Introduction to Cyber CrimeINTRODUCTION TO CYBER CRIMECyber crime also known as computer crime the use of a computer as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child pornography and intellectual property, stealing identities, or violating privacy. cybercrime, especially through the internet, has grown in importance as the computer has become central to commerce, entertainment, and government.
Because of the early and widespread adoption of computers and the internet in the united states, most of the earliest victims and villains of cybercrime were americans. By the 21st century, though, hardly a hamlet remained anywhere in the world that had not been touched by cybercrime of one sort or another.
DEFINING CYBERCRIMESNew technologies create new criminal opportunities but few new types of crime. What distinguishes cybercrime from traditional criminal activity? Obviously, one difference is the use of the digital computer, but technology alone is insufficient for any distinction that might exist between different realms of criminal activity. Criminals do not need a computer to commit fraud, traffic in child pornography and intellectual property, steal an identity, or violate someones privacy. All those activities existed before the “cyber” prefix became ubiquitous. Cybercrime, especially involving the internet, represents an extension of existing criminal behaviour alongside some novel illegal activities. 1-2
Most cybercrime is an attack on information about individuals, corporations, or governments. Although the attacks do not take place on a physical body, they do take place on the personal or corporate virtual body, which is the set of informational attributes that define people and institutions on the internet. in other words, in the digital age our virtual identities are essential elements of everyday life: we are a bundle of numbers and identifiers in multiple computer databases owned by governments and corporations. Cybercrime highlights the centrality of networked computers in our lives, as well as the fragility of such seemingly solid facts as individual identity. 3
An important aspect of cybercrime is its nonlocal character: actions can occur in jurisdictions separated by vast distances. this poses severe problems for law enforcement since previously local or even national crimes now require international cooperation. For example, if person accesses child pornography located on a computer in a country that does not ban child pornography, is that individual committing a crime in a nation where such materials are illegal? Where exactly does cybercrime take place? Cyberspace is simply a richer version of the space where a telephone conversation takes place, somewhere between the two people having the conversation. as a planet-spanning network, the internet offers criminals multiple hiding places in the real world as
A great deal depends on the circumstances of a nation-state, whether that country is an autonomous state like we tend to understand (e.g., a country that does not allow or impose laws of its own without the need for a parliamentary vote) or just an established online community, which exists solely for the purposes of criminal sharing of information. While the legal code for making the internet illegal has always been available—perhaps by chance—an open online community does not exist by default, with law enforcement agencies, ISPs and some institutions more likely to take active measures to enforce laws than to impose a strictly non-violent punishment.
The role of cybercrime is to prevent international action against individuals who have access to computer content (e.g., for the purpose of the aforementioned “black market”).
In a non-criminal world the criminal can often be found, but in the cyberworld, it rarely is. Any kind of “pornography” or trade goods, whether for profit or in the legitimate interests, are now more effectively handled by local authorities, as a police force in an environment where those goods can be considered illegal because they are deemed potentially illegal by the law, rather than the non-lawful one. These situations are often more difficult to confront successfully against criminals and therefore more difficult to deal with.
Cybercrime is not just the problem that it is. For example, the fact that it causes more crime in the country may be directly attributable to a lack in national awareness.
Another important aspect of cybercrime is its nonlocal character: actions can occur in jurisdictions separated by vast distances.
In this sense, however, this situation represents new challenges to the law enforcement system that are still evolving on a number of fronts. For example, as the internet continues to expand, other countries have started to take steps to limit cybercrime to certain places, whether it is in local borders or in the law-enforcement sector. The threat of cybercriminal attacks as reported in the “Law and Justice Bulletin” by the U.S. Attorney’s Office (U.S. AGU 2014), for example has made it more difficult to successfully crack any large-scale cybercrime case, and is increasingly important for the enforcement of the criminal law.
These new opportunities to combat cybercrime include:
By allowing for local jurisdictions to take measures in order to stop some cybercrime, it can create a more flexible criminal justice system, which the legal profession has long advocated and which may be less likely to resort to laws of criminal origin.
One way this is done is with tools of censorship. In recent years countries like Germany and France have proposed restricting access to certain websites in order to curb the flow of information.
In this manner, governments and NGOs will not simply enforce laws in an open and open criminal forum. It will be possible for governments to regulate and manage specific parts of the internet to address issues of global importance. This will result in a more flexible criminal justice system where criminal justice authorities act on the need for