Week 5 Project

The Changing Nature of Cyber Crime

Marquita Watkins

MBA5005 | Law & Ethics for Managers

South University - Online

July 31, 2019

Introduction

The human life has transformed gradually for quite a long time, this includes the manner job is done, the way people interact among other aspects of the human life. At the center of this transformation and the changes in human life is the technology which has developed and encouraged development in other sectors of human life. Despite technology being so useful and being the driving factors of so many changes that take place in the human life, it has come with so many challenges and the main one which has become the subject of this topic is cyber-crime. Cyber-crime can be defined as the illegal or criminal activities that are normally carried out by the use of computers and the internet at large which may include hacking, piracy, fraud, identity theft among many others. This topic has been selected due to the ongoing debates on cyber-crime, how it keeps on evolving and the general implication it has on individuals and business organizations (Agustina, 2015).

The history of cybercrime goes back to the 1970s where it began simply as hacking and have grown to be a serious threat considering the complexity in the form it is taking in the modern times. The issue has proved to be threatening and the serious part is the fact that it is not getting any better, it keeps on worsening day by day and in the modern world it is one of the main issues organizations and individuals got to deal with. There have been several cases that deal with cyber-crimes in the recent times by various legal institutions. The transformation and the fact that cyber-crime is taking a different angle which has also motivated the changes in some laws that regulated the crime level in the society. There are several cases that have been handled that relate to cyber-crime. The changing nature and the increasing number of cases in the modern cyber-crime is the one reason why this topic was actually selected.

Literature Review

Cyber-crime has attracted a lot of discussions in various platform both business as well as the legal dimension of this practice. This has motivated many scholars to come up with research studies hence the many literatures on this particular topic. There are so many studies on the subject and it seems majority have come up with a common result of study outcome. Going by the recommendations of many scholars it is quite clear that cyber-crime keeps on changing from time to time. One of the findings that these literatures have revealed is that the level of cyber-crime seems to hike with the development in technology. As technology changes and gets more advanced, the state of cyber-crime also changes.

More developed countries like the United States experience many cases of cyber-crime, companies have been sued over the years for not protecting the information from their clients which end up in the hands of hackers. Earlier this year the CEO and the whole management of Facebook was summoned to give a report on how some vital data about the clients were exposed. This was one of the most recent cases of cyber-crime. The United States have come up with quite a number of laws that help in governing cases that relate to cyber-crime. Initially the main issue was hacking which was mainly in the organizations but currently several researchers have found out that it has changed and the crime are even directed towards individuals. The crime has taken different dimensions due to the increasing cases and the transformation that Cyber-crime seems to be undergoing over the years (Arief, Adzmi & Gross, 2015).

There are several articles that have discussed this particular topic one of those articles is the Understanding cybercrime: Phenomenon challenge and legal response. This article has pointed out an issue that cyber-crime has become so technical to the point that technical measures alone do not solve the problem, it has therefore been recommended that the law enforcement should go ahead and carry out investigation and even go ahead to process the results and come up with some effective prevents the spread of this vice. One of the main areas that have made this vice somehow quite complex is the fact that the related adequate legislation has actually changed and apparently this is the reason the level of importance of cyber security crimes. This work of literature has as well pointed out the fact that the issue of cyber-crimes is not only a national problem instead it actually goes beyond boarders. There are several cases of mails being sent across the global with illegal content. This shows that this is an issue of global concern. The article has clearly explained the international aspect of the cyber-crime and even discussed the strategies that can actually be employed to take control. The issue needs to be given significant level of global attention, there are so many cases that call for cooperation between countries in order to effectively solve the problem. Cyber-crime touches several areas including exposing the minors to harmful contents like pornography, the organizations are made vulnerable among others. This article recommended serious monitoring on the technological arena because it is the motivating factor behind the increase in cases of cyber-crime (Arief, Adzmi & Gross, 2015).

The other scholar who has looked into this issue was mainly focusing on the cyber-crime more closely and looking into the impact this vice has in the community in general. Cyber-crime is one of the main problems that the current organizations and the various legal institutions. The increase in cyber-crime all over the world is being contributed to by the level of technological development. In the modern world it is so easy to get access to information through the mobile phones and computers. The technological development has brought in platforms like the social medias that has been embraced significantly by the current generation. So generally there are several articles and works of literature that have been written on this particular subject. (Finklea & Theohary, 2015).

Laws and Regulations

There are several laws that have been set on this specific issue of cyber-crime. This issue is so serious and it has adverse implications in the society. This is one of the reasons the governments together with other legislative bodies have come up with laws that are meant to control the issues to do with cyber-crime. The criminal s has increases and so are the cyber-crime cases, it is therefore, important to have some proper law to give a scale of judgement in the courts of law in relation to criminal activities that relate to the computers and the internet. According to United Nations conference on Trade and Development, approximately 72% of the countries globally have put in place cyber laws, and in the remaining 28% approximately 9% have draft legislation, 18% have no legislation on the same while 1% have completely no data. The laws in this case are both for the developing and the developed countries globally. It is clear that the issue takes a different direction day by day and so it is important to have clear guidelines legally to help the people in making relevant decisions. The federal government came up with laws back in the 1986. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Was formulated to give the federal government a clear way of dealing with the criminals. This law has been amended severally considering the fact that the technology keeps on changing day by day.

Conclusion

Cyber-crime cases are among the most common cases in the various legal bodies, the various legal bodes have solved summary cases that deal with the cases. The crime started back in the 1970s as hacking but today it has advanced. The concept is therefore that serious as it has implication on individuals and the companies at large. Several research studies have been organized to cover this topic and it is quite clear that this issue is serious and has been covered in many works of literature (Finklea & Theohary, 2015).

References

Agustina, J. R. (2015). Understanding cyber victimization: Digital architectures and the

disinhibition effect. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 9(1), 35.

Arief, B., Adzmi, M. A. B., & Gross, T. (2015). Understanding cybercrime from its stakeholders' perspectives: Part 1--attackers. IEEE Security & Privacy, 13(1), 71-76.

Finklea, K. M., & Theohary, C. A. (2015, January). Cybercrime: conceptual issues for

congress and US law enforcement. Congressional Research Service, Library of

Congress.