What Exactly Is Cybercrime?
Cybercrime is often described as either a crime involving computing against a digital target or a crime involving the use of a computing system to commit criminal activities.
Cybercrime, as a broad category of crime, encompasses a wide range of behaviours such as unauthorised data access, the use of computer connections to commit fraud, and the digital ransoming of systems.
Cybercrime is also known as computer crime.
Hufpost Defines Cybercrime
In a broad sense, cybercrime can be divided into two types: those in which criminals target networks and those in which people perform criminal acts using computing systems.
Another way to say it is that the complexity of cybercrime has increased in tandem with the complexity of computing systems. In the 1980s, cybercrime would most likely include displaying fake data on a workstation or a basic network or hacking a network to achieve illicit results.
The landscape of cybercrime is much more complex nowadays. Data breaches are one sort of cybercrime in which hackers and black hat operators jeopardise the privacy of critical data assets. Then there are cybercrimes in which hackers target networks to disrupt various mission-critical computing processes managed by governments or enterprises. The phenomenon of cyberwarfare occurs whenever one nation targets the networks or proxies of another nation.
There is a wide range of criminal operations that apply in the “other world” of cybercrime, where computers are used to pursue criminal activities ranging from utilising computers for sex trafficking or fraud to using computers to drive systems that might physically hurt people. Because computers’ power has grown so vast, the nature of cybercrime has evolved proportionately.
Another wide category of cybercrime is still in its infancy. Cryptocurrency cybercrime occurs when computers are used to obtain or alter digital assets illegally.
This type of cybercrime is as new as the use of bitcoin or tokenized assets represented digitally.
Cybercrime did not previously cover the fraudulent or illegal handling or theft of these digital assets. In contrast, there are now all kinds of electronic assets in digital wallets, and cyber thieves are attempting to steal them.
There is also a new type of cryptocurrency cybercrime in which operators are pursued misleading investors or fraudulently representing digital assets themselves.
All of this means that the realm of cybercrime is large enough to necessitate multiple types of law enforcement. In the area of law enforcement, security professionals are increasingly wearing multiple “hats” and employing more sophisticated models to target cyber criminals.
Ransomware, a prominent type of cybercrime, is a perfect illustration of this. The cybercriminal utilises a computing system to hold some assets “ransom” for payment in ransomware activities.
In contrast, there are now all kinds of electronic assets in digital wallets, and cyber thieves are attempting to steal them.
There is also a new type of cryptocurrency cybercrime in which operators are pursued misleading investors or fraudulently representing digital assets themselves.
All of this means that the realm of cybercrime is large enough to necessitate multiple types of law enforcement. In the area of law enforcement, security professionals are increasingly wearing multiple “hats” and employing more sophisticated models to target cyber criminals.
Ransomware, a prominent type of cybercrime, is a perfect illustration of this. The cybercriminal utilises a computing system to hold some assets “ransom” for payment in ransomware activities.
Because cryptocurrency is less traceable than fiat currencies, ransomware scheme operators frequently employ Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency for payment. There’s also ransomware-as-a-service, in which thieves use the internet to deliver malware equipment to other criminals.
As seen, the world of cybercrime has grown in complexity and relevance to many forms of modern business, as well as consumer and public protection.
