Cyber crimes: the most threatening menace - Essay Example

Cyber Crimes: The Most Threatening Menace Affiliation with more information about affiliation, research grants, conflict of interest and how to contact Cyber Crimes: The Most Threatening Menace Every single day dawns with media reports about crimes executed with the help of technology. Cyber crimes include a variety of offenses, using computers and against computers, which have serious and far reaching impacts on private individuals, business entities as well as government agencies. In the fast paced modern world, where technology keeps rapidly evolving and growing at an exponential rate, cyber crimes have become a highly challenging menace that is difficult to combat.

While conventional crimes usually occur within a specific location with its own jurisdiction, cyber crimes transcend national boundaries. The resources one requires for committing such a crime are insignificant when compared to the havoc these misdemeanors can wreak. The ease, speed and anonymity with which such crimes can be committed by a person, by sitting in any corner of the world, make cyber crimes the most serious of all crimes that human race has ever encountered. A perpetrator can easily commit a crime, using technology and the chances of his or her getting caught is very lean.

In the present day, computers and internet have become so common that everybody uses these facilities not only in their workplace but also at home. Technology has made life easy and people can do business and banking transactions through internet, by sitting in their homes. However, on the flipside, the development in technology has been abetting the emergence of crimes over the internet. Crimes like data and information hacking, financial fraud, impersonations, infringement of intellectual property right, copy right violations etc have become rampant with the advancement of technology.

The gravity of the problem mainly derives from the fact that people who intend to commit such a crime need not have much resources do it. Besides, those who indulge in such activities are also encouraged by the difficulty in tracking the perpetrator in cyber crimes. Internet opens up floodgates of opportunities where a person from a certain place can steal information from a source or launch an attack on a computer in another nation by sitting in a third country. Unless the computer and the internet are registered in the name of the perpetrator, it becomes impossible to track him or her.

In such cases, the evidences are “often in an intangible form” and “its collection, analysis and preservation present unique challenges to the investigator” (Chapter 18: Cyber Crimes, n.d., p.1). Thus, the authorities are not able to combat such crimes and the perpetrators thrive on this advantage. Hence, cyber crimes have become more of a menace than conventional crimes. It also transpires that most of the countries have not envisaged such exponential growth in technology or its possible side effects.

As a result, there is a conspicuous lack of preparedness in countering problems like cyber crimes. While all nations have clearly defined laws to deal with conventional crimes, many countries do not have specific laws to deal with cyber crimes. In the absence of clear laws, it becomes difficult to prosecute the offenders in many cases. Another aspect that makes cyber crimes the most threatening is that it transcends national boundaries. As a result, if a citizen of a particular nation, where specific laws do not exist to prosecute cyber crimes, commits an offense in another country, it becomes impossible to proceed legally against that perpetrator.

Evidence suggests that out of 52 nations only 10 have “amended their laws to cover more than half of the kinds of crimes that need to be addressed” (Cyber Crimes and Punishment, 2000, p.1). Thus, in the absence of appropriate legal framework in many countries, the number of cyber crimes keeps increasing. This menace can also have serious repercussions on the economy of nation because “countries where legal protections are inadequate will become increasingly less able to compete in the new economy” (Cyber Crimes and Punishment, 2000, p.1). Thus, the menace of cyber crimes assumes such major proportions that it can even threaten the trade and political relationship among different nations.

Reference List Cyber Crime… and Punishment; Archaic Laws Threaten Global Information, (2000). McConnell International LLC. Retrieved July 25, 2011, from http://www.witsa.org/papers/McConnell-cybercrime.pdf Chapter 18: Cyber Crimes, (n.d.). cbi.nic.in. Retrieved July 25, 2011, from http://cbi.nic.in/aboutus/manuals/Chapter_18.pdf