Cyber Crime (Essay Sample)

Cybercime
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Cybercrime
Cyber crime also known as computer crime denotes any criminal activity that is conducted by the use of computers and networks. Cybercrime is committed by a cybercriminal who uses computer technology to commit criminal activities. He/she uses a computer as a tool to facilitate crime or as a target. According to Halder and Jaishankar (2011), cybercrime refers to an offence that is committed against an individual or a group of individuals, in the presence of mens rea, the criminal intent, to intentionally lead to the harm of the victim's reputation or result to the mental or physical harm on the victim either directly or indirectly by the use contemporary telecommunication networks including the internet (emails, chat rooms, groups and notice boards) and via mobile phones (MMS/SMS). This is basically using a computer to commit and further illegal actions. Examples of cybercrimes include; online information theft from organizations such as banks, unauthorized computer access, online predatory crimes and identity theft.
Cybercrime, like traditional crimes can be conducted anywhere, at any time and has the capability of taking may shapes, although it is different from the traditional modes of conducting crime basically because it is conducted by the use of a computer. Even though some cybercrimes were present, using traditional modes, before the rise of technology such as identity theft, child pornography and privacy violation, the ubiquitous prefix ‘cyber' came in because of the up come of the computer networks, mainly the internet, which served as an extension to the pre-existing criminal behaviors and other illegal activities. Therefore, cybercrime is a criminal activity involving the use of a computer system, internet, or a computer technology (Engdahl, 2010).
Types of Cybercrime
Cybercrime has a broad range of aspects and activities that falls under its categories; however, it is mainly categorized into: (1) crime conducted against a computer, which is the primary target; (2) crime conducted by the use of a computer device or network, in which the primary target is independent of the computer device or network (Wall, 2008). Crimes facilitated by the use of a computer device or network include; phishing scams, cyberstalking, information warfare, identity theft and fraud. On the other hand, crimes primarily targeting a computer network or a device include; malware, denial-of-service attacks and computer viruses.
Reducing Cybercrime
In combating cybercrime, computers can be used to generate evidence (Ross, 2010). Evidence can be acquired from a direct source, which is the primarily targeted computer or the computer used in commission of the offence; and from an indirect source, which is a computer, not the direct source, that may contain valuable records to the criminal investigator.
Conclusion
Cybercrime has evolved immensely over the past decades and with increase in speed, anonymity and convenience that the modern technology has to offer, cybercriminals are able to commit diverse ranges of illegal activities. Cybercrimes have become so precarious currently, that these crimes pose a threat to a nation's financial health and security. This is so by such acts as; interception of confidential govern...