Essay on "Cybercrime Prevention Program"

Essay 10 pages (3003 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Cybercrime is a concept that never been comprehensively defined using a single and universal definition. It can be used to refer to a criminal offence that involves the use of Computers as the instruments of crime.

The dilemma

Cybercrimes fall under two broad categories (Davis and Hutchison, 1997). The initial one involves of the use of a computer system in carrying out criminal activities.This first category is made up illegal activities tha have often been targeted by police in the real world (physical), but at the moment is being observed at an elevated frequency over the internet backbone. Some of these forms of crime areharassment, child pornography, intellectual property violation, fraud, criminal harassment and the dealing in illegal substances and materials. This shows the fact that indeed cybercrime is entails components of traditional crime that is committed using computers. The second category has its definition based on the fact thatthe crime is commited using a computer. Cyber crime comprises of crimes that exploits computers and computer networks. The second category is the aspect of cyber crime that can entails criminal activities that makes use of the internet and other forms of computer technology such as hacking defacing of websites, unauthorized access to a certain computer system, creation as well as the dissemination of computer worms and viruses. This therefore means that cybercrime has no distinct face in terms of age. Its components are derived from both the traditional crimes as well as new and emerging crimes committed over the internet. Kowalski (2002) points out that other that cybercrime, there are other related crimes such as "computer-supported crime" which is used to mean that computer technology is utilized criminally in the communication and data storage.

The legal challenge

Vogel (2007) points out that there are several legal challenges to the concept of cyber crime. The first legal challenge concerns the lack of adequate definition of cybercrime as well as certain particular cyber offense(s). Cyber technology is developing rapidly and at a phenomenal pace which makes there are new offenses cropping up and new definitions. The existing definitions are also changing because of the changes in the parameters of the cybercrimes and offenses. This is to say that there are corresponding changes to the methods, patterns of the extremely harmful and abusive activities that are related to the information systems. The legal instruments should never be too rigid on the definition of cybercrime by not using terms that are too determinate. The definition of the term should be carried out using a framework that has and a degree of openness, vagueness and flexibility. The main legal challenge that emerges here is for the current legislative framework to strike a requirement balance with requirement of foreseebility legal requirement as well as the elimination of constitutional vagueness and the redefinition of indeterminate offenses

The threat of cybercrime to business

The commercial sector has been heavily hit by cybercrime. This is because of its dependence on the internet as well as electronic information (Home Office, 2010).The crime affects businesses in a number of ways such as fraud and data security,

Fraud is a great concern to the business community. Cyber crime affects businesses through online frauds or through the employment of unfair competition from fraudulent firms. This could be through online purchases conducted using stolen credit cards or with forged ones. Credit card firms may also need to reimburse various consumers because of their compromised details.

Cyber criminals acquire data from individuals or companies online. Various commercial breaches form a very sensitive matter for the various companies and the victims alike. It is however very difficult to fully assess the extent of the threat as well as its source whether internal or external. The cases of successful theft of data emanates from three main areas of vulnerability such as; centrally stored data, data -- in transit between individuals or organizations and contained in storage media such as memory sticks and laptops. Cyber criminal gangs often attack centrally-stored data which contains bulk information on credit card details that possesses critical identity information in a central database. The hackers overcome the existing security measures put in place in order to gain unauthorized access to the secured databases. Professional cyber criminals are always scrutinizing operating systems as well as application software for all emergent security vulnerabilities. On discovery, they come up with and deploy the tools of attack in order to breach the system's security mechanisms. A successful breach can lead to a massive data loss and exposure which can cause a violation of intellectual property and unauthorized access to highly sensitive and proprietary information. The main leeway foe this sort of crime in the business sphere is lack of appropriate or rather adequate implementation of the requisite data security standards. The main one include the unfamiliarity with the various security policies, different interpretations of the existing security policies, lack of adequate training as well as lack of adequate security tools (Cobb,2003).

Impact of cybercrime on businesses

The impact of cybercrime on businesses goes beyond financial integrity (Ringwelski, n.d).They include; Revenue loss, Time wastage, Damage to business reputation and Reduction in productivity

The amount of revenue loss that results from cybercrimes is phenomenal. Cybercrime cost U.S. businesses U.S.$3.8 million annually (Messmer,2010). A study by Ponemon Institute and duly sponsored by ArcSight which was conducted over a period of seven months and covered 45 organizations revealed that a lot of revenue is lost by business enterprises due to cybercrime (Ponemon Institute, 2010). The revenue loss was attributed to the cost spent by both government and business enterprises in coping with the various attacks.

A lot of time is wasted by the it staff of a given firm in handling of cybercrime incidents. This tends to distract them from working on the productive organizational activities. lot of time is wasted in handling of breaches and other cybercrime related events.

Firms whose securities have been breached suffer a lot of reputational damage as well as possible law suits from customers whose personal and private data have landed on the hands of the hackers. The consequence of this is loss of confidence and hence loss of business.

Cybercrime often results in moves that are aimed at counteracting the events. This negatively affects the productivity of employees.

Types of cybercrime

Cybercrime falls into three main categories

Those committed against persons

Those committed against business enterprises and non-profit organizations

Those committed against governments.

Lack of cybercrime prevention efforts

It is worth pointing out that all types of crimes poses a problem. There is never any way to entirely eradicate crime. As a perfect example, we use the U.S. Government in which not much has been achieved in the eradication of the crime. A lot of financial and private data have been breached due to security loopholes (New Scientist, 2005). This means that if the problem eradicated, then sensitive information such financial and medical ones will be in the public domain.

There are various problems that result as a consequence of cybercrime. This means that it is necessary to protect the valuable digital assets from the destructive motives of cybercriminals. A number of things can be done in order to come up with a comprehensive cyber crime prevention program. It is a fact that cybercrime cannot be completely eliminated. What can be done is to institute changes that include the adoption of effective security standards as pointed out by Gibson (2006) One of the main measures that should be taken is e-mail protection. Secured email gateways should be employed in order to block bots, spam, viruses as well as phishing attacks. There should also be token-based identity management system should also be appropriate.

An effective cyber crime prevention program

An effective cybercrime prevention program should entail both proactive and active systems of actual attack neutralization as well the adoption of appropriate legislation. There should be legislative and law enforcement involvement in the solving of cyber attacks. As an example, the U.S. Congress has been working on the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2005, that advocates for various actslike increasing the degree of criminal penalties for various forms of computer fraud that involve personal data (Gibson, 2006).

Governments and organizations should use physical security measures in order to prevent cybercrime from taking place. The computer networks should be protected from unauthorized access

Access control is an effective method of reducing cyber crimes. The reason being the fact that the information technology systems are protected using firewalls as well as other forms of security devices in order to provide a centralized point of communication between a firm's or government's computer network can significantly reduce cyber crimes.

Organizations and governments must make use of passwords in order to circumvent cybercrimes.

This is due to the fact that such a system makes it a must for proof of identity to be produced prior to gaining access to a given computer system. Passwords form the most elaborate and common way of securing network systems. Servers, firewalls and routers… READ MORE

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