Cybercrime
Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or networks. These crimes involve the use of technology to commit fraud, identity theft, data breaches, computer viruses, scams, and expanded upon in other malicious acts. Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in computer systems and networks to gain unauthorized access, steal sensitive information, disrupt services, and cause financial or reputational harm to individuals, organizations, and governments.[1]
Not to be confused with virtual crime.
In 2000, the tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders placed cyber crimes into five categories: unauthorized access, damage to computer data or programs, sabotage to hinder the functioning of a computer system or network, unauthorized interception of data within a system or network, and computer espionage.[1]
Internationally, both state and non-state actors engage in cybercrimes, including espionage, financial theft, and other cross-border crimes. Cybercrimes crossing international borders and involving the actions of at least one nation-state are sometimes referred to as cyberwarfare. Warren Buffett has said that cybercrime is the "number one problem with mankind"[2] and that it "poses real risks to humanity".[3]
The World Economic Forum's (WEF) 2020 Global Risks Report confirmed that organized cybercrime groups are joining forces to commit criminal activities online, while estimating the likelihood of their detection and prosecution to be less than 1 percent in the US.[4] There are also many privacy concerns surrounding cybercrime when confidential information is intercepted or disclosed, legally or otherwise.
The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report ranks cybercrime as one of the top 10 risks facing the world today and for the next 10 years.[5] If cybercrime were viewed as a nation state, cybercrime would count as the third largest economy in the world.[6] In numbers, cybercrime is predicted to cause over 9 trillion in damages worldwide in 2024.[6]
Fraud and identity theft (although this increasingly uses malware, hacking or phishing, making it an example of "computer as target" as well as "computer as tool")
Information warfare
Phishing scams
Spam
Propagation of illegal, obscene, or , including harassment and threats
offensive content
One of the highest-profile banking computer crimes occurred over a course of three years beginning in 1970. The chief teller at the Park Avenue branch of New York's embezzled over $1.5 million from hundreds of accounts.[59]
Union Dime Savings Bank
A hacking group called MOD (Masters of Deception) allegedly stole passwords and technical data from , Nynex, and other telephone companies as well as several big credit agencies and two major universities. The damage caused was extensive; one company, Southwestern Bell, suffered losses of $370,000.[59]
Pacific Bell
In 1983, a 19-year-old UCLA student used his PC to break into a Defense Department International Communications system.
[59]
Between 1995 and 1998 the satellite pay-to-view encrypted SKY-TV service was hacked several times during an ongoing technological arms race between a pan-European hacking group and Newscorp. The original motivation of the hackers was to watch Star Trek reruns in Germany, which was something which Newscorp did not have the copyright permission to allow.[60]
Newscorp
On 26 March 1999, the infected a document on a victim's computer, then automatically emailed that document and a copy of the virus to other people.
Melissa worm
In February 2000, an individual going by the alias of began a series of denial-of-service attacks against high-profile websites, including Yahoo!, Dell, Inc., E*TRADE, eBay, and CNN. About 50 computers at Stanford University, along with computers at the University of California at Santa Barbara, were among the zombie computers sending pings in the distributed denial-of-service attacks. On 3 August 2000, Canadian federal prosecutors charged MafiaBoy with 54 counts of illegal access to computers.
MafiaBoy
The worm corrupted SCADA microprocessors, particularly the types used in Siemens centrifuge controllers.
Stuxnet
The (RBN) was registered as an internet site in 2006. Initially, much of its activity was legitimate. But apparently the founders soon discovered that it was more profitable to host illegitimate activities and to offer its services to criminals. The RBN has been described by VeriSign as "the baddest of the bad".[61] It provides web hosting services and internet access to all kinds of criminal and objectionable activities that earn up to $150 million in one year. It specializes in personal identity theft for resale. It is the originator of MPack and an alleged operator of the now defunct Storm botnet.
Russian Business Network
On 2 March 2010, Spanish investigators arrested three men suspected of infecting over 13 million computers around the world. The botnet of infected computers included PCs inside more than half of the companies and more than 40 major banks, according to investigators.[62]
Fortune 1000
In August 2010, the US Department of Homeland Security shut down the international Dreamboard. The website had approximately 600 members and may have distributed up to 123 terabytes of child pornography (roughly equivalent to 16,000 DVDs). To date this is the single largest US prosecution of an international child pornography ring; 52 arrests were made worldwide.[63]
pedophile ring
In January 2012, experienced a security breach compromising the credit card numbers, personal information, and billing and shipping addresses of as many as 24 million customers.[64]
Zappos.com
In June 2012, and eHarmony were attacked, and 65 million password hashes were compromised. Thirty thousand passwords were cracked, and 1.5 million eHarmony passwords were posted online.[65]
In December 2012, the website experienced a denial-of-service attack that potentially compromised 70 million customers and 8.5 million active viewers. Other banks thought to be compromised included Bank of America, J. P. Morgan, U.S. Bank, and PNC Financial Services.[66]
Wells Fargo
On 23 April 2013, the Twitter account of the Associated Press was hacked. The hacker posted a hoax tweet about fictitious attacks on the White House that they claimed left then- injured.[67] The hoax tweet resulted in a brief plunge of 130 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the removal of $136 billion from the S&P 500 index,[68] and the temporary suspension of AP's Twitter account. The Dow Jones later restored its session gains.
President Obama
Illicit access to camera sensors, microphone sensors, phonebook contacts, all internet-enabled apps, and metadata of mobile telephones running Android and iOS was reportedly provided by Israeli spyware that was found to be in operation in at least 46 nation-states around the world. Journalists, royalty, and government officials were among the targets.[71][72] Earlier accusations that Israeli weapons companies were meddling in international telephony[73] and smartphones[74] have been eclipsed by the 2018 Pegasus spyware revelations.
[70]
In December 2019, and The New York Times revealed that ToTok, a messaging application widely used in the United Arab Emirates, is a spying tool for the UAE. An investigation revealed that the Emirati government was attempting to track every conversation, movement, relationship, appointment, sound, and image of those who installed the app on their phones.[75]
US intelligence officials
Keeping your software and operating system update to benefit from security patches
Using anti-virus software that can detect and remove malicious threats
Use strong passwords with a variety of characters that aren't easy to guess
Refrain from opening attachments from spam emails
Do not click on links from spam emails
Do not give out personal information over the internet unless you can verify that the destination is safe
Contact companies about suspicious requests of your information
Australian High Tech Crime Centre
a wing of Mumbai Police, India
Cyber Crime Investigation Cell
established in Greece in 2004
Cyber Crime Unit (Hellenic Police)
EUROPOL
INTERPOL
in the United Kingdom
National Cyber Crime Unit
in the United States
National Security Agency
in Denmark.
National Special Crime Unit
in the United States
National White Collar Crime Center
- Korea National Police Agency
Cyber Terror Response Center
- Japan National Police Agency
Cyber Police Department
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