cyber crime

CYBER CRIME RESEARCH

A cybercrime is any illegal behavior that is conducted by use of electronic operations that aim to destroy security of other computer systems and the data processed in them (Zhang, 14). Computer is the commonly use electronic garget to commit majority of cybercrimes. One of the cybercrimes that have been frequently committed in the last three months using the computer is hacking.

Hacking is a cybercrime where a person’s, organization or government computer system is broken into with the aim of getting private or sensitive information. In United States, cases of computer systems being hacked are very common and this has made hacking to be classified as a felony and an act punishable by law (TIWARI, 16). This cybercrime is committed by the criminals having a variety of software that help them access other people’s computer system without being noticed.

Hacking has been a crime frequently reported with some individuals and organization experiencing huge financial loss or tarnishing their public name. This is because hacking makes criminals access sensitive information such as trade secret, source code, customer and employee information, credit card information among other private and sensitive documents (Zhang, 14). This crime causes theft of identity and causes security breaches. Hacking has also been commonly used as a competitive advantage where a criminal can break in to an organization customer data files and later selling it to competitors or else, using the private and proprietary information to compete with that organizations.

A good example of hacking is an incidence that occurred in south California in the department of revenue in 2012. Some criminals hacked the department computer system and stole 3.6 million numbers of social security plus 387,000 credit and debit numbers (Zhang, 24). An investigation conducted by U.S secret service showed that the hackers had been accessing the department computer system from august but were unnoticed until this act was conducted.

Hacking has become more common in the last three month. In April 2015, U.S investigators noticed that records of four million workers were stolen and they suspected that the hacking was sponsored by Chinese government. Another recent case on hacking is the one of cost target companies which had caused theft of over $300 million (TIWARI, 19). Some of the companies that were affected by this act were Carrefour SA, NASDAQ and visa Inc. among others. This was an act of five hackers who were caught and prosecuted as they were charged with the biggest cybercrime is United States. In addition, computers have been used to hack government websites like the tax authority resulting to high number of frauds. Banks have also been hacked and millions of dollars stolen.

In conclusion, hacking is one of the most reported cybercrime. In fact, 30,000 websites are hacked every day. Preventive measures should therefore be taken to prevent this act as it can lead financial loss, damage of public image or other effects related to exposure of private and confidential information. In addition, people should be educated on what to do in case hacking occur.

Works cited

TIWARI, B K. “CYBER CRIMES AND ITS JURISDICTION.” Indian Streams Research Journal 3.5 (2013): 1-5.

Zhang, Y et al. “A survey of cybercrimes.” Security and Communication Networks 2012: 422-437. Print.