The Concept of Digital Crime - Research Paper Example

Digital Crime and Terrorism] By Forecasting Future Trends In Digital Crime And Digital Terrorism Digital crime is actually unlawful act that is done by using a computer. For past few years this activity has increased all around the world drastically. For this reason law enforcement agencies are required to learn from the past to predict the upcoming digital crimes. There is a need of new technology and training to stay up to date with this problem. This is because as the technology is evolving, people are using these advance technologies to do unlawful activities and this problem will only increase with the passage of time. To know about the future digital crime and terrorism large number of analysis and data collection is being done all over the world to minimize the digital terror (Taylor, Tory J. Caeti, & Eric J. Fritsch, 2006). People are finding new ways to stay protected from such crimes which are unethical. The eight forecasts that can help stop these crimes are as follows: As the number of cyber-crimes increases, the number of reports will also increase drastically. For this reason officers need to be trained with respect to the new emerging technologies. Also, the attorneys and judges should have more knowledge about these crimes. Recent studies show that that officer in computer crime department are overworked and are stressed. Therefore they need better training to cope up with the technology. Many reports have been received about people complaining that they are getting hurtful comments from unknown individuals. For this reason new laws are being developed to prevent and challenge these crimes and attorneys and judges are being acknowledged (Raisinghani, 2004). The second forecast is the major threat to people which is the internet fraud. Large number of people will be affected by this terror in many ways such as identity theft. Identity theft can be done from a stranger or even a member of family. It is usually done for financial gain. Now days when everyone has internet at their homes people use internet to buy many products. This brings up the identity theft problem. For this reason it is necessary to notify individuals about the emerging problem (Taylor, Tory J. Caeti, & Eric J. Fritsch, 2006). The third forecast is to create new laws and also to come up with new methodologies to fight these crimes, that is, people should have more education about them, how to prevent such crime and also how the investigation should be done. As very soon these crimes will occur in larger of numbers. For example: cyber stalking. It is the act of harassing people electronically through text messages, email etc. it is more common these days than physical harassment. Cyber stalkers tend to threat victims without showing them their true identities. This is done through social networking sites (Barrett, 1997). As the time is passing many computer hacker groups are improving their skills through various guides, tutorials and software. Due to the increase in number of software that helps these hackers it has become very difficult to control this act. For example a hacker built tools on the internet which were soon adopted by other hacking groups. To prevent these markets should not allow selling such tools and products but it is beyond control. Also, underdeveloped countries do not have laws for such crimes which make it more complicated to confront these hackers (Neto & Brasileiro, 2007). Large crime groups will use digital terrorism as their criminal instrument. Here are number of ways of carrying out these crimes such as counterfeit currency and documents, illegal immigration, black market etc. due to increase in technologies such as color scanners, graphics software etc. counterfeit currency production has become an easier task all around the world. These are also very difficult to detect and prevent. For example a US dollar bill was impossible to counterfeit but now it has become possible. Also in this way counterfeit passports can be made. Gambling is also one of the organized crime of these days which is also increasing with the technology. Gambler need to provide their credit card number to access these websites. Hence instead of going outside people can login to these websites (Grabosky & Smith, 1998). People have found means of getting illegal immigrants in the country. Also counterfeit products such as DVDs books, software are being stolen and sold to individuals without rights. Individuals, identities are being used for illegal purposes to make money. Telecommunication frauds are also becoming very popular these days as it has very low risks and high profits. This can be either theft of credit card numbers, hacking of calls or phone theft. Studies shows that call hacking have been decreased whereas credit card fraud has increased immensely. Global networking is now used by terrorists. This is the actual cyber terrorism. Extremist groups are using computer technology to carry out crimes. There are different types of cyber-attacks such as information stealing websites, attack on banking websites etc. Many countries of the world have immense technical capabilities to disrupt the US information infrastructure. Viruses and other unwanted software can be sent to individual through computer. Terrorist groups use this kind of software to gain access to information (Casey, 2011). Computer industry has grown vastly over the past five years. The criminals have no bounds of time or money to carry out these schemes. Even though law enforcement agencies know main causes behind these attacks but still it is very difficult to prevent them. These problems will increase with the passage of time as the technology grows. Illegal transactions can be carried out through the use of cellphones. All efficiencies are making easier for criminals to evolve. The technologies that these criminals use to carry out their tasks are becoming better day by day. If an individual goes to a store for shopping his credit card number can be accessed without knowing. And if he tries to shop online he is open to the risk of illegal websites and all the information can be accessed even then. Terrorists have a way of concealing their identities which is one of the most dangerous threat to a country. People who are new to these technologies have to be more trained in these technologies. This requires large number of people to perform this task (Taylor & Fritsch, 2010). To reduce such crimes and terrorist activities it is absolutely essential that a record is to be made of such acts so that we can see the number of crimes that are occurring all around the world. The law enforcement agencies can predict and prevent such activities from happening by analysis of records. Different types of forecasts have been discussed in this report. The most important thing is to change the laws with the technology; otherwise this terrorism will continue to grow immensely. Telecommunication fraud is another type of digital crime which is very common nowadays. Basically it is a profitable area of computer –related crime which has very variations. Mainly there are four types of telecommunication crimes in which most of the criminals are involved. The first one is to snatch the credit card numbers which can be get by hacking the secure information for example accessing computer records, by recording the computerized voice mailboxes, telephone billing files, etc. The second one which is normally decreased nowadays is to hack the telecommunication switches, which are basically the desktop computers for the use of routing calls .The third one which is the main crime is wireless phone theft and fraud (Barrett, 1997). The last one which has increased significantly is that the crime groups got access to the private automatic branch exchanges of many multinational companies to use telecommunication services for their own benefit. In short any organization which may be private or public must be aware of the threat caused by technology-related abuses and their impact on both crime and security. Similarly there should be law against these crimes. For taking these security measures one must have the knowledge of security issues, processes and practices. References Barrett, N. (1997). Digital Crime: Policing the Cybernation. England: Kogan Page Ltd. Casey, E. (2011). Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet. Academic Press. Grabosky, P. N., & Smith, R. G. (1998). Crime in the Digital Age: Controlling Telecomunications and Cyberspace Illegalities. New York: Transaction Publishers. Neto, F. M., & Brasileiro, F. V. (2007). Advances in Computer-Supported Learning. New York: Idea Group Inc (IGI). Raisinghani, M. S. (2004). Business Intelligence in the Digital Economy: Opportunities, Limitations and Risks. New York: Idea Group Inc (IGI). Taylor, R. W., & Fritsch, E. J. (2010). Digital Crime and Terrorism. Canada: Prentice Hall. Taylor, R. W., Tory J. Caeti, D. K., & Eric J. Fritsch. (2006). Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism. London: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Read More