Cyber Crimes Essay

What are cybercrimes and what do they consist of? Cybercrimes are defined as any illegal activity that uses a computer. The justice department goes a little more in depth and describes cybercrimes as using a computer for the storage of evidence. Cybercrimes have increased over time to something more than we could have ever imagined. The internet is went into full affect in the ear of 1990 when the Arpanet officially split into two separate networks to further facilitate usage and prevent military secrets from being found so easily. This is when the basis of cybercrime first began. There are cybercriminals which exist simply because they are drawn to the information that is contained by the World Wide Web. Nowadays, cybercriminals are much harder to track as they have evolved from the basic computer geeks who merely send viruses to another computer in efforts to crash it. They are far more advanced, and seek to steal information for their own personal gain. There are several different types of cyber criminals. They include: Script kiddies; who lack the experience to hack the larger mainframe systems. However, they are capable of doing some type of damage to unsecured systems. These types of criminals are also known as â€Å"hacker wannabes†. Also are scammers who flood one’s email with false advertisement and junk mail. The send catchy subject line for gullible victims and include links in the emails that absorb information from the victims computer. â€Å"Hacker groups usually work anonymously and create tools for hacking. They often hack computers for no criminal reason and are sometimes even hired by companies wanting to test their security† (Batke, 2011). The considered highest risk of all cyber criminals are â€Å"Insiders†. â€Å"They may only be 20% of the threat, but they produce 80% of the damage. They often reside within an organization† (Batke, 2011). The fact that there are cyber criminals establishes a new set of victims which mostly include people that are lonely, gullible, and have low self-esteem. When attacking the lonely, gullible, low self-esteemed individuals, cyber criminals normally seek their prey on social networking sites. Normally, the criminals use false identities to entice the victims. One the victim is deceived, they tend to for a sense of trust and release all sorts of personal information. This is why it is always important to keep personal information completely confidential. If one is dealing with networks that require information such as full names, social security numbers, addresses, banking information or even medical records, he or she should search or specific icons or notices within the website that assures their security. A common tactic that is used by cyber criminals is called â€Å"The New Kid Ruse†. This is when the suspect created fake webpages and uses fake images to give the idea that they are someone else in efforts to divvy up the victims personal information. Once the criminal gets one small piece of information they tend to sink the hook of deception even deeper. These acts get serious. They get so serious that eventually the cybercriminal begins to threaten the victim with exploitation if he or she does not surrender to their demands; saying that the information that has already been retrieved will be set abroad to ruin the victim’s reputations if they do not comply. â€Å"The case of Christopher Patrick Gunn, 31, of Montgomery, Alabama, who was sentenced last month to 35 years in prison for producing child pornography through a massive online sextortion scheme, provides a glimpse of how modern-day confidence men are plying their trade against the most vulnerable and unsuspecting victims† (The FBI, 2013). In this particular case, Gunn lured many minors into performing lewd acts via webcam and email. He had exploited large sums of teenage girls in various states that include Mississippi and Louisiana. He even stretched this heinous activity to some teenagers in Ireland. Cybercrimes include smallest crimes you could think of and the biggest crimes imaginative. Fraud is a cybercrime people use to commit anywhere from insurance scams and identity theft. Identity theft is a crime in which a person collects vital information from someone such as their social security number in order to pretend to be someone that they are obviously not. Just this one type of cybercrime is becoming more of a problem every day. Harassment is an example of cybercrime in which I consider to be bullying. This type of crime is done without much thought or consideration of the next person. Cybercrimes also include but are not limited to cyber stalking, cyber terrorism, drug trafficking, scamming, exchanging files of copyright material, and obscene or offensive content shared over the internet.