offline stalking, they use the Internet to stalk. However, if they notice that cyberstalking is not having the desired effect, they begin offline stalking along with cyberstalking to make the victims’ lives more miserable.
• Cyber Terrorism: Cyber terrorism, also known as information wars, can be defined as an act of Internet terrorism which includes deliberate and large-scale attacks and disruptions of computer networks using computer viruses, or physical attacks using malware, to attack individuals, governments and organizations. The goal of terrorism is to create a feeling of terror in the minds of the victims. Keeping this concept in mind, it becomes easier to differentiate cyber-attacks for a financial, or egotistical, gain from acts of cyber terrorism. Cyber terrorists operate with the goal of damage and destruction at the forefront of their activities.
• Identity Theft: This has become a major problem with people using the Internet for cash transactions and banking services. In this cyber-crime, a criminal accesses data about a person’s bank account, credit cards, Social Security, debit card and other sensitive information to siphon money or to buy things online in the victim’s name. It can result in major financial losses for the victim and even spoil the victim’s credit history.
• Computer Vandalism: Computer vandalism is a type of malicious behavior that involves damages computers and data in various ways and potentially disrupting businesses. Typical computer vandalism involves the creation of malicious programs designed to perform harmful tasks such as erasing hard drive data or extracting login credentials. Computer vandalism differs from viruses, which attach themselves to existing programs.
• Malicious Software: These are Internet-based software or programs that are used to disrupt a network. The software is used to gain access to a system to steal sensitive information or data or causing damage to software present in the system.