Cybercrime, Its Types And Ways Of Prevention

Introduction

When defining Cybercrimes, there are many definitions that would come in mind, however, the definition of cybercrime from Searchsecurity. techtarget. com is “Cybercrime is any criminal activity that involves a computer, networked device or a network. While most cybercrimes are carried out in order to generate profit for the cybercriminals. ” A long time ago there were different crimes that harm people in many ways.

Cybercrime is the most famous and prevalent crime in our time because of the scientific progress and technological development we live in. Cybercrime is known as the Crime that requires the use of devices and network to cause the harm to people. Cybercrime includes several types like the unlawful invasion into computer networks, for example, hacking (gaining unauthorized entry to data in a system or computer). The second form is the disruption of computer functionality and network space, for example, viruses and DDoS, denial of service attacks that are “an attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. ” Indeed, we are able to protect ourselves from cybercrimes by following the upcoming guidelines. We believe that following these methods is an essential way to protect our privacy and secure information. Moreover, following these simple but effective ways of protection will not only save us our information but will also make it harder for cybercriminals to even try to steal any privacy.

Cybercrime

In the current age of online processing and high technology, most materials are found online and are prone to cyber threats. Cybercrime or computer-oriented crime is a crime that includes using a computer and a network or other form of information communications technology. (3) These acts include the spread of viruses or other malware, hacking and distributed denial of service attacks. The crimes tend to illegal trespass into a computer system’s confidential information or database of another, manipulation or theft of stored or online data, or impairment of equipment and data. The Internet space or cyberspace is growing very fast so do cyber-crimes.

Cyber-crimes have serious impacts over the society in the form of economic disturbance, psychological disorder, disruption to a person’s financial health, or even threat to National defense system. Cyber-piracy crimes vary such as hacking, copyright infringement, white collar crimes, money laundering, and unwarranted mass-surveillance. Internet-based stock fraud has earned criminals millions per year. The 2011 Norton Cyber-crime disclosed that over 74 million people in the United States were victims of cyber-crime in 2010. These criminal acts resulted in $32 billion in direct financial losses. Computer-oriented misconducts are deceivable and lost millions of cash and caused a lot of damage.

Types of Cybercrime

There are many types of cybercrime, but the most important 4 types are:

1. Identity Theft: Also called identity fraud, through which stolen personal information exists for the Internet and used in fraud, which leads to harm to the individual.
2. Auto Teller Machine (ATM) fraud: Stolen money from users by ATM machine become by hacking the machine and make the user type his information, ID and password, so the machine gathers the information and tells the user that the machine is broken. So, ATM fraud method is one of the favorite ways of stealing currency around the world.
3. Computer viruses: A computer virus, a portion of a program code that has been designed to furtively copy itself into other such codes or computer files. It is usually created by a prankster or vandal to affect a non-utilitarian result or to destroy data and program code. Sending virus via the global internet, it’s an Electronic crime Punishable by law and here are some types:
• Trojan Horse
• Worm
• Back Door
4. Extortion: This is an organized crime in which the victim is blackmailed and forced to offer money or property to the gang, Media like email, phone, cell phone, and Facebook is used to design this sort of crimes.

How can I protect myself from internet crimes?

All of us can protect ourselves from hackers and plenty of things that could damage our devices and networks by Practicing some methods that will definitely decrease the damage. We are going to talk about the methods that we have to do.

Using a full-service internet security guide

For instance, Kaspersky Total Security 2018 provides a good protection against viruses and internet crimes. It protects passwords, privacy, photos, files. It also protects your money and your bank information when you shop online. So, we conclude that using an internet security guide is so important to have, and it plays a huge role in protecting our devices.

Using strong passwords

You should always try to use hard and complex passwords including letters, numbers, and symbols, and you should use different passwords on different websites. Avoid using easy passwords, for instance, you first and last name, your pet name or your birth date. Also, avoid repeating your password on different sites. research by Ofcom last month revealed that over half of UK adults (55%) use the same passwords for most, if not all, websites they visit, while one in four (26%) use birthdays or names as passwords.

Keep your software update

Cybercriminals always try and search for the flaws you have in your software to get access to your system.

Manage your social media settings

What I mean by managing your social media settings is that the less you share information about yourself the better. Sharing your personal information can lead the hacker to get access to a lot of information about you and it can eventually lead to hacking your account. For example, if you shared the name of your pet or your mother’s name, they can answer to some of the most common security questions.

Shop online on secure sites

All of us at least tried shopping online once. People nowadays prefer shopping online more than actually going to the mall, but the internet can be one of the most dangerous places. Before entering your card information, make sure that the shop is secure and trusted. By reading reviews and comments about the shop you are going to avoid being exposed to theft and manipulation. Also, make sure that the unbroken key symbol is showing in your browser. Always search for ‘https’ instead of ‘http’ to ensure security.

Be wary of public Wi-Fi

Most Wi-Fi do not encrypt information and once the data leaves your device it's in the clear and any anyone can have access to it, says Symantec's Sian John. "That means any 'packet sniffer' [a program which can intercept data] or malicious individual who is sitting in a public destination with a piece of software that searches for data being transferred on a Wi-Fi network can intercept your unencrypted data. That’s why you should avoid sharing really. sensitive data while you are using public Wi-Fi, for example, bank payments and card information.

Avoid being scammed

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Always make sure before you click on a link or an email you don’t know the source of. They might include viruses and you’ll end up being scammed. By using some of these steps you are going to be fully protected and the amount of cybercrime you are going to receive is going to decrease.

Conclusion

As we can see we talked about cybercrime and we know that it is a crime that includes using a computer and a network or other form of information communications technology. And we talk about the risks they cause, it is very dangerous, so we must protect ourselves by applying the following tips. Such tips are using a strong password, use a full-service internet security guide, keep your software updated and so on. In the end, everyone must know how to protect themselves and do all the necessary precautions for full protection from cybercrime risks.