Cybercrime has grown significantly since the War Games. Cybercriminals are always ahead. They always look for an easy way to make a high income. That’s why they attack more on rich people and well-establish organization. Catching such criminals is not a piece of cake. Hence, the number of cyber-crime cases are increasing across the globe. Our online activities are more vulnerable, so there should be a law to protect against them. Today, we’ll look at the significant causes of cyber-crime and how cybercriminals act.
What is Cyber-crime?
Let’s look at the origin of the word cyber-crime. The prefix cyber refers to the way of thinking and living. It also relates to new communication technologies and the Internet and networks. The word crime defines all actions are against the law. Cybercrime is, therefore, all criminal acts via the Internet.
The term was born at the end of the 90s. When more and more offenses on the Internet violated the rights to privacy or confidentiality. It also includes pirating films or computer systems, pedophilia, or the many scams present or imaginable on the Web.
Where does cyber-crime come from? Or rather, where does it not intervene?
You may have wondered where and in what form cyber-crime first appeared. The answer to these questions may not surprise you too much. The first cases of cyber-crime occurred before the Internet even existed and were accompanying to data theft. It makes sense. Computers, computer networks, and the Internet were designed for the creation, storage, and transfer of government information and corporate data. Information that is very useful for those who have good intentions.
One of the most publicized examples is “phishing.” That consists in particular of making a copy of a bank’s website to retrieve the bank details of users. However, this is just one example among hundreds of other increasingly sophisticated techniques that are emerging with Web 3.0.
Cybercrime is very serious and punishable by law. But unfortunately, despite some devices installed on computers, we cannot prevent these crimes from happening.
The causes of cyber-crime.
The common causes are Fraud, espionage, scams, misappropriation of confidential data, piracy, and identity theft. The phenomenon of cyber-crime continues to intensify by taking increasingly diverse and varied forms. However, what are the major causes of this scourge? There are multiple causes of cyber-crime: challenge, greed, ease, power, the desire to harm…!
The misdeeds are much easier to perform behind a computer screen than in reality. Some people don’t even realize they are pirates. Indeed, the illegal downloading of music on a site such as Emule or Dilandau is a crime. But we don’t necessarily realize it, or we say to ourselves that since everyone does it, why we couldn’t also do it.
The Internet is synonymous with anonymity, but it is inappropriate to believe that crimes committed on the Internet will go unpunished.
Types of Cyber-crime
Here are some specific examples of the different types of cyber-crime:
- Email and Internet fraud.
- Identity theft: (stolen of personal information).
- Hacking of bank: details or financial data.
- Corporate data theft and sale.
- Cyber-extortion: (demanding money so that a threat of attack does not materialize).
- Child pornography and abuse
- Ransomware attacks (a type of cyber extortion).
- Crypto-jacking: (the hijacking of resources by hackers to mine cryptocurrency).
- Cyber espionage: (when hackers access government or corporate data).
Most cyber-crime activities fall into two broad categories:
- Criminal activity that uses computers to commit other crimes.
- Cybercrime that targets computers involves viruses and other types of malware.
How cybercriminals act?
Among the different malware developers, the most dangerous are probably hackers. They create malware for specific criminal purposes. These cybercriminals create computer viruses capable of:
- Steal bank account access codes.
- Promote products or services on the computers of their victims.
- Illegally use the resources of infected computers to develop and launch:
- Spam campaigns.
- Attacks against distributed networks (or DDoS attacks)
- Blackmail operations.
Each year, about 400 million people and 93% of large businesses have been victims of a cyber-attack worldwide. Despite a general awareness of cyber risk, businesses are not yet immune.
A computer screen is a hiding place for scammers and criminals of all kinds.
The creation of digital methods may help humanity to grow in the 21st century. But it has the same effects on criminals.
Are the crimes on the Internet different from those in everyday life?
Nothing is so sure. A credit card theft corresponds to the misappropriation of card numbers on the Internet. The counterfeit exists on the market as much as on the Internet. And identity theft can be virtually as real, just like harassment of all kinds or again pedophilia. However, all these harms are much easier to do behind a computer screen and less dangerous than in real life.
The computer, therefore, seems to be a significant cause of the increase in cyber-crime. Become a real market as well as an economic platform. Cybercriminals have gradually made their way into the Web. They thought it as a relatively free and little monitored business platform.
It is more accessible to defraud people or to extract money from them via computers than in reality. Likewise, a photo can make us believe that certain sites sell authentic, branded products when they are counterfeits. Anyone can pretend to be an X person by creating a fake profile. Therefore, the Internet is synonymous with anonymity for these cybercriminals. They are not in direct contact with their victims, do not know them, and do not see them.
Many security systems can block malicious sites and best protect our data and personal information. But cybercriminals are more and more sophisticated. They use the most advanced methods to hijack this kind of shield.
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