Cybercrime, cyber terrorism, and cyber espionage are internet-based crimes that pose a serious threat to the national security of the United States of America. Each of them affects the country differently because of the difference in their focus (Hughbank, Niosi, & Dumas, 2011). A section of the society believes that cybercrime poses a more serious national security threat than cyber terrorism and cyber espionage. In order to compare these three forms of internet-based crimes, it is important to look at the definition of each one. King (2012, p. 78) defines cybercrime as “crime conducted via the Internet or some other computer network.” As shown in this definition, cybercrime is a very broad term that may include numerous criminal activities conducted using internet-enabled computers.
Olsson (2014, p.34) defines cyber terrorism as “a politically motivated use of computers and information technology to cause severe disruption or widespread fear in society.” It primarily focuses on causing political instability or major security threat that may jeopardize the country’s sovereignty. Bergen (2016, p. 53) defines cyber espionage as “the use of computer networks to gain illicit access to confidential information, typically that held by a government or other organization.” In most of the cases, the espionage acts are often conducted against one state with the intent of sharing the information with another state. It is a serious threat if such, highly confidential information is shared with a hostile state.
Comparing the three forms of crime, it is clear that each of them affects the country differently and with different magnitudes. Cybercrime often targets individual citizens or specific organizations. In most cases, they end up benefiting the criminal financially or from a social perspective. On the other hand, cyber terrorism and cyber espionage target the state. Although sometimes citizens may be the casualties, these two forms of crime are specifically designed to target the political and social system of the country. The perpetrators of such crimes may or may not benefit from such acts (Gartenstein & Grossman, 2009). For instance, if one is hired by a hostile state to help in the espionage acts, it is possible that such an individual may get financial benefits from the sponsoring state. However, those involved in cyber-terrorism may not have any financial benefits attached to their actions. In order to determine whether cybercrime is a more serious national security threat than cyber terrorism and cyber espionage, it is important to look at the primary goal of these criminal activities and the magnitude of the impact they have on national security.
The researcher strongly believes that cyber terrorism and cyber espionage are more serious national security threats than cybercrime. These two forms of crime specifically target the foundation of the nation, the country’s sovereignty. They make the country vulnerable to an external threat. As stated above, cyber terrorists do not stand to gain from most of their activities. They play zero-sum games, and that makes them very dangerous (Bell, 2009). Their only goal is to ensure that there is instability in the country and suffering among innocent citizens. On the other hand, cyber espionage makes the country very vulnerable to external attacks, especially by hostile states. It provides these enemies wit critical information that puts them ahead of this country in case there is a war.
References
Bell, S. (2009). The martyr’s oath: The apprenticeship of a homegrown terrorist. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Bergen, P. L. (2016). United States of jihad: Investigating America’s homegrown terrorists. New York, NY: Cengage.
Gartenstein, D., & Grossman, L. (2009). Homegrown terrorists in the US and UK: An empirical study of the radicalization process. Washington, DC: FDD Press.
Hughbank, R. J., Niosi, A. F., & Dumas, J. C. (2011). The dynamics of terror: And creation of homegrown terrorists. Hoboken, NJ: Tate Publishers & Enterprises.
King, M. (2012). The radicalization of homegrown terrorists: A social-personality model. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Olsson, P. A. (2014). The making of a homegrown terrorist: Brainwashing rebels in search of a cause. London, UK: McMillan.
At the turn of the 21st century the world saw the explosion of computer technology, and it has taken many people by surprise. The prediction about computer technology doubling in capacity and complexity every six months came true. As a result computer software and computer hardware are more complicated compared to its predecessors in the past. There are many users who are not even aware of the true capability of their laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. At the same time cybercrime was also on the rise. In the first ten years of the New Millennium, billion-dollar companies were forced into bankruptcies because of fraudulent practices. These fraudulent practices were tied closely to computer systems.
Fraudulent accounting records in WorldCom and Enron were brought to the light of day, because of superb detective skills augmented by forensic investigators skilled in retrieving data from computer systems. However, as the success of one crime unit was made known to the public, there were also several cases that are still unsolved, because criminals are becoming more technically proficient in their desire to evade authorities. It is therefore important to update law enforcement’s knowledge regarding Information Technology in order to catch cybercriminals in the act of committing crime. A novice learning the ropes about the cat and mouse game of apprehending criminals may do well by visiting websites that talk about the science of hiding information in computer systems. The website “howstuffworks” carries an article discussing the basics of computer forensics, this is a good example of a website that is useful in explaining or understanding the reality of cybercrime and digital evidence.
The howstuffworks website is a good source of information regarding cybercrime and digital evidence. A closer examination of the said website revealed three major pieces of evidence to prove that the web creator has above-average knowledge regarding cybercrime due to the following evidences: 1) The website provides real-life examples of computer forensics; 2) The website provides an overview of computer forensic investigation techniques; and 3) The website provides examples of anti-forensics.
Website Provides Real-Life Examples of Computer Forensics
Enron used to be a popular company in the United States of America. Investors made money when they invested their hard earned money in this company. It was therefore a major scandal in the financial world when it was discovered that Enron’s corporate leaders were guilty of accounting fraud. According to the author of the article in “howstuffworks”, the United States Congress authorized the investigation of corporate misconduct (Strickland 1).
According to the website, the Federal Government sent a specialized detective force that was given the go signal to investigate Enron using computer forensics. The said specialized detective force was responsible in searching, preserving, and analyzing information that were stored in the computer systems. In this particular case, the data stored in the computer systems had a direct or indirect connection to the crime that was allegedly committed by the corporate leaders and their subordinates.
Website Provides an Overview of Computer Forensics Investigation
Before providing an overview of computer forensics investigation, the creator of the webpage cited the name of Judd Robbins who is a known computer scientists and a leading computer forensics expert. Thus, the reader can conduct a background search on Judd Robbins, to verify the claim that the information provided are accurate and relevant to the topic of discussion.
After naming the resource person, the site proceeded to highlight major steps undertaken by a computer forensics detective in handling a cybercrime case. For example, the first step is to secure the targeted computer system. Detectives must develop a foolproof protocol to prevent any type of unauthorized access to the computer or to its storage device. Finally, the webpage alerted the forensics detective to the importance of severing the connection to the Internet.
The discussion about the inaccessible parts of the computer’s hard drive, and the importance of documentation proves the usefulness of the website when it comes to understanding the nature of computer forensics. It gives the idea that cybercriminals are similar to other unscrupulous individuals who are determined to cover their tracks.
Website Provides Examples of Anti-Forensics
The best proof that the webpage creator had an in-depth understanding of computer forensics can be seen in the discussion on how to defeat the specialized detective force that was sent to detect cybercrime. The website talks about how to conceal data by dividing it into smaller sections. The next step was to conceal the smaller sections at the tail end of other files. According to the website, most data files have an unused portion that are named “slack space” (Strickland 4).
It is an eye-opening revelation for those who are new to the cybercrime game. At the same time, it is a useful piece of information for cybercrime detectives who are trying their best to extract all relevant information within a computer system. Not all the files that are inside a computer system are relevant pieces of evidences needed to build a case. Therefore, it is a challenge for investigators to navigate through a virtual world of computer files. They are reliant on specific computer software to help them understand where files are hidden. However, a skilled cybercriminal knows the weakness of law enforcement tools that were created to track all relevant files needed to convict the guilty party.
The website also pointed out that aside from using the “slack space”, cybercriminals are also prone to hide files inside executable files. In a normal file retrieval process, the software detection program skips over the executable files, because these are files needed to install software. But clever cybercriminals have found a way to hide files into executable files using programs called packers.
Conclusion
The website “howstuffworks” has created an article that is helpful for those who want to learn more about computer forensics. It is an excellent source of information because of three major reasons: 1) The website provides real-life examples of computer forensics; 2) The website provides an overview of computer forensic investigation techniques; and 3) The website provides examples of anti-forensics. The website contains information that is not commonly found in other sites. It provides basic information on what a detective needs to do in order to increase the probability of success when building a case against a cybercriminal. On the other hand, this website is accessible to the public. Therefore, it is not accurate to say that it serves a public service when it comes to defeating cybercrime. In fact, cybercriminals can use the information in the said website to improve their skills when it comes to hiding critical files.
Cybercrime is one of the problems that pose challenge to the world’s ICT systems. In fact, companies recognize the need for effective cyber security systems. Moreover, computer forensic examiners are usually in constant search for digital evidence to establish acts of cybercrime. Interestingly, most cybercrime issues are because of negligence on the part of website owners who provide vital information freely to potential offenders. Types of cyber crime include phishing and hacking, among others. Techniques utilized to control cyber crime include encryption, among others. This paper will explore a potentially dangerous website, which has the capacity to lead teenagers into cybercrimes such as identity theft, and hacking, among others (Nicholson, 2011).
SMARTPLANET: How to steal an Identity in seven easy steps
This article was written by Christie Nicholson, a journalist who produces and hosts podcasts for several renowned science channels such as discovery, Babelgum and Scientific, among others. She has an overwhelming experience in technology and cybercrime based on her background as a journalist and her experience with scientific channels. Moreover, she has interacted severally with the academic and industrial giants in technology and science such as Stanford and MIT, among others (Nicholson, 2011).
Why the website falls in the category
The website, SMARTPLANET, provides information on latest technologies as well as scientific news. However, it should be noted that some of the articles on technology, which the websites provides to its audience, are both destructive as well as constructive depending on the kind of audience. For instance, the article by Christie Nicholson can easily sway teenagers to try identity theft in their quest to become computer wizards.
Firstly, the title of the article in the website is highly elusive. The title talks about how someone can steal identity in seven easy steps. The intuition of such an article to a potential thief is dangerous. When a potential thief sees such a heading, he/she will rejoice because it would make his/her work easier. Additionally, teenagers who yearn to become computer wizards would easily apply the techniques involved to steal from their friends, parents or lecturers, whom they interact with frequently. In essence, the title used for Nicholson’s article in the website is potentially harmful to unprotected viewers. This title puts the website in the category of potentially harmful sites.
Secondly, the content of the article in the website is mainly about identity theft. Identity theft is one of the many types of cybercrimes that can result in hacking and access to the victim’s personal effects such as bank accounts, among others. In fact, the article gives a vivid example of one such occasion in which Herbert Thompson gains access to Kim’s bank account without needing programming skills. In essence, the article makes a thief’s work easier. That is, even armatures can use the tricks to gain access to someone’s bank accounts. The content of the website encourages identity theft, which can in turn result in loss of belongings. Therefore, the website falls in the category of harmful sites.
Thirdly, Thompson lists the most essential elements that can be utilized in identity theft. For instance, he talks of ways of hacking email addresses. Specifically, Thompson teaches the audience on basic hacking mechanisms for emails. Additionally, he teaches the audience that university emails are the most trusted once for hacking since they provide true details of the owner. These intrinsic details provide an avenue for increased theft if a teenager bent on learning and testing hacking techniques accesses the article. In essence, the elements and techniques listed in the article only increase identity theft if viewing is unrestricted. Therefore, the website is a potentially harmful site (Nicholson, 2011).
Analysis
As mentioned above, the article in the website begins by a potentially harmful heading. The heading leads audience to ways of stealing identity of others. This is harmful to the security of online identity. Instead, the website should have edited its heading to teach audience on ways of making it difficult for hackers to steal their identities. A possible heading would be “how to make your identity impossible to hack in seven easy steps”. Additionally, the heading is followed by a potentially destructing sub heading which states that stealing identity does not require experience in professional hacking. This makes it even easier for audience with no interest in hacking to poke and see how simple it is to steal people’s identity. Subsequently, the article acts as a double-edged sword, but this depends on the audience. Nonetheless, the headings are more destructive than constructive based on their method of articulation.
The portrait in the website like the picture of a wolf in a sheep’s clothing is quite interesting. The portrait epitomizes a hideous character or a sly character. These elements have the propensity to persuade wily characters to follow the steps outlined in the article to steal people’s identities. Thompson was doing an experiment on identity theft, which was successful. However, this information should have been provided to the public after editing it to extract parts that would encourage theft. In Thompson’s seven steps, he begins with Google search that provides information on Kim. Thompson therefore identifies Google as a tool for identity theft. Nonetheless, it should be noted that Google tries to hide personal information in the best possible way they can. However, a clever thief would utilize other search engines too, which would innately provide detailed personal information.
Concisely, the website talks about simple ways of cybercrime through identity theft. To achieve this Thompson teaches people how to hack emails and other online accounts such as bank and university accounts. Thompson also talks of password recovery feature, which is dominant in his technique of stealing identities. This feature is dependent on software engineering as prescribed by the companies, which offer such services like Yahoo, Gmail and email providers. He makes it so simple that even uninterested audience is tempted to try. In a world where cybercrime is increasingly challenging, such an article should be edited before it is posted for everyone to view. Otherwise, the article should be restricted to authorized personnel only.
Conclusion
Cybercrime is increasing at an alarming rate. Currently, the number of hackers in society is troubling even government agencies. The rise in crime is tantalizing. In this regard, news channels and website should take the responsibility of filtering what they post to minimize cybercrime. In fact, website owners should be forefront in tackling cybercrime since they are the first victims of such crimes. This website provides armatures with the technical knowhow of successfully committing identity theft. This is done in the precept of enlightening possible victims although the heading and other elements contained only fuels cybercrime. Therefore, the website is potentially harmful to the audience.
Although the virtual environment of the global network is a comparatively new concept, it has already been inundated with cybercriminals (Yar, 2013). The phenomenon of a cybercrime dates back to 1971, when the web was first invaded by the virus notoriously known as Creeper (The evolution of the computer virus, n. d.); it was very simple by the present-day standards, yet it managed to cause havoc across the Internet (Ruiz & Winter, 2015).
Unfortunately, viruses and other tools used by cybercriminals are only getting smarter and becoming increasingly more sophisticated, causing a global concern regarding people’s personal information and companies’ business data. A similar situation can be observed in the UAE (Enzer, 2011). Although the recent introduction of updates to the cybercrime law impose a set of rather severe penalties on the offenders, including a life sentence, the specified regulation is not going to have a tangible effect on cybercriminals as it does not allow for a willing acceptance of proper behavioral patterns and the recognition of cybercrime as an intrinsically negative phenomenon. Therefore, the development of programs aimed at changing the target audience’s concept of cybercrime is crucial.
The fact that the current legislation reinforces the significance of the letter of the law, however, should be viewed as positive. For instance, on the city scale, the regulation regarding cybercrimes has affected Dubai to a considerable extent as the police persuades people to report about the cybercrimes that they have witnessed or fallen victims to: “Dubai Police have urged victims of online social networking sites to approach authorities because their hesitation encourages suspects to target more victims” (Najami, 2010, par. 1).
Nevertheless, the lack of information regarding the concept of cybercrime, the ways of inhibiting it, the tools that every single member of the UAE society can use to prevent cybercrimes, etc., is obvious seeing that the number of problems created by hackers and crimes committed online is getting increasingly larger in the UAE, in general, and Dubai, in particular (See Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Cyber Crimes in Dubai (2011–2013) (Hasbini, 2014).
According to the chart provided above, the introduction of the new legislation has contributed to a minor drop in cybercrimes. However, the specified measure is also likely to spur the further identification of new ways to evade justice as it does not allow for a conscious change of the target audience’s behavioral patterns (Najami, 2010). Therefore, it would be adequate to suggest that the focus should be shifted from providing penalties to reinforcing knowledge promotion among the target denizens of the population. In addition, it can be suggested that programs should be created to educate people on the issue of cybercrimes. Thus, significant progress can be expected.
A few decades ago, identity theft was a little known and rarely used terminology in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, today, things have changed. Identity theft is a largely recognized terminology that has attracted the attention of members of the public, the media, and the government. It has also raised concerns among professionals in the field of accounting. In this paper, various issues related to this form of crime are discussed. The paper will mainly focus on this form of crime in the UAE and other countries.
The crime is made possible by the established nature of contemporary electronic payment systems. In the modern global economy, vendors of commodities and services are willing to offer their products and services on account of a promise of payment. The delivery is made so long as the promise is anchored on data that link the purchaser to a credit history and a specific account.
Cybercriminals can only succeed if they have access to the personal data of their target. Consequently, reducing the opportunities that help the criminal elements to access the data is the first step in the management of identity theft. Individuals, organizations, and governments have a role to play in the protection of data.
Introduction
Identity theft and cybercrime are fairly recent phenomena in the contemporary society. The security breach has attracted the attention of analysts and other stakeholders involved in the accounting and data sector. Identity theft is viewed as a form of white collar crime with serious social and economic ramifications (Ajayi, 2016). The crime is devastating and traumatizing. Its effects on the individual, the government, and the economy are long lasting. The effects can extend to businesses, the government, and the larger society (Ajayi, 2016).
Identity theft may be a relatively new form of crime in the field of accounting, especially in the UAE. However, it has attracted a lot of attention and concerns from the authorities and the society in the recent past. The concerns have prompted the government to introduce new laws in an attempt to provide enhanced protection of data. The undertakings are informed by warnings made by the media and government agencies, which are directed to members of the public. The warnings inform people that identity card numbers, as well as other forms of personal information, are some of the instruments used by unscrupulous third parties to access individuals’ identity. Once the identity of the individual is obtained, the cybercriminals can use the information to perpetrate their criminal activities.
In this paper, cybercrime and its impacts in the contemporary society, such as UAE, will be discussed. To this end, the paper will analyze the types of cybercrimes and identity thefts, the reasons behind this crime, and the techniques used by cybercriminals to carry out their activities. In addition, the paper will highlight some of the factors indicating that one may be a victim of identity theft, as well as a recent case of this crime in the UAE. Legal responses to this crime, especially in the UAE, will be highlighted. Finally, the consequences of identity theft and steps that can be taken to safeguard against cybercrime will be discussed. The discussions will be made from the perspective of the accounting field.
Types of Cybercrimes
According to police records, cybercrime is one of the fastest growing types of criminal activity in the modern society. The prevalence of this crime surpasses those involving credit card and check fraud (Ajayi, 2016). It is also higher than motor vehicle theft. According to security analysts and experts in the UAE, the identification and arrest of cybercriminals is extremely difficult (Neyadi et al., 2015).
Cybercrimes are illegal activities committed through the internet (Tropina, 2012). They also involve those crimes facilitated by the internet. To this end, cybercrime can be described as any criminal activity that involves networks and computers. There are different types of these crimes. They include sending unsolicited mail, cyber attacks against governments and other entities, and phishing of organizational secrets through hacking of the security systems (Nemati, 2012). Another form of this crime is identity theft.
Types of Identity Theft
According to Andress and Winterfeld (2013), this crime can be conceptualized as the use of the identification information that is unique to an individual without the permission of the owner. The identification information includes the individual’s identity card number and financial accounts. The financial accounts may entail those involved in investment, depository, and loans. It also involves unauthorized access to one’s online payment accounts and credit cards.
The different types of identity theft include:
Theft of Social Security Number (SSN).
Theft of Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).
Financial Identity Theft (FIT), including that of credit card and bank accounts.
Criminal identity theft.
Medical identity theft.
Insurance identity theft.
Child identity theft.
The various identity thefts take place with the express reason to commit financial crimes through impersonation, fraud, and direct of the victim’s identity to obtain some financial gains such as withdrawal of the individuals funds, obtaining loans and mortgages as well as goods (Andress & Winterfeld, 2013).
The current laws in the UAE view identity theft as knowingly transferring, possessing, or using any form of identification held or related to another individual without their permission (Norton, 2016). The theft is said to have taken place if the person accessing the information intends to use it to commit or abet a criminal activity (Chawki, Darwish, Khan, & Tyagi, 2015). Such an activity must be in violation of the law. The law views this crime as the form of fraud that is committed through the use of the identification information of another individual. For a crime to occur, the use of the information must be without the consent of the owner (Anderson et al., 2008). Violation of visa policies and gathering of information from customers through false pretense are also classified as forms of identity theft (Anderson et al., 2008).
Identifying information that is stolen includes any number or name that can be used to specifically identify an individual (Prosch, 2009). The number or name can be used on its own or in combination with other elements. When this definition is used, specific types of identity theft are made clear. They include unauthorized access to and use of names, dates of births, and employers’ numbers. Criminal use of biometric data is also considered to be another form of identity theft (Prosch, 2009). Another form of identity theft entails access to one’s electronic information, codes, and address without their permission. Such access is especially significant to professionals in the accounting sector.
Reasons for Identity Theft in the United Arab Emirates
Identity theft is committed for various reasons. Stickley (2008) notes the fact that financial gain is the major motivating factor behind the crime. In most instances, the criminals will engage in identity theft either to exploit the information for their personal use or to sell it to third parties at a profit.
Political and Economic Factors behind Identity Theft
According to Hedayati (2012), economic and political instabilities in the UAE and the developing countries have led to an increase in instances of identity theft. The most significant motivating factor for identify theft is financial gains irrespective of whether the thief withdraws cash, commits fraud, or uses a passport to secure employment. It is noted that each year, millions of immigrants from developing countries flee into the developed nations. For instance, many people are moving from African countries to the UAE. The immigrants are running away from political strife and poverty.
They are coming to the UAE to look for employment. According to Hedayati (2012), the UAE is one of the countries in the world with a huge number of immigrants. As of 2013, the number of foreigners in the country stood at 7.8 million. The figure is high considering that the total population in UAE stands at 9.2 million (Leon, 2017). The major reason for immigrants to engage in identity theft, including passports and driving license numbers, is to get jobs (Prosch, 2009). As such, the political and economic phenomena in developing countries encourage individuals to participate in illegal immigration. On its part, illegal immigration fosters instances of identity theft.
Social Factors and Identity Theft
Social environments, especially the habit of communicating through social media, are some of the factors that may lead to identity theft. For instance, as of mid-2016, there were more than 8.5 million internet users in the UAE (Leon, 2017). The figure represents 91.9% of the total population. Knowledge on social media and networks and the role they play in protecting privacy is important in today’s UAE society, which is characterized by computer-savvy young people. Individuals and organizations protect their confidential data through the application of various security mechanisms.
However, social engineering is an active element and remains one of the effective hacking methods used to obtain personal information (Karake-Shalhoub, 2008). Hedayati (2012) observes that this form of engineering is a technique that allows a hacker to bypass various technical security measures. They achieve this by attacking what is described as the human element in an enterprise.
Individuals and organizations in the UAE are increasingly turning to social networks and sites to keep in touch with one another. The sites include Twitter, Facebook, and Skype. In light of this, social engineers are viewed as a potential threat to the safety of the individuals. There is also the case of cultural attitudes in the realm of social networking. The high number of this crime in the UAE and other developed countries may be attributed to the habit of using family names, nicknames, important dates, or pet’s names as passwords for online accounts. Hedayati (2012) observes that 40% of social network users in the developed nations give their personal information via the internet.
The same information is used as the password. The habit increases the chances of identity theft. Given such social behaviors, the identity thieves can freely access the information that is already available to obtain further complementary data without arousing any suspicions.
Analyzing Major Motivating Factors behind Identity Theft
The major motivating factors with regards to identity theft is the desire to commit further crimes, sell the information to third party criminals, or the desire to hide the criminal’s identity. Most of the crimes that lead to identity theft are financial fraud, medical fraud, tax fraud, mortgage fraud, money laundering, and illegal immigration (Anderson et al., 2008). However, all these different types of crimes and frauds are committed by criminals who have the basic desire for financial benefits at the expense of the victim. For instance, the personal identification information can be used to create new credit cards to commit a financial fraud, obtain driver’s license, or even a motor vehicle registration certificate (Prosch, 2009). Other financial frauds may include online shopping, mortgage fraud, opening of new bank accounts, and tax fraud.
Identity theft may also be motivated by the need to obtain passports for illegal immigration. Resume frauds are motivated by the need to get employment for individuals with criminal records and immigrants who have no legal authority to be in the country (Prosch, 2009). Medical fraud is motivated by the criminal desire to obtain medical services under the victim’s identity. Tax fraud is motivated by the desire to receive tax refunds that the victim would have benefited from (Prosch, 2009). It can be observed that by and large, the overriding reason that drives and motivates identity theft of whatever form, is financial benefits to the thief.
Identity theft is facilitated by the established nature of the contemporary electronic payment system. There are various reasons why individuals engage in such crimes (Archer, Sproule, Yuan, Guo & Xiang, 2012). Identity theft can be carried out to access enough data regarding another individual. The data so acquired is used to counterfeit the established electronic link. The counterfeiting would enable the identity thief to acquire goods, services, and money at the expense of the victim’s account. It is noted that for many years, anonymous data-based transaction has characterized the credit card payment methods.
However, recently, the retail trade has become increasingly anonymous and dependent on individuals’ data. According to Archer et al. (2012), e-commerce has grown significantly. More vendors are offering credit on the strength of the report provided by the buyer. The changes may have reduced the transaction costs incurred by the vendors and the consumers. However, the reliance on electronic data has provided cyber fraudsters with new opportunities to perpetrate their criminal activities (Anderson et al., 2008). They use the data to benefit at the expense of the account holder.
To understand the reasons why identity thieves engage in this form of crime, it is important to acknowledge the fact that identity fraud and identity theft are often used interchangeably (CIPPIC, 2007). However, identity fraud is viewed as an “all-encompassing” term (CIPPIC, 2007). The criminals engage in this form of activity to help them use false identification for their personal benefits. On its part, identity theft is a form of identity fraud that is specifically associated with the use of another individual’s personal identification information (Anderson et al., 2008).
Another way through which the motivation behind identity theft can be understood involves highlighting the stages involved in the fraud. There are various reasons behind each of the stages. The first phase is the fraudulent and unauthorized gathering of personal information. The reason behind this undertaking is to support the second stage of the theft (Dean, Buck, & Dean, 2008). Here, the criminal uses the information so gathered to gain advantage over its owner. It can also be used to harm the holder of that information. As such, the reason for identity theft can be explained by the desire to misappropriate the information belonging to another person (Dean et al., 2008).
The data gathered can be utilized immediately. In some cases, the information can be archived for use at a later date. It can also be transferred to a third party for a fee. The understanding of identity theft continues with the actual utilization of the personal information mostly for economic benefits. The criminal impersonates the victim to access credit, goods, or services in the name of the victim. A significant hallmark of the malpractice is the repeated victimization through a series of fraudulent usage of the stolen personal information (Dean et al., 2008).
Other Uses of Identity Theft
Most crimes have negative consequences on the victims. However, according to Luppicini and Adell (2008), in most cases, the effects of identity theft are more devastating compared to those associated with other forms of crime. As such, the criminal can use this crime to harm their victim. In addition, the information so gathered can be used to support acts of terrorism. A case in point is when the cybercriminal accesses confidential information about a company and passes the same to the public or to the competitor. The company is likely to suffer economic losses.
When the identity of an individual is misappropriated, their privacy is violated. The criminal can perpetrate this form of crime to specifically violate the privacy of the victim (Hoffman & Ginley, 2009). The cybercriminal may also be intending to harm the victim financially. A case in point is when the thief makes financial transactions using the stolen information. They may also incur debts and link them to the account of the victim.
Such an undertaking may be conceptualized as economic terrorism (Fordham, 2008). The impacts of identity theft go beyond the financial loss. The victim of a conventional theft may be able to replace the stolen items. However, the victims of identity theft may lose their reputation, credit rating, and their standing in the community (Andress & Winterfeld, 2013). The criminal is aware of these impacts and may intentionally carry out the theft to achieve these objectives.
Cybercriminals may also be interested in destabilizing the national security of a given country (Hedayati, 2012). A case in point is when terrorists hack government servers to access information related to national security. They may use this information to blackmail the government. They may also use the data to identify the weaknesses of the security organs. The weaknesses are then exploited to carry out attacks against the government and the citizens.
Identity theft is used by terrorists to enable them to secure cover employment as well as accessing secure locations. Additionally, like the regular identity thieves, the terrorists often use identity theft to secure driving licenses and open bank accounts as well as credit cards account. These accounts are used to facilitate the transfer of funds to finance their criminal activities. Both the terrorists as well as the terrorist groups need money to fund to promote and perpetrate their agenda. In addition to the financial aspect of terrorism, identity theft is used to facilitate the creation of legal travel documents such as passports and driving licenses. These documents are then used to establish a false identity which further facilitates various terrorists’ crimes such as money laundering. The criminal can establish various bank accounts under various fictitious identities
Techniques used in Identity Theft
There are many techniques used in identity theft in the UAE and other parts of the world. They include the exploitation of technology. Such crime involves credit card fraud, which is a good example of how identity theft can be used to target a particular type of technology. The technology used in some of the credit cards is dependent on the magnetic strip or the holograms (Norton, 2016). The criminal may use various ways and techniques to alter and tamper with credit cards.
The cards are stolen or counterfeited to carry the identity information of the victim. For example, in December 2015, an Indian national working in Dubai lost his personal documents while in a public service vehicle. The criminals used the personal information in his wallet to access telephone services on his name. The victim received a bill of approximately Dh27500 from a telecommunication company (Leon, 2017).
The complicated nature of identity theft may have notable practical implications. Most crime reporting processes used by the police encounter difficulties in recording identity theft. Majority of the standard reporting forms do not have such a category. In addition, they lack criteria that can be used to help in the classification of particular incidences as identity theft (Norton, 2016). Furthermore, where other crimes, such as burglary, are concerned, the law enforcement agencies may lack an established procedure to capture information on whether or not theft of a victim’s personal data took place.
A victim of a burglary crime may not even think of finding out if such information was stolen. On the contrary, they will focus on other items, such as jewelry and electronic products (Nemati, 2012). It is what may have happened to the Indian national who lost his wallet in the example given above. Such glaring inefficiencies in the existing apparatus can help one to identify various techniques that may be used to perpetrate identity theft.
The individuals carrying out identity theft obtain the personal information through the use of various strategies. A simple way of obtaining this information may involve what is mainly referred to as low technology theft. It includes the theft of purses, wallets, and other containers that may be used to carry documents with the victim’s personal information (Norton, 2016). A case in point is dumpster diving. Here, the criminal gathers personal information by sifting through the garbage thrown out by an individual. Such garbage may contain shreds of the victim’s personal information. High technology techniques, on the other hand, require some level of skills and experience. It includes the use of the internet in what is termed as pretext calling and skimming.
Skimming is carried out by using computers to decipher and store the information embedded in credit or ATM cards (Fordham, 2008). The information can later be en-coded and transferred to another card that has a magnetic strip. The new card becomes a machine-readable credit card. The counterfeit is similar to the card that contained the stolen information. For example, in September 2015, fraudsters used the identity of a Filipino working in the UAE to create credit cards in her name. They used the cards to access a loan of Dh10130 from a bank (Leon, 2017). Pretext calling, on the other hand, is a situation where the fraudster makes contact with the target victim (Fordham, 2008). The contact is established through false pretense. The purpose is to obtain the victim’s personal information.
The thief may also call an unsuspecting customer purporting to be an employee of the credit card-issuing company seeking to confirm some unusual activity on their account. The purported employee would then ask for the security code and other data. By giving out the code, the victim provides the criminal with their personal information (Tropina, 2012).
Another example of technology-based identity theft technique is the access to databases that hold customers’ financial and personal data. Such information is used by the criminals to gain access to bank accounts. When access is granted, the criminal may then transfer funds, obtain credit cards, or open a utility account (Norton, 2016). Such frauds convert the stolen identity information into cash. It is important to note that the exploitation of individual identities derived from the databases can only be anecdotal.
However, there is little research information on the extent to which such information has been used to abuse the individuals’ identities. Most of the reported cases are extortionist in nature. To this end, the criminal extorts money from the organizations that own the information. Essentially, such cases may not amount into identity theft in the strict definition of the term (Andress & Winterfeld, 2013).
Another technique used in identity theft entails phishers scam (Norton, 2016). In this case, the identity thieves create or purchase a domain name that resembles the one used by an existing financial institution. The identity thief then proceeds to send bulk emails requesting the customers served by the institution to verify their accounts by sending their personal details. Such details include, among others, social security numbers (Norton, 2016).
Spoofing is another strategy used by cybercriminals to steal identity. The strategy entails the creation of a fraudulent website that is identical to a real site used by a financial institution (Prosch, 2009). The clients served by the organization are then directed to the fraudulent sites. They are subsequently lured into disclosing their personal and confidential information. The criminal then uses this information to carry out a fraud. The fraud is disguised as legitimate financial transactions.
Financial scams are associated with the exploitation of information systems and specific technologies. In most cases, such scams take place in telemarketing frauds. For instance, the fraudster may request for personal information while pretending that they are carrying out a security check. The scammers may also place fake storefronts on the Internet. The fronts look like the known websites of the retailers (Tropina, 2012). They may also send pop-up solicitations. The solicitations require the recipient to provide personal and financial information. The criminals pretend to be working for a government agency or a known business organization. The success of the scams depends on the ability to dupe the victim through the use of scam tricks tailor-made to suit a new technology.
Identity theft in many financial institutions, such as banks, is as a result of careless handling of confidential information belonging to the customers. In some cases, the theft may take place through cases of deliberate misconduct (Fordham, 2008). In other instances, employees of a financial institution can use their privileged access to customers’ personal information to carry out identity theft. They may also help other criminals to carry out the crime. In an effort to combat the menace, regulatory agencies review cases of reported suspicious activities on a regular basis.
As a result of the increased awareness regarding the monetary value associated with the acquisition of individuals’ personal information, offenders may commit what may be referred to as traditional theft with the aim of obtaining the personal data of their victims (Tropina, 2012). As such, robbery, burglary, muggings, pick-pocketing, and theft from cars are techniques that can be used in identity theft. Bribery may also be used as a strategy to access the databases of business and government agencies. In these cases, the fraudsters bribe an employee and convince them to avail the required passwords. In some instances, the employees are compromised to leave both virtual and physical doors unlocked.
Document theft is a common form of identity related criminal activity. It is regularly used to facilitate the commission of other crimes. For instance, a personal identity thief may obtain some important pieces of a victim’s identity, such as their date of birth. The scattered information is then used to breed additional data (Prosch, 2009). The fraudster carefully uses the little information at their disposal to extract more data.
They do this either through the internet or via the phone. The gathered information is then used to counterfeit and forge new credit cards with the necessary identification. It is what could have happened to the Filipino expatriate highlighted earlier in this paper. The criminals may also open bank accounts and obtain new credit cards (Dean et al., 2008). It is observed that an entirely new way of conducting further transactions, which are intended to facilitate different crimes, may be accomplished through identity theft.
Indicators that One may be a Victim of Identity Theft
There are several factors that can be used to identity victims of identity theft. The first sign involves unauthorized charges made to a bank account or a credit card. For instance, in September 2015, identity criminals used the details of a salesperson in Nepal to incur a debt of Dh28800. The criminals used the card to withdraw money from an ATM in Sharjah (Leon, 2017). In addition, a collection agency may come after an individual demanding that they pay for things that the holder of the card did not purchase. According to Nemati (2012), another indicator of a victim of identity theft involves denial of credit, job, or mortgage due to negative credit rating.
Such rating means that the individual’s financial history may have been compromised. When extra bills turn up in the mail, the individual should look out for identity theft (Nemati, 2012). The irregularity is discernible since most of the bills may be coming from vendors who are unknown to the individual. A case in point is an Indian national living in the UAE. His lost Emirates ID was used by criminals to subscribe to six postpaid mobile numbers. The telecommunication company sent the victim a bill of Dh14000 (Leon, 2017).
A Recent Case of Identity Theft in the United Arab Emirates
In 2016, a Filipino warned the public against handing over documents with personal information within the banking premises. People were warned against passing such information before making checks on their identity (Norton, 2016). The victim was shocked after learning that she was supposed to have an active credit card with the First Gulf Bank. The account had an outstanding loan balance of Dh10130 (Leon, 2017). She traced the fraud to a failed credit card application some months before. The victim had given her personal documents to a bank agent outside the premises. She had to suffer emotional, time, and money losses as she tried to sort out the issue (Norton, 2016).
Legal Responses to Identity Theft in Different Countries
According to Tropina (2012), an incident of pirated software led to significant losses to software companies across the globe. As a result, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) directed the member states to create a treaty regarding cybercrimes within the Gulf region. The individual states were required to enact the requisite legislations on the issues of cyber and identity theft crimes.
Legal Responses in the United Arab Emirates
In response to the GCC recommendations, the UAE enacted the first comprehensive cyber law within the Gulf region. The legislation was passed through the Cybercrimes Act No. 2 of 2006 (Nemati, 2012). The act contains 29 articles. The articles legislate against credit card fraud, hacking, and human trafficking (Nemati, 2012). The legislation prescribes hefty penalties for individuals who commit cybercrimes. It targets individuals who violate the privacy of other people using information technology. The legislation was later amended to include the crimes of fraudsters, identity thieves, and hackers (Nemati, 2012).
The law also deals with individuals who may impersonate others. It covers phishing and other identity theft methodologies. Such individuals risk a jail term of three years if found guilty. The legislation was updated to the UAE Cybercrime Law of 2012. In this law, a number of cybercrimes are defined. They include breach of privacy, defamation, and publication of illegal content on the Internet. More importantly, money laundering, credit card fraud, and identity theft are covered under the UAE Cybercrime Law of 2012 (Chawki et al., 2015).
Legal Responses in Saudi Arabia
In 2006, Saudi Arabia responded to the GCC’s demands for the Gulf countries to enact cybercrime legislations. The Shoura Council enacted the Kingdom’s first law to address the rising cases of cyber crime. The law was used to address the issue of inter alia and illegal interference and access to data (Nemati, 2012). The enactment identified such crimes as hacking, terrorism, and defamation (Neyadi et al., 2015). The laws are aimed at protecting people, organizations, and the government from harm through the internet.
Consequences of Identity Theft
When personal data is compromised, the individual is exposed to a significant threat of identity theft and related crimes. It also damages the reputation of the organization that was the target of the security breach (Hoffman & Ginley, 2009). The security breach may also lead to significant financial losses to all parties involved. It is not possible to have absolute security. However, many organizations and individuals in the UAE fail to take basic measures required to protect their identities. Most of these measures are readily available and inexpensive. The theft of personal information as a result of these security breaches has a number of consequences to the UAE residents.
Emotional Toll
Identity theft is largely viewed as an invisible form of crime. It involves a scenario where the criminal quietly acquires the victim’s identity information and uses it for financial gain. The activities of the criminal have significant impacts on the emotional welfare of the victim. Many victims are likely to lose money and time. However, the emotional toll is a significant problem that may not be easily quantified. In 2015, for instance, the Dubai Police dealt with more than 1500 cases of cybercrime in the country (Chawki et al., 2015). Most of these victims suffered financial stress. Some of them may experience emotional effects that are similar to those associated with physical violence. The effects range from anxiety to emotional instability.
It is observed that similar to the financial impacts of identity theft, the emotional toll can also be long-lasting. The victim will struggle to come to terms with their financial loss and the difficulties associated with regaining their identities. Victims of identity theft display emotions that are similar to those presented by individuals who have undergone trauma, assault, and home invasion (Norton, 2016).
The victims exhibit signs of grief and heightened sense of anxiety and depression. Other signs include loss of confidence, sleeplessness, lack of appetite, and emotional volatility. Other emotional impacts of identity theft include loss of motivation and self-medication with food and alcohol. Since identity theft comes as a shock, the effects can alter the life of the victim. It may affect their health, emotional well-being, and relationship with others.
Self Blame
Some victims of identity theft may feel that the crime occurred due to their carelessness or a mistake on their part. For instance, the Indian man who lost his wallet in Dubai and later became a victim of identity theft may blame himself for the crime. They may rationalize that their carelessness is what led to the loss of their wallet and, consequently, the identity theft that followed. As such, they may be embarrassed and, ultimately, blame themselves for the crime. Some victims are unable or hesitant to ask for help. The reason is that they may be convinced their inactions or actions are to blame for the crime (CIPPIC, 2007).
For instance, they may blame themselves for failing to secure the password and not destroying or shredding personal documents. It is important to take responsibility for the security of personal identity. However, the victim’s self-blame can be emotionally damaging.
Family Strife
According to CIPPIC (2007), identity theft may be committed by family members and friends. Such individuals target a relative or a friend and steal their identity for financial gains (CIPPIC, 2007). The feeling of betrayal on the part of the victim can be devastating. However, many victims may fail to report the crime to the law enforcement agencies in order to protect the family member or friend. With regards to identity theft within a family setting, there is the likelihood of strained relationships between the members (Tropina, 2012). Such pressures would leave the victim suffering alone as they seek ways to recover.
How to Protect against Identity Theft
How Individuals can protect themselves Against Identity Theft
One way of protecting oneself against theft of personal information is to shred financial documents that may contain personal information before they are discarded. In addition, one should protect their identity card by not carrying the document in the wallet or writing it down on a check (Fordham, 2008). Individuals should avoid giving their personal identification information on phone, over the internet, or on mail.
Such information should only be provided when the individual is sure of the person who they are dealing with. Another way to protect the personal information is to avoid clicking on web links sent through unsolicited mail. Instead, individuals should always use web addresses that they know (Fordham, 2008). It is also essential to use anti-virus, firewalls, or anti-spyware to protect one’s computer. When an individual is using peer-to-peer file sharing, they should check the security settings of the system to ensure that the sharing does not involve sensitive personal data (Fordham, 2008).
Individuals should also avoid using obvious passwords. Such obvious choices include their date of birth and other identifiers that are well known to families and friends. In addition, the individual should be alert to events that may require immediate response and attention. Such events include unexpected account or credit card statements, denial of credit facilities without a reason, calls regarding purchases that were never made, and unfamiliar charges on the financial statement (Fordham, 2008).
An important way through which an individual can prevent identity theft is by paying attention to their billing cycles, as well as reviewing and analyzing their monthly statements for inaccurate entries. Immediate follow-up with creditors is important when bills do not arrive on time (CIPPIC, 2007). A missing bill is an indicator that the account has been taken over by an identity thief and changed the billing address. A dispute should also be filed should an individual notice transactions that they had not authorized.
Personal information should always be kept in a secure place, especially at home. The security of personal information should be guarded, especially where people share rooms, engage outside help, or have occasional service work at home (Fordham, 2008).
It is advisable to keep the PIN away from ATM cards, debit cards, and credit cards. An individual can also avoid identity theft by guarding their mail by promptly removing incoming packages from the box. They should also deposit outgoing mail only at the post office. In addition, if the individual is likely to be away from home for some time, they should request the post office to make a vocational hold on incoming mail (Dean et al., 2008).
Ultimately, the best protection against identity theft is to avoid carrying one’s social security card. People should also avoid leaving insurance policies in the car and keeping their wallets where pick-pocketers can access them. In addition, they should hold their purse tightly against the body. Additionally, it is essential to burglar-proof one’s home with additional security appliances. Financial records and other important documents should be kept in a home safe or in a lockable cabinet (CIPPIC, 2007). Identity thieves can only carry out their business if they have access to individuals’ personal data. Consequently, reducing the opportunities through which the criminals can have access to the data is the first step in the prevention and reduction of identity theft (CIPPIC, 2007).
How Organizations in the United Arab Emirates can protect themselves Against Identity Theft
There are several steps that organizations in the UAE can take to ensure that they do not fall victim to cases of identity theft. One of them entails installing and updating security software in all the computers used by the organization, especially those that are connected to the internet (Karake-Shalhoub, 2008). Such security measures include the use of anti-virus, anti-phishing, and anti-spyware software. The aim is to keep out malicious third parties from accessing the company’s systems. To this end, all the computers used by accountants should have security software.
Organizations should also educate their employees on the need for taking precautions when dealing with sensitive information (Neyadi et al., 2015). The employees should be trained on cyber security to equip them with the skills required to safeguard the organization from cybercrime. In addition, the employees should avoid clicking on suspicious links or attachments. Clicking on these links may open up the firm to cybercriminals.
It is also important for the firm to secure the physical rooms where materials pertaining to the operations of the organization are kept (Leon, 2017). To this end, the management should consider investing in a safe and vetting all the employees accessing sensitive data. In addition, all documents pertaining to the firm’s accounts should be secured. The organization also needs a contingency plan to deal with cases of identity theft (Leon, 2017). Such plans include establishing hotlines to contact the UAE authorities to report any cases of suspected and actual theft of identity. Furthermore, the employees should have information on how to react when they encounter cases of identity theft.
Identity Theft: Questions and Answers
In the questionnaire, the respondents drawn from organizations in the UAE were asked about what they need to know regarding the issue of identity theft. Some reported that people need to constantly improve their skills regarding the use of online services. Other respondents observed that cybercrime has become more prevalent because of advancements in information technology. In addition, most people are unable to identify where such crimes are likely to take place. Identity thieves are everywhere and they can easily track the activities and movements made by an individual on the Internet.
Most of the respondents reported that the people who do their business online are more likely to be targeted by identity thieves. Other possible targets include the wealthy people in the society. A significant number of the respondents reported that individuals who use social media a lot are more likely to suffer from identity theft. In addition, others responded that individuals who lack skills in information technology were likely to be victims of identity theft (Luppicini & Adell, 2008).
On the issue of “insider access” and why it is the most dangerous identity theft technique, some respondents said it entailed a person who knows their victim well. Others believed that it involves individuals who are criminals and could track down someone and access their personal details. In addition, inside access could mean someone who can hurt without knowing. It appears that the question was not well understood. However, the second group observed that inside access has to do with people working within an organization (Fordham, 2008). They added that these people are a real danger to consumers and organizations.
With regards to what can be done to prevent identity theft, most respondents reported that personal details have to be kept secret. Others observed that raising awareness was a sure way of preventing identity theft. With regards to the motives behind identity theft, most respondents identified personal and financial problems. However, some subjects reported that identity theft is carried out for fun (Fordham, 2008).
Conclusion
Identity theft in the UAE is mostly associated with the emergence of information technology in the accounting sector. It may involve the theft of personal data pertaining to the individual’s financial accounts. Some of the motives behind this form of crime involve financial benefits at the expense of the victim. Identity theft remains a major concern in the UAE. Individuals, organizations, and governments should continuously improve the security of confidential data by regularly reviewing safety measures that are in place already.
Many victims of identity theft are embarrassed because of the crime committed against them. The embarrassment is brought about by the fact that most of them may be unable to prove or explain the problem to the authorities and to other people. Analysts also observe that most identity thieves are people known to the victim. They include, among others, family members, employees, and former employees. In most cases, identity theft is appealing to criminals because of the details related to credit cards and bank accounts.
The information can be used for monetary gains. The government has taken several measures to prevent identity theft. The measures include legislations, such as the UAE Cybercrime Law of 2012, which clearly define the penalties for such a crime.
A number of measures can be taken by individuals and organizations in the UAE to minimize the risks of identity theft. For instance, individuals should always use trusted websites to conduct businesses on the Internet. In addition, people should avoid giving out their personal details to other individuals. Such personal details include ID card and passport numbers. The information can be used by the criminals to harm the owner of the details. The use of unique and strong passwords is another strategy that can be used to avert identity theft in the UAE.
References
Ajayi, E. (2016). Review: Challenges to enforcement of cyber-crimes laws and policy. Journal of Internet and Information Systems, 6(1), 1-12.
Anderson, K., Durbin, E., & Salinger, M. (2008). Identity theft. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(2), 171-192.
Andress, J., & Winterfeld, S. (2013). Cyber warfare: Techniques, tactics, and tools for security practitioners (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Syngress.
Archer, N., Sproule, S., Yuan, Y., Guo, K., & Xiang, J. (2012). Identity theft and fraud: Evaluating and managing risk. Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa Press.
Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. (2007). Identity theft: Introduction and background. Web.
Chawki, M., Darwish, A., Khan, M., & Tyagi, S. (2015). Cybercrime, digital forensics, and jurisdiction. New York, NY: Springer.
Fordham, D. (2008). How strong are your passwords?. Strategic Finance, 89(11), 42-47.
Hedayati, A. (2012). An analysis of identity theft: Motives, related frauds, techniques, and prevention. Journal of Law and Conflict Resolution, 4(1), 1-12.
Hoffman, S., & Ginley, T. (2009). Identity theft: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Karake-Shalhoub, Z. (2008). Population ID card systems in the Middle East: The case study of UAE. In C. J. Bennett & D. Lyon (Eds.), Playing the identity card: Surveillance, security, and identification in global perspective (pp. 128-142). New York, NY: Routledge.
Luppicini, R., & Adell, R. (2008). Handbook of research on technoethics. New York, NY: Information Science Reference.
Nemati, H. (2012). Privacy solutions and security frameworks in information protection. New York, NY: IGI Global.
Neyadi, A., Kaabi, A., Kaabi, L., Ghufli, M., Shamsi, M., & Khan, M. (2015). Internet governance and cyber crimes in UAE. International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, 4(11), 350-357.
Norton. (2016). What is cybercrime?. Web.
Prosch, M. (2009). Preventing identity theft throughout the data life cycle. Journal of Accountancy, 207(1), 58-63.
Stickley, S. (2008). The truth about identity theft. London, UK: Que Publishing.
Tropina, T. (2012). The evolving structure of online criminality: How cyber crimes are getting organized. Eucrim, 4, 158-166.
Cybercrime can no longer be considered as an emerging trend because it has been envisaged in criminal law. This development had a positive impact on tackling the problem of cybercrimes. However, the motives for engaging in criminal activities have not changed over the years including profits and malicious and personal gains. As the law and other methods of crime-fighting became inhibitive to crime, tools, systems, and methods used by criminal syndicates also changed.
The new ways make it difficult for law enforcement agencies and policymakers to catch up with them. Another factor has also emerged – cybercrime dilemma. It is difficult for policymakers and law enforcement agencies to develop a compromise between user requirements and crime combating. This paper studies the issue of cybercrime in relation to ethical concerns, the cybercrime dilemma, and the international involvement in the fight against cybercrime with a special focus on global interconnectedness.
Historical Perspective
In 2010, the UN General Assembly identified cybercrime as a major challenge in today’s interconnected world (Gercke, 2012). It has become a matter of concern today, but during the period of the advent of computers and the Internet, no one would have imagined that it would turn out to be an issue. Cybercrime posed institutional, legal, and technical challenges, which have far-reaching effects and are incognizant of national boundaries. Consequently, they require a global approach to control them.
Since 1960, the forms of cybercrime have developed tremendously. Cybercrime evolved during the 1960s with the invention of transistor-based computer systems, which made computers smaller and less expensive entailing the drastic increase in the use of computers as manual tools for data storage. At that time, cybercrime was mainly physical. Criminals damaged the computers physically to destroy the information stored on them. In the following decade, the 1970s, a new form of cybercrime emerged.
Although physical damage was still rampant, manipulation of electronic data and illegal use of computer systems took center stage. It caused the emergence of computer-related fraud that led to multimillion-dollar losses. Moving on to the next decade, the 1980s, software piracy, and patent-related crimes emerged. These forms of crimes emerged because of the increased interest in software development. Additionally, the interconnection of computers enabled people to send malicious software to other computers. In the 1990s, the graphical interface popularly referred to as the World Wide Web emerged. People could now share information through the system of computers connected via the Internet even if it was illegal. For this reason, cases of electronic transactional crimes became impetuous (Gercke, 2012).
In the 2000s, the emergence of new and sophisticated methods of computer technologies entailed the evolution of crime making it difficult for law enforcement institutions to follow and investigate. The need for a sophisticated technology created the cybercrime dilemma. Jeffray and Feakin (2015) claim that the developments in cyber technologies generate the fear of becoming a victim of cybercrime. It can be easily explained by the fact that these intricate systems gave rise to such crimes as identity theft and corporate espionage. It is aggravated by the possibility of endangering national security by hacking governmental databases – the so-called cyberterrorism, which jeopardizes both national and global stability and security (Tavani, 2011).
Current Issues that are Applicable
The failure of national and international legislation to catch up with the development of cybercrime can be explained by technical, ethical, and legal dilemmas that underplay the efforts of the global community to ensure cybersecurity (Jeffrey & Feakin, 2015). Amid the dilemmas, technological development fosters the existence of crime even before the victims are aware of it. The solution to this problem lies in resolving the dilemmas through an integrated approach uniting key stakeholders.
Technical Dilemma
Technical dilemmas are caused by two main factors: technological development and incentives (Sackler, R. & Sackler, B., 2014). Users want conflicting things from communication and computer technology, but such requirements come at a cost. Consumers want convenience, anonymity under certain circumstances, and sophisticated technology. These attributes compete with the requirement for a secure system, which operates under the general rule: the simpler a system becomes, the easier a designer can detect cybercrime issues and stop them. At the same time, cybercrime is becoming increasingly sophisticated because computer producers use a multi-dimensional approach, and criminals respond to it with new intricate threats (Jeffray & Feakin, 2015). The dilemma is that the developers have to decide between creating simple but manageable systems or sophisticated but vulnerable ones (Sackler, R. & Sackler, B., 2014).
The second dilemma is associated with the incentives coming up with the protection of computer systems. As Jeffrey and Feakin (2015) note, methods used to measure the impact of cybercrime are deficient because the accent is made on national and institutional levels instead of individual ones. The incentive for controlling cybercrime at a larger scale is higher because of the value of the information being protected. However, R. Sackler and B. Sackler (2014) claim that thwarting criminal activities at lower levels is easier and cheaper than disrupting it to higher levels, which creates a dilemma.
Ethical Dilemma
Ethical dilemma centers on the necessity to find the balance between privacy and data collection. Personal data has been the target of many cybercrimes because it can be used to access valuable information. Professional codes of conduct are not clear about determining the boundaries of privacy, i.e. what is the limit of information availability.
Legal Dilemma
Significant strides have been made to combat cybercrime at the international level. Laws feature a great variety of cybercrimes including copyright infringements, child pornography, computer-related fraud, and violation of network security (Shull, 2014). They are deterrent enough but have not been successful because laws are adopted through international conventions, in which countries are free to decide whether they want to join. Many countries do not become signatories to the conventions leaving cybercrime uncontrolled and creating a legal dilemma.
The Global Impact of Cybercrimes
Cybercrime is a matter of international concern because it can affect the welfare of the global community. The justification for stating that cybercrimes have a robust global impact is the fact that usually people from different countries are involved in the crime, i.e. a perpetrator may live in another country with poor legal regulation.
For example, an American company can be hacked by a person from Nigeria. The primary source of international influence is espionage and stealing personal data. Some estimates instance that the number of those affected by cybercrime exceeds 800 million people. The dollar equivalent of this figure is even more spectacular – $400 billion of annual losses to the global economy – around 20% of economic value created by the Internet (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2014). This information proves that cybercrimes have an impact on the lives of people worldwide as well as the global economy. That is why it is a global concern.
Appropriate Legislation
Tackling the problem of cybercrime is a relatively recent trend. For the most part, it includes national legislation. However, in some cases, it is supplemented with bilateral and multilateral agreements, but their operation is limiting because signing into them is not obligatory. As of the primary legal acts regulating the area of combating cybercrimes, they involve data protection acts, privacy regulations controlling video, speech, and commerce privacy in cyberspace as well as various initiatives regarding fostering cybersecurity and codes of ethics (Tavani, 2011).
The problem with the legislation is that it does not establish a comprehensive mechanism for investigating cybercrimes because they involve international channels for transmitting information and the cost of such crimes are often underestimated. That said, all proposed measures are preventive in their nature and center on ethics instead of legal concerns. Even though some types of cybercrimes imply criminal responsibility, for the most part, they lack legal components of crime.
International Approach to Cybercrime
Because the problem of cybercrime is trans-border, it requires a comprehensive approach involving the international community. In 2009, the US and China entered into a bilateral agreement in which Strategic and International Studies (CSIS of US) and Cybercrime China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR of China) discussed and agreed on various matters regarding cybercrime. Moreover, the United Nations (UN) through its initiative to combat cybercrime has engaged several countries in the formulation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) aimed at combating cybercrime (Levin & Ilkina, 2013). In addition to it, numerous countries, through own initiatives, have formed various unions to control cybercrime in member states.
For example, European countries under the guidance of the European Council adopted the Convention on Cybercrime containing provisions used as a foundation for the formulation of domestic legislations to tame cybercrime (Levin & Ilkina, 2013). Other international organizations involved in combating cybercrime across international boundaries include the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Examples
The most common example of cybercrime is a hacking attack. For example, in the United States, more than 3,000 companies were hacked in 2013. One of the British companies reported losses of more than £1 billion as the result of stealing intellectual property after a hacker attack. The same is true about 34 of Macy 500 Fortune companies involved in various sectors from chemicals to information technology. Brazilian and the Persian Gulf Banks officially state that their customers lose millions of dollars annually because of cyberfraud. There are more than 300,000 reports of website hacks from India. Even Google was hacked in 2010 (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2014).
Personal Point of View
The challenge of cybercrimes is crucial, especially keeping in mind the global interconnectedness of not only computer systems but also economic, political, and social life. It has become a matter of concern because of the direct impact on the welfare of the global community and maintaining global peace. I believe that solving this problem requires a comprehensive strategy including the adoption of strict international legislation and making it obligatory to join it by all countries without exception. Unlike the unenforced signing into conventions and bilateral and multilateral agreements, similar obligingness will enact real changes in cybercrime combatting.
Summary
Cybercrime is a multifaceted problem, which cannot be restrained by national boundaries. Additionally, it is a source of huge profit for the perpetrators. However, the lack of strong international cooperation and investment into necessary expertise exposes computer systems to cybercrime. While the professional codes of conduct tame the vice to a reasonable extent, they are weak in preventing it. The challenge of cybercrimes is aggravated by technical, ethical, and legal dilemmas, which make key stakeholders indecisive when it comes to enhancing cybersecurity.
References
Center for Strategic and International Studies. (2014). Net losses: Estimating the global cost of cybercrime. Web.
Gercke, M. (2012). Understanding cybercrime: Phenomena, challenges and legal response.
The article under consideration dwells upon cybercrime and a particular case of digital money laundering. The author reveals some details of the investigation concerning Western Express International Inc. The investigation started with a complaint about the unauthorized use of a credit card. The card was used to buy some product from an online retailer (with a Manhattan shipment address).
Analysis
Western Express claimed to be a digital currency exchanger while it turned out to be a money transmitter, as well as a check casher, providing its services to people who were based in Eastern Europe but earned money in the USA. The investigation revealed that the company did not have the necessary license and, hence, could not transmit money to other countries. The investigation included the analysis of computer records, chat messages, paper documents, web postings, as well as cell phone data.
One of the most striking findings was associated with the clients of the company and their ways of making money. The vast majority of clients of the company were identity thieves and cybercriminals. The result of the investigation was the indictment of Western Express and a number of the company’s clients for several charges including stolen credit card data trafficking and money laundering.
The details of the investigation are provided to unveil some of the essential peculiarities of modern digital money laundering. For instance, the products paid through the system were not shipped to the master identity but to a recruited person who resents it to a buyer (in the majority of cases, to another country). Egold was used for the reselling process. It is stressed that cybercriminals, Ponzi schemers, and child pornographers preferred Egold that was one of the pioneers in the sphere of digital currency.
The author emphasizes that the case is an illustration of the importance of money transmitting regulations. The company did not care about the clients’ identities and ways of gaining money, which makes it a facilitator of cybercrime. It was found that $35 million flowed through the company, and $2 million proved to be the proceeds of criminal activities. The author states that digital money laundering involves several layers and organizations. More importantly, it is global and should be treated accordingly.
The author adds that cybercriminals can be detected and, eventually pleaded guilty. For instance, some of the clients of Western Express (Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan nationals) were found, captured in other countries, and extradited to the USA where they were convicted. The success of the investigation of Western Express’ operations and crimes shows that cybercrime can and should be addressed.
The author claims that cybercriminals attack individuals and organizations, which makes it crucial for everyone to focus on data protection. At that, the author states that organizations with their extensive funds (not to mention individuals) are still vulnerable since cybercriminals find new ways to steal data and use the information for profit. Hence, cybersecurity systems are only a part of the solution. It is noted that law enforcement agencies are responsible for developing teams of high-profile investigators prosecutors and analysts focusing on cybercrime.
Training and development (involving the discussion of particular cases) are crucial. Finally, financial institutions are also responsible for preventing, as well as detecting, cybercrime. They should try to ensure that financial wires are safe and legal. The case of Western Express unveils many schemes used by cybercriminals as well as ways to detect criminal activity in the sphere of digital money.
Cybercrime (or computer crime) is any kind of offense committed with the help of a computer and the internet. Since the IT sphere is growing, cybercrime is growing as well. As a result, criminals enjoy a lot of opportunities to commit a crime on the internet.
Main body
All cyber crimes can be divided into three types. The first one is attacking the hardware or software of a PC. It includes, among all the others, malware and botnets. Malware is a general term that refers to numerous malicious programs such as computer viruses, spyware, adware, and so on. Botnets (also called robot networks or zombie armies) are networks made up of controlled Internet computers (zombie computers), the owners of which usually do not even know that they have been controlled. With the help of a botnet, an attacker can forward transmissions to other computers, often hundreds or even thousands of them, and make those join a zombie army. Most frequently, botnets are associated with e-mail spam. However, the harm they can cause is more serious since they can even break down a PC.
The second type of cybercrime is financial. It covers numerous criminal offenses, which affect individuals, companies, both small or large, and even nations. The primal examples of financial crimes are different types of online fraud, hacking online financial systems and services, and so on.
Finally, the last type of cybercrime is abuse. This subsection includes cyber-bullying, so-called sexploitation, which is a blend of sex and exploitation, and different crimes against children. One of the examples of child offenses is sex tourism when children from developing countries are abused by people who travel there. Due to ineffective legislation, the lack of understanding, and a possible wealth of the offender the goal becomes easier.
The main reason why every crime mentioned above becomes possible is anonymity. There are absolutely no borders on the internet, either real or virtual. Moreover, the easiest targets for criminals are dating services and social networks since they only strengthen those features of the internet.
Indeed, speaking about spam letters, for example, it is much easier to distribute them via social networks. Firstly, anti-spam securities of e-mail services are more complicated than those of social networks. Secondly, on sites like Facebook or Instagram, users trust their so-called friends, and spamming is more effective. Besides, a cybercriminal can attack an account and use its owner’s personal information to send his or her friends e-mails asking for favors (to lend some money and others). That is the “friend in trouble” scenario (Social networks are ‘easier targets for cyber criminals’, 2011, para. 4). Moreover, this information can be used for illegal financial operations, and a person can become a criminal without even knowing about it.
Conclusion
Dating services are even more unsafe since criminals can use a love issue there. As proof of it, Neal (2014) claims that the greatest amount of crimes committed via dating services happen on Valentine’s Day. After some chatting and exchanging personal info, a criminal begins to ask a person to send money, forward a package, cash a check, and so on. Even worse, the bad guys can take someone’s intimate photos sent via private messages, share them on public websites, and demand money in exchange for deleting them.
That is why all of us should be careful and cut down the amount of info we share via social networks or dating services since private information should remain private.
References
Neal, R. W. (2014). Valentine’s Day 2014 Online Scam: How Cybercriminals Are Using Social Media And Dating Sites. Web.
Social networks are ‘easier targets for cyber criminals’. (2011). Web.
Today, the presence of cybercrime and related fraud represents a significant issue. The statistical data analysis can provide insights on the trends in the occurrence of the electronic crimes, the frequency of the incidents depending on the region, and help to classify the offences. It is crucial to evaluate the statistical data on one of the aspects of crime because the Criminal Justice System occupies the fourth place in terms of public expenditures (MacDonald, 2002). Hence, with the active utilisation of information technology advancements, it is possible to claim that the field of cybercrime and electronic fraud got more opportunities to spread. The use of statistical dataset in the research is more than computing and reporting numbers, but using this data to reach the conclusions about the significant aspect (Dowdy, Wearden, & Chilko, 2011). In such a way, it is critical to analyse the statistics about a particular area within the crime field because it can create a bigger picture and view the issue from different angles.
The statistical data chosen for this report is the additional tables on fraud and cybercrime provided by the Office for National Statistics. The application of statistical information represents a part of learning process leading to “informed decisions and actions,” and it is beneficial for the research to implement statistics (Pfannkuch & Rubick, 2002, p. 4). Moreover, different industries conduct a statistical investigation “to learn more in the context sphere” and to synthesise new ideas, thus adopting a rational way of thinking (Pfannkuch & Rubick, 2002, p. 4). The area of crime analysis and prevention, including a broad area of cybercrime and fraud, are not the exclusions and can utilise the collected datasets for its benefit. The use of this data implies the fact that it is useful and beneficial for the research because it provides an inexpensive way of collecting the information. Besides, it gives broader opportunities to analyse and evaluate the provided numbers and come up with a conclusion within the narrow topic.
The analysed dataset represents a piece of information that was officially collected from numerous processes and practices in the juridical system. Even though this data is organisational, it is still critical to consider possible variations and unaccounted incidents. Hence, one should reckon the units presented in the statistical figures because it can help to identify whether the used aggregation level can lead to prejudices in the conclusions (Rengert & Lockwood, 2008). It is vital to remember this factor because statistical analysis also serves as a prediction tool to estimate the possible number of crimes in the future. The two estimation methods include relying on the rates from several months’ data or calculating based on the nation’s standards (Barnett-Ryan, 2006). Checking through both of those estimations can be critical for ensuring the integrity of the statistics because it depends on “whether different measures of the same phenomenon yield similar results” (Rosenfeld, 2006). Consequently, the guarantee of the data’s validity and reliability are significant factors in using specific datasets for the research.
Data Source
As the section above mentions, the analysed statistical data was provided by the Office for National Statistics. The data represents the estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and the information from Home Office police recorded crimes (Office for National Statistics, 2019). The findings provide specific information on fraud and computer misuse, eliminating other types of crime from the statistics to generate a clearer and objective picture. The analysed data includes information on the local level, describing the situation, not in the UK, but two of the primary areas. Besides, the latest dataset released and portrayed in the Appendices provides the information until December 2018. However, the data explanation and discussion section also account for the figures from the previous years.
New datasets are released every year to reflect the last statistical information on the cybercrimes within the area. Consequently, it is critical to keep in mind that the numbers for the year ending December 2019 were not published yet and might be different. Hence, the situation with fraud and computer misuse might have changed throughout the previous year and will require further assessment once available.
Another crucial feature of the presented dataset is that it uses descriptive statistics to show the information. It is a quantitative measure of analysing the data, which is used to describe the findings of the groups of fraud and electronic crimes, and the distribution of incidents among the groups of specific regions. Descriptive research plays a fundamental role in information gathering because one of its primary concerns is external validity, which is crucial for the investigation of cybercrime and fraud (Adams & Lawrence, 2019). Besides, some of the information presented in the statistical findings refers to experimental statistics, because it provides the comparison in the crime rates on an annual basis. Although the general principle for the research in crime and justice is the implementation of non-experimental methods due to the significance of external and internal validity, experiments can be useful (Lum & Yang, 2005). Thus, the findings show different statistical methods, and, for further evaluation, it is possible to integrate correlation methods to come up with more insights.
Data presentation
The information from the Crime in England and Wales: Additional tables on fraud and cybercrime are presented in the Appendices (Office for National Statistics, 2019). The figures below provide the numbers revealed in the statistics to gain a clearer understanding of the findings for future interpretation in the research. The information is organised in three graphs for a precise visual representation. The explanation and analysis of the statistical information can be found in the next section of the paper.
Data Explanation and Discussion
The section above provides the figures representing trends in crime. Figure 1 shows the frequency of fraud and computer misuse offences by area, from which it is possible to claim that region with the highest number of incidents, is London and South East of England. According to Levi, Doig, Gundur, Wall, & Williams (2015), London represents one of the world’s largest financial centres, which at the same time opens up more opportunities related to cybercrime. The daily turnover in London exceeds £2.5 billion, where most of it depends “on a highly interconnected electronic infrastructure and supporting technology” (Levi et al., 2015, p. 2). In such a way, London presents numerous possibilities for the criminal to perform their activities, which can explain the fact that the city occupies one of the first places in terms of cybercrime occurrence.
With different cybercrime incidents across England and Wales, various measures are implemented within the areas. For instance, the City of London Police is one of the institutions that actively work on the reduction of fraud. The operations include providing additional training in both private and public sectors, leading a victim care unit based in London, and collaborating with law enforcement (Levi et al., 2015). Consequently, the areas’ authorities work hard towards positively impacting the statistical data for the next period. They aim to reduce the number of cybercrimes during the times when the expansion of online activities becomes an attractive platform for criminal acts and machinations.
The next substantial piece of information provided by the statistics is the proportion of particular offence groups in the total number of online incidents. One can notice here that the more significant part is taken by obscene publications and blackmail, which implicates that those offence types are most common within electronic crimes. Those types of misdeed involve such factors as the use of the programs that “do not fir under the classification crimeware” and the frequent contact among the criminal and the victim (Gordon & Ford, 2006). It is also vital to consider that there are different types of blackmailing. One of the dangerous and problematic areas is sextortion or webcam blackmail when the criminals befriend the users with the purpose of further offence (National Crime Agency, 2020). Thus, this type of online offence represents severe dangers for individuals and requires careful attention and rigid measures from the authorities.
In Figure 3, one can see that the most common type of crime connected to fraud or computer misuse is the bank and credit account machinations. First, it is essential to understand the concept of this type of fraud and how it affects individuals. One of the definitions suggests that it is “the process of creating and making an understanding between consumers and e-fraudsters through online activities that exchange false ideas” (Mahdi, Rezaul, & Rahman, 2010, p. 232). Thus, in those cases, the e-fraudster comes out as a winner while the consumers are the fraud victims. Such crime types as ATM & internet, theft & fabrication, counterfeit, application and transaction of funds, and manner & timing can be identified in the field of fraudulent bank activities (Delamaire, Abdou, & Pointon, 2009). Consequently, the diversity of possible operations related to bank and credit account fraud point out the frequency of those incidents.
In Figure 3, one can notice that the next class of fraudulent online activities is occupied by consumer and retail fraud in terms of occurrence. It can be explained by the growing influence of technologies on different spheres of everyday life, which leads to the increased demand for online commerce. Numerous strategies to protect online retail businesses from fraud exist on the market, including blacklists, the review of individual transactions, or the implementation of hand-crafter rules designed by experts (Altendorf, Brende, Daniel, & Lessard, 2005). It is possible to say that the current measures do not provide the highest effectiveness in protecting e-commerce from financial or information breaches machinations. Some of the additional techniques that the businesses can implement include the integration of analyst simulator into the system or utilising the fraud classifier at the final steps of the purchase (Altendorf et al., 2005). Hence, the use of numerous safety and protection tools can have a positive impact on reducing the number of consumer and retail fraud.
Evaluations and Conclusions
The sections above provide the information about statistical data on fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales and its analysis with the help of graphical representation. One can claim that the conducted assessment provides insights into the situation within the discussed areas in terms of cybercrime. The findings reveal useful facts, such as which regions are more affected by online offences, which groups are most spread, and which ones occupy the highest proportion within the electronic criminal activities. Hence, the analysis served as an efficient tool in assessing information in search of the primary trends and potential conclusions.
Still, it is critical to mention that the data represents that information year ending December 2018, as mentioned in the data source section, which implies potential changes for the upcoming release of the latest numbers. Moreover, the dataset includes the figures gathered by the crime survey, which gives a particular level of ambiguity to the findings. Nevertheless, the data is provided by the Office for National Statistics and is supported by the conducted research based on the analytical results. One can conclude that the information is relevant and represents the situation in the chosen area, portraying the seriousness of the fraud and cybercrime issue.
The statistical analysis emphasises the significance of the measures’ implementation to improve the situation and continue to fight this crime sector due to its expansion with the technological advancements. The strategies to combat cybercrime should establish the right balance between pursuit, prevention, protection, and preparation (Saunders, 2017). It is crucial to account for the offences’ diversity and for their spread among different areas, which requires the creation of a broad-based approach. Some of the steps taken by the UK government include the support to the victims, the increase of protective security, and the identification and prosecution of the worldwide criminals (Saunders, 2017). Furthermore, it is essential to raise public awareness about the issue of fraud and computer misuse. Hence, the suggestions include possessing strong password, security software installation, and timely operating system updates (National Crime Agency, n. d.). Compliance with those strategies and the implementation of stricter procedures aim to tackle the frequency and spread of cybercrime.
References
Adams, K. A., & Lawrence, E. K. (2019). Research methods, statistics, and applications (2nd ed.). London, UK: Sage Publications, Inc.
Barnett-Ryan, C. (2006). Introduction to the uniform crime reporting program. In J. P. Lynch & L. A. Addington (Eds.), Understanding crime statistics: Revisiting Divergence of the NCVS and UCR (pp. 55-92). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Delamaire, L., Abdou, H., & Pointon, J. (2009). Credit card fraud and detection techniques: a review. Banks and Bank systems, 4(2), 57-68.
Dowdy, S., Wearden, S., & Chilko, D. (2011). Statistics for research (Vol. 512). John Wiley & Sons.
Gordon, S., & Ford, R. (2006). On the definition and classification of cybercrime. Journal in Computer Virology, 2(1), 13-20.
Lum, C., & Yang, S. M. (2005). Why do evaluation researchers in crime and justice choose non-experimental methods? Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1(2), 191-213.
MacDonald, Z. (2002). Official crime statistics: Their use and interpretation. The Economic Journal, 112(477), 85-106.
Mahdi, M. D. H., Rezaul, K. M., & Rahman, M. A. (2010). Credit fraud detection in the banking sector in the UK: a focus on e-business. In L. Berntzen (Ed.), The fourth international conference on digital society (pp. 232-237). St. Maarten, Netherlands: IEEE.
Pfannkuch, M., & Rubick, A. (2002). An exploration of students’ statistical thinking with given data. Statistics Education Research Journal, 1(2), 4-21.
Rengert, G. F., & Lockwood, B. (2008). Geographical units of analysis and the analysis of crime. In D. Weisburd, W. Bernasco, & G. Bruinsma (Eds.), Putting crime in its place: Units of analysis in geographic criminology (pp. 109-122). New York, NY: Springer.
Rosenfeld, R. (2006). Explaining the divergence between UCR and NCVS aggravated assault trends. In J. P. Lynch & L. A. Addington (Eds.), Understanding crime statistics: Revisiting Divergence of the NCVS and UCR (pp. 251-268). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Saunders, J. (2017). Tackling cybercrime–the UK response. Journal of Cyber Policy, 2(1), 4-15.
To begin with, it should be emphasized that the development of the legislative sphere for regulation of the IT-sphere and cybernetics is far beyond the realities of technical advances. In other words, the legal framework lays behind technological advances, acts that we would not hesitate to call “wrong” or “immoral” are not always considered illegal. Originally, it is associated with the notion, that cyber technologies are developing faster than the legislative sphere can get adapted to these changes.
Cyber Crimes
Originally, there are several types of cybercrimes:
Against persons
Against Business and Non-business organizations
Crime targeting the government
The fact is that all the three types are described in the legislation, nevertheless, it should be emphasized that the only common feature of all the crimes is to steal the hidden information and use it with the aim of personal advantage. Another fact that should be pointed out, is associated with that there is no proper definition of Cyber Crimes in the legislation, and, consequently, the defense against cybercrime is poor.
Originally, the problem is aggravated by the concept that cyber laws are developing too slowly in comparison with the tools and techniques of performing cybercrimes. Nevertheless, the solid basis has been already founded, and the problems, which are closely associated with cybercrimes, are persisted. Thus, following Balkin (2007), the sphere of cybercrimes is one of the most burning issues in criminology. The following notion should be emphasized:
Loss of evidence is a very common & expected problem as all the data are routinely destroyed. Further, the collection of data outside the territorial extent also paralyzes the system of crime investigation. Cyber savvy judges are the need of the day. Judiciary plays a vital role in shaping the enactment according to the order of the day. One such case, which needs appreciation, is the P.I.L. (Public Interest Litigation), which the Kerala High Court has accepted through an email. (Taylor, 2006, p. 284)
It is often emphasized, that the sphere of cyber criminology requires the improvement of investigative responsibility. The fact is that confusion often appears within the agencies, engaged in investigating these crimes, which causes delays and confusion in further legislative development. Taking into consideration the fact that the investigation of cybercrimes requires specialized skills, nevertheless, they are different from the skills, required for the investigation of computer-related crimes. It is evident, that the investigator will have to search the necessary information in the database or involve internet resources. The cybercrimes experts must be trained for handling sophisticated crimes, using specialized computer equipment and technical knowledge. Consequently, a department with a particular responsibility range should be created.
Conclusion
Finally, it should be emphasized that computer-related crimes and cybercrimes have developed into two separate branches of crime. In the light of this fact, there is a strong necessity to mention that the original responsibility, which should be imposed on special departments, is currently the new trend of cybercrimes legislation. From this perspective, it should be stated that the original range of cyber legislation should be expanded either for the more effective investigation procedures.
Bibliography
Balkin. J. M., Katz, E. (2007) “Cybercrime: Digital Cops in a Networked Environment”. NYU Press.
Reyes, A., O’Shea, K. (2007) “Cybercrime investigations: bridging the gaps between security professionals, law enforcement, and prosecutors”. Syngress publishing.
Taylor, R, W. (2006) “Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism” Prentice Hall.
