Cybercrime is an issue about which all the countries in the world are too much concerned. Any activity or a criminal act that is done by using a computer or any other electronic device is called cybercrime. Practitioners and computer experts are always trying to control and investigate all the illegal activities that are happening in the virtual world. All the countries differ in their economic and social patterns. Every country has its own culture, and thus, criminal activities and the consequences and the reasons behind those criminal acts differ from country to country. This raises the question, ” What are the major causes of cybercrime, and what steps should the government take to prevent cybercrime?
Computers can be used as a basic tool to commit a crime. Data stored in computers can be easily accessible by hackers or criminals who are experts in the computer field (Paternoster, 2011). With the theft of this extensive data, various criminal activities can be done.
Discussion
Cybercrime is a name given to crimes in which the internet, computers, or any other electronic machines are used as primary tools. Dispersion of viruses, fraud, hacking, and theft are some of the crimes that are used to be called cybercrimes. On the other hand, cyberbullying refers to one particular online crime: bullying. It occurs when someone is bullied online by another person (Ford, 2006). Although, as per the harassment laws, we can say that cyberbullying is not different from cybercrime. However, the fact is it cannot be taken in the courts until it is considered to be a very serious issue.
So, what is the difference between cybercrime and cyberbullying? Any illegal activity that happens online is known as cybercrime. Hacking, identity theft, identity fraud, illegally copying copyright material, and different online scams are known as cybercrimes. Whereas abusing or harassing someone or hurting someone emotionally online is called cyberbullying (Peter et al., 2006).
Cyberbullying and cybercrimes are very serious issues, and as soon as they are discovered, it’s everyone’s responsibility to report them so that necessary action can be taken against these crimes. If we opt for a tolerance policy against the crimes that are happening online, we can build a community that will be safe for everyone, i.e., in real life as well as in the digital world (Tapaswini, 2013). Although different countries are working on implementing policies through which they can stop cyberbullying and cybercrimes, this has to be done quickly in the fast-moving world so that we can stop cyberbullying from converting into cybercrime.
Patterns
New cybercrimes are mounting consistently, which has a cost impact on the worldwide economy. Previously, cybercrime has been executed by little assemblies and people. The progression of innovation that happens drastically has an impact on the practices of a criminal component in the groups. In the pre-2000s, cybercrime was fixated on people who wanted to challenge the PC framework. The guilty parties were not intrigued by monetary profit, and they picked up the term programmer (Finklea and Theory). In any case, the hacking could cause budgetary harm to the casualties. Likewise, it posed different security dangers of information and spilling of classified data, and Cybercrime was viewed as a diversion or a joke by the guilty party to demonstrate their capacity to beat the framework.
The wrongdoers of cybercrime could give the barrier that no real harm was finished. Likewise, the guilty party could contend that the wrongdoing was not carried out with the expectation of causing harm and that the punishment for the wrongdoing was not genuine or significant. The wrongdoer could be requested to designate how the wrongdoing was submitted or how the PC framework was hacked. The legal framework did not have characterized components for managing cybercrimes. For thousands of years, cybercrime has been alluded to as hacking. In any case, criminals understand that the web is a protected area that has fewer dangers. The detachment could work and produce benefits by utilizing the web.
Criminal groups took the web stage to propel their expert by invading and taking a full favourable position of the client’s trust of various PC systems to procure a colossal monetary profit. The wrongdoings now progressed from beating the framework to digital – coercion, data burglary, extortion, wholesale fraud, abuse of youngsters, licensed innovation robbery, phishing, and visiting, which has been the latest (Price). The phishing and visiting incorporate getting monetary data, for example, ledgers and Mastercard subtle elements. At that point, they send a confirmation message to the client that demands data to actuate the ledger; the data given is then used to trickster the sufferer.
The eventual fate of cybercrime is more terrible because of the immense headway of innovation that has happened. The cybercrime associations will become more grounded in cutting-edge strategies. The economy will be at a noteworthy hazard when cybercrime outperforms other criminal movements because of its high monetary benefit. The cybercrime guilty parties are evolving to adjust to the enhanced security frameworks that associations are contributing billions to guarantee well-being (Akhgar & Brewster). The wrongdoers of this wrongdoing will figure out how to conceal their criminal exercises online without any hints of following them. Voice over web convention (VoIP) will be the following helpful space for cybercrimes. As innovation progresses, new clauses are found to carry out advanced wrongdoings past follows. Expanded access to the web and PCs has made cybercrimes a common angle; the criminal equity framework has been influenced by expanded advancement in innovation. The remote system has made it simpler for guilty parties to conceal their exercises. Likewise, the globalized economy has extended criminal practices abroad. The criminal equity framework is constrained to changing its activities by connecting a worldwide system of managing cybercrimes. These contemporary issues are influencing the legal framework in its activities.
Causes Of Cyber Bullying
A comprehensive study shows that the bullies sitting online have their intentions and their motives. The basic reasons why they are bullying are power, retaliation, anonymity, jealousy, attention, the pleasure of pain, and boredom.
Effects Of Cyberbullying
People of any age are affected by cyberbullying. You can feel devastated because of cyberbullying, due to which you will feel embarrassed while going in public. Especially for children, cyberbullying affects their daily routine life and makes them a patient of stress. It lowers the self-esteem of the one who is being bullied. The person who is being bullied withdraws himself from going to public and starts to spend most of the time alone.Cybercrimes/ cyberbullying is a negative thing, and serious actions should be taken against these so that no one becomes a victim of this anymore.
Strategies For Fighting Cyber-Security Threats
One of the information protection strategies that the organization ought to apply is offering training to the employees (Liu et al., 2015). This ought to be continuous to counter the new risks that arise on a daily basis. The lack of proper expertise exposes the employees to the dangers of being lured to giving off confidential information.
The other strategy that ought to be used is data encryption. This involves the use of codes to pass information from one location to another. Only the people who have the respective codes can access the information. This works well in preventing the loss of information in transit.
The information location ought to be limited to authorized people only. In many cases, the loss of confidential information occurs due to the employees’ free access to the same. The free access makes it possible for a crook employee to pass the information to other outsiders (Ball 2017). Therefore, the limitation of computer access and the inducement of passwords work well in protecting the information.
Conclusions
Cybercrime is an act of stealing assets, money, or stealing information, in short, anything that has some value over the internet. These types of crimes are committed by people who are experts in the computer field and can easily hack any computer or system. Cyberbullying is an attempt at forcing the victim online so that he can develop a sense of inferiority in the way the other person is trying to do.
