SOCIAL IMPACTS OF CYBER CRIMES

Social Impacts of Cyber Crime

Social Impacts of Cyber Crime

Introduction

Cyber criminals take full advantage of the anonymity, secrecy and interconnectedness provided by the Internet, therefore attacking the very foundations of our modern information society. Cyber crime can involve botnets, computer viruses, cyber bullying, cyber stalking, cyber terrorism, cyber pornography, Denial of Service attacks, hacktivism, identity theft, malware and spam. Law enforcement officials have struggled to keep pace with cyber criminals, who cost the global economy billions annually. Police are attempting to use the same tools cyber criminals use to perpetrate crimes in an effort to prevent those crimes and bring the guilty parties to justice. This essay begins by defining cyber crime, and then moves to a discussion of its economic and social impacts. It continues with detailed excursions into cyber bullying and cyber pornography, two especially representative examples of cyber crime today, and concludes with a discussion of ways to curtail the spread of cyber crime.

Computer-related misdeed designated days back to the sources of computing itself, though the larger connectivity between computers through the Internet has conveyed the notion of cyber misdeed into the public consciousness of our data humanity, where it continues at the start of the 21st century.

In 1995, when the World Wide Web was in its very early phases of development, futurist Gene Stephens composed about the present and future truth of cyber misdeed then made some predictions: "Billions of dollars in deficiency have currently been discovered. Billions more have gone undetected. Trillions will be thieved, most without detection, by the appearing expert lawless individual of the twenty-first 100 years - the cyberspace offender" (Stephens, 1995, p. 24).

Reflecting on his propositions in a 2008 item, Stephens documented that he and other ones foresaw much of the cyber misdeed to come:

I rightly outlook an blast of mobile telephone time robbery and telephone fraud; expanded cyber attacks and deception contrary to government and business; huge borrowing business card robbery and fraud; interior robbery of clients' persona by financially laboring and/or hungry economic service employees; more cyber porn, cyber stalking, cyber harassment, and cyber vengeance; and the use of biometrics and encryption as procedures of defending facts and numbers in cyberspace (Stephens, 2008, p. 33).

Media accounts since the 1990s have documented the numerous procedures by which lawless individuals have utilized the Internet to consign crimes. Cyber thieves have become accomplished at utilizing the anonymity and secrecy of the Internet to defraud their victims of their cash, their calm of brain and really even their lives. When victims let their guard down by muting a wholesome skepticism and caution, cyber misdeed takes place. As one FBI representative documented, "The scammer endeavors to prey on victims who are kind of in melody with what's going on in the world. The con alterations, but finally they're preying on the good will of people" (quoted in Simmons, 2008).

The Extent of Cyber Crime

Law enforcement agents have labored to recognize, apprehend, and prosecute these tech-savvy lawbreakers, even as sociologists have searched to get ...