Types of Cybercrime: Fraud, Espionage and Cyberterrorism

There are many different types of cybercrime. Most types of cybercrime can take place anywhere and at anytime. Cybercrime and security is a major concern for all businesses which have an Internet presence. Computer security and small business protection is addressed by network security measures implemented in house or administered by a computer security firm external to the business.

Cyber spies are individuals who use  illegal methods on the Internet to get secrets. They do this without the permission or knowledge of the individuals, companies or nations to whom these secrets belong.

The various types of cybercrime earn more in illegal activities than drug trafficking. Through the various types of cybercrime, people’s identities are frequently stolen. At least one person every 4 minutes has their identity stolen by criminals involved in different types of cybercrime.

Video-Cybercrime and Computer Security

The types of cybercrime include events such as identity theft, which may be facilitated by rootkits or Trojan horses.

Cyber spies use Trojan horses, spyware and various cracking techniques to gain access to restricted information by exploiting software vulnerabilities. A Trojan horse, like the fabled Trojan horse of old, uses trickery. Trojan horses are software-malware-which are presented as useful and harmless but really aren’t.

Image via Wikipedia

Using this malware, cyber spies are able to both send and receive information from infected computers. In some cases, documents are removed without the targets even being aware of it. Network threats are sometimes not detected if computer users don’t know how to look for digital evidence of hacking or other forms of cybercrime.

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Information has always been important and attempts to gain information have often been conducted from both sides of any competitive situation. Knowledge is power and information gives countries and businesses and even different political players, an advantage over each other. The Internet has made a lot of information available which can offer an economic advantage to competing parties. The Internet has also acted as a new source of information which can be used to sabotage competitors.

Through the various types of cybercrime, the Internet has become a breeding ground for nefarious activity. Unsuspecting users can have their computers infected and used in cybercrime within minutes of connecting to the Internet.

In early 2009, some ghost hackers from China were revealed to have compromised 1,295 computers belonging to embassies, banks, news agencies across the world and NATO. They even hacked into computers used by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Microsoft, recently altered Internet Explorer, so that cyber spies could no longer use a weakness in it to probe the computer systems of -Google (and other companies).

The types of cybercrime also include child harassment, extortion and stock market manipulation.

 Cyber spies are investigated by organisations such as MI5 (British Intelligence) and the Information Warfare Monitor(IWM), a group that tracks the use of cyberspace as a strategic domain.

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