Crime that takes place on in cyberspace is quite similar to physical crime. It is a person using their knowledge to break into another someone else’s personal property. There are several laws against both types of crimes, and the penalties are just as harsh in the cyber crime world as they are in the physical. Also, both of them have the potential to cause a lot of harm and damage to others.
The difference between the two is the way that the victims, or potential victims, feel about such cyber and physical crime. In recent surveys, it states that more people believe that their chances of being victims of cyber crime are much higher than being victims of physical crime. Many people are scared to participate in online banking or to shop online in fear of someone intercepting and hacking into their accounts. Also, it has been found that people are very cautious when it comes to documents that contain personal information on them by completely destroying them or assuring that they are safely stored (crime-research.org). According to a survey conducted by IBM, more than half of the businesses located in the United States believe that cyber crime is more costly to them than physical crime. The ways in which it costs them are through lost revenue, loss of current and prospective customers, and loss of employee productivity (allaboutroimag.org).
Cyber crimes are unlawful acts where the computer is used either as a tool or a target or both.
Cyber crimes are unlawful acts and has been defined by UN as
United Nations’ Definition of Cybercrime
Cybercrime spans not only state but national boundaries as well. Perhaps we should look to international organizations to provide a standard definition of the crime. At the Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, in a workshop devoted to the issues of crimes related to computer networks, cybercrime was broken into two categories and defined thus
- Cybercrime in a narrow sense (computer crime): Any illegal behavior directed by means of electronic operations that targets the security of computer systems and the data processed by them.
- Cybercrime in a broader sense (computer-related crime): Any illegal behavior committed by means of, or in relation to, a computer system or network, including such crimes as illegal possession [and] offering or distributing information by means of a computer system or network.
There are more concrete examples, including
- Unauthorized access
- Damage to computer data or programs
- Computer sabotage
- Unauthorized interception of communications
- Computer espionage
History
Cyber crime first started with hackers trying to break into computer networks. Some did it just for the thrill of accessing high-level security networks, but others sought to gain sensitive, classified material. Eventually, criminals started to infect computer systems with computer viruses, which led to breakdowns on personal and business computers. Computer viruses are forms of code or malware programs that can copy themselves and damage or destroy data and systems. When computer viruses are used on a large scale, like with bank, government or hospital networks, these actions may be categorized as cyber terrorism. Computer hackers also engage in phishing scams, like asking for bank account numbers, and credit card theft.
When computers and networks came into being in the 1990s, hacking was done basically to get more information about the systems. Hackers even competed against one another to win the tag of the best hacker. As a result, many networks were affected; right from the military to commercial organizations. Initially, these hacking attempts were brushed off as mere nuisance as they did not pose a long-term threat. However, with malicious software becoming ubiquitous during the same period, hacking started making networks and systems slow. As hackers became more skillful, they started using their knowledge and expertise to gain benefit by exploiting and victimizing others.
