Cybercrime and Criminal Justice
Submitted to Doctor George Burruss
Tracey Crumedy
Graduate Student, University of South Florida
There are a host of theories, suggestions, and reasons why fighting cybercrime is such a challenging task for law enforcement worldwide. One reason could be that the term “cybercrime” has such a broad definition. The general idea of cybercrime in the everyday sense of the word, cybercrime is the use a computer or other digital device to commit crimes such as phishing, hate crimes, child pornography, and hacking. Another possible problem is that that law enforcement not only in the United States, but law enforcement globally, is that they unfortunately do not know their enemy well enough. According to the philosopher
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The enemy that they face as of late is the ever-fluid cybercriminal. One question though is, what would be the best and most effective means by which to acquire this knowledge of the enemy. Opinions and studies vary widely among academics on this subject. You have those that believe the best recourse is to educate the community as individuals should be held accountable for issues involving cybercrime. This low prioritization cybercrime is a problem that permeates across the law enforcement community. At the local level, “local law enforcement does not feel they should have primary investigative responsibilities for cybercrime (Bossler & Holt, 2012; Burns et al., 2004; Holt et al., 2015). Instead they perceive that the best way to improve the nation’s response to cybercrime is for individual citizens to be more responsible for their own safety while online” (Holt, 21). Viewing cybercrime as a low level crime is ofttimes how cybercriminals are able to continue their assault on the world. There are others that believe tougher punishments for cybercrimes would be the best course of action. This belief brings to mind, The Aaron Act. The Aaron Act was intended to give harsher penalties for hacking. It purpose was amend the Computer Fraud …show more content…
The short answer is, they unfortunately can’t be completely stopped. But what can law enforcement, specifically local law enforcement do is to actively employ cybersecurity specialists in their departments. As it stands now, cybersecurity specialists are by and enlarge employed mostly by computer security companies. The goal of the cybersecurity specialists is simply to exploit vulnerabilities and any loopholes that could potentially take the network down. Like any other company, law enforcement takes cybersecurity measures to keep their data safe. But what if they employed cybersecurity specialists to fight “bad hackers?” This approach would at least allow for law enforcement to grasp the importance when it comes to cybercrime. To combat the extreme rise in cybercrime, law enforcement need to get involved in the real world of cybercrime. They are only scratching the surface when it comes to illegal cyber
In the United States, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, including FBI, Department of Homeland Security, among others, have taken on roles to fight computer crimes and terrorism. The roles and responses of these law enforcement agencies concerning digital crime have created challenges that limit enforcement efforts against digital crime.
Australia is dependent on technology, everything from state security, economics and information collaboration is more accessible resulting in an increased reliance on digital networks. The rapid increase in cyber activity has a symbiotic relationship with cyber crime. The evolving nature of cyber crimes are constantly leaving counter measures obsolete in the face of these new technologies. Australia takes insufficient action against cyber crime, inaction is based on Australia’s previous focus on counter-terrorism. This study will use the Australia’s National Security Strategy 2013 to show the increasing trend towards cyber security. Unfortunately the Australia Government is lacking in the presence of this growing phenomenon. Recently cyber crimes including attacks from Anonymous and Wiki-leaks prove that no network is completely secure. This study will conclude that the exponential growth of the Internet has resulted in an inability to properly manage regardless of the governmental strategies being implemented.
When it comes to cyber crimes we can’t put a face to the crimes being committed, it’s easier to find ways to prevent hackers from gaining access to important data than searching and putting them in handcuffs. Traditional police theories will not work for cyber crimes, so cyber police theories need to be developed.
In todays fast pace world of technology many of us leave ourselves vulnerable to become victims of a cybercrime. With people using the internet to do everything from paying bills, personal banking, and on-line shopping their financial and personal information is available at the stroke of a key to a hacker. Often someone is unaware that they have been attacked and had their information stolen. The use of the internet has grown exorbitantly throughout the world. Nelson Online reported that as of December 31, 2014, there were 360,985,492 users of the internet throughout the world. (2015) With so many users in so many countries accessing the internet, prosecuting cybercrimes is nearly impossible.
Gillett v. Holt The doctrine of proprietary estoppel is an equitable intervention in cases where the enforcement of legal rights is considered by the courts to be unconscionably unfair. The essence of the doctrine arises, as defined by Snell: '[when] one (A) is encouraged to act to his detriment by the representations or encouragement of another (O) so that it would be unconscionable for O to insist on his strict legal rights.' (McGhee, 2000, p.637) In the absence of a written agreement, estoppel acts as an evidentiary tool with which the courts can help ensure fair interaction in property dealings. Proprietary estoppel is a method by which informal arrangements are recognized as being capable of creating proprietary interests.
“As in the past, it is criminals who have been among the first to recognize the potential of a wide-open, sparsely populated, and poorly policed space (Fuller 11).” That is exactly what cyberspace was in the beginning, and most of it is new territory still. One way to become aware of the cyber-crimes one can fall victim to is to first know what types are out there. The top five cyber-crimes are the following: tax-refund fraud, corporate account takeover, identity theft, theft of sensitive data, and theft of intellectual property (Singleton 2). Also, all cyber-crimes have three things in common; the tools needed to commit the crime, a strategy on how to follow through with the crime, and the outcome which is the crime itself (Singleton 2). There are also different forms...
Computer crimes are often heard a lot about in the news. When you ask someone
Technological Advancements and Law Enforcement: A Dynamic Duo In a world where advancements in technology continue to occur daily, there have been many useful impacts on law enforcement, as well as challenges. Technological advancements have made drastic changes to law enforcement’s effectiveness and efficiency, the impact on the role of law enforcement, as well as challenges in bringing justice. In addition, offenders have found new ways to use technology to commit many crimes, such as phishing and scamming, and law enforcement has many challenges in bringing these crimes to justice. It is essential to take a deeper look at the impact of advanced technology on law enforcement.
Criminals take advantage of weak cybersecurity measures in order to perform criminal acts and warfare over the Internet.
Millions of people around the world use computers and the internet every day. We all use it in school, work even at home, computers have made us life easier, it has brought so many benefits to the society but it has also brought some problems and cybercrimes is one of them. “The times have really changed,” said Greg Garcia, the department’s assistant secretary for cyber security and communications. “We’re seeing now phishing, farming, botnets … war dialing and domain server spoofing. And we’re seeing coordinated cyber-attacks against nation states.” (Fowler 5) Cybercrime is one of the most prevalent and most popular rising crimes being committed today. This is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. There are millions victims around the world everyday who face these problems. Most people become victims of these at one time or another, but there are ways to avoid or deal with cybercrime by protecting yourself appropriately. I also was one of those victims who faced a similar problem. This unfortunate truth forces me to understand that computers and the Internet have made our lives easier in many ways. However, it is unfortunate that people also use these technologies to take advantage of others through identity theft, hacking attempts, and malicious use of software.
Recently, the Internet has become the most significant technology in all over the world, which is not only used by the people to contact with each other but also utilized by the business organizations to become global (Taylor, Caeti, Loper, Fritsch & Liederbach, 2006). Computer and internet enable the business organizations to execute the Electronic commerce business model, which has become very popular. Computers and Internet are a powerful source in the success of globalization and international business. Computers are being used worldwide and due to this, cyber crimes are increasing continuously with a rapid growth (Cheeseman, 2006).
In most instances, victims are not aware or do not know the perpetrator of the crimes. In some instances, this may include the perpetration of crime and actually committing the crime. With the advancement in technology, there seems to be a new way to commit cyber crime each day and a great number of unsuspecting individuals eventually becomes victims. There are various types of cybercrimes that can be committed with the common ones being Computer Viruses and identity theft which can have damaging effects on individuals and businesses (Search security, 2008). Some of these crimes such as the computer viruses have crushed main servers of companies and thus crippling these kinds of companies since some of them lose important data and information which they have stored electronically. Everyone who makes use of the computer seems to be at risk of becoming a victim to cyber crime if not on the lookout. As a matter of fact most perpetrators of such crimes are not caught since technology seems to be too advanced and the various crimes seems to be taking place rapidly making it almost impossible to catch the perpetrators of the crime. The home users are the most likely group to be targeted since they are less likely to have any security measures in place. A major way to deal with cyber crime at an individual level is to install antivirus software’s, firewalls and make use of intrusion detection system (Web Root, 2015).
Cybercrime is a global issue plaguing the world. The dictionary defines cybercrime as “crime conducted via the Internet or some other computer network”(Merriam-Webster). The definition remains very broad because the word “cyber” is defined as “relating to the culture of computers, information technology, and virtual reality.” Due to the growing number of people gaining access to the internet, rapid development of technology, and the globalization of the world, more of the world population is becoming susceptible to involvement in cybercrime – whether it be as a victim or a criminal. Cybercrime involves different levels of the world on both the victim and criminal side from an individual citizen, to small groups, businesses, and the government, to the countries of the world. There are different groups from law enforcement agencies to the U.S. Secret Service, that are attempting to combat the problem through cooperation and preemptive efforts. If these groups combined with the public to protect themselves and the country from criminals that commit cybercrime, the nation’s network and technology servers would be much safer for technology users. Clearly, cybercrime is a problem because it puts internet users at risk of being taken advantage of or harmed.
As the internet has evolved it is now a part of many people’s daily lives and with that, many could not function or conduct their daily business or lives without it. It is impressive that we can now communicate and even see someone all the way across the country with just a few clicks of a mouse. But as technology changes and progresses seemingly for the good, many will always find ways to exploit technology and use it with the intent of committing crime, turning a positive tool into a negative one. As such the negative side of the World Wide Web, cybercrime has evolved as just one of the major disadvantages of the internet. Cybercrime itself is a broad term and can and does include any crime that is committed via the internet or computer network including seemingly minor acts as downloading music, to denial of service attacks, to even acts of cyber-terrorism. With the newly formed threat of cybercrime has also come new ways for law enforcement to attack and prevent it as well but with limited resources not much can be changed but to continue to prevent new methods from approaching the cybercrime world. This is not only just in our own neighborhoods but is at an international scale. This paper generates the insight about the overall rise of cybercrime among our societies. The main focus of this paper is to describe the types of computer crimes and its effects on individuals and businesses.
Just as traditional criminal activities, cybercrime can take many forms and occur virtually anytime and anywhere. Criminals committing cybercrime use very different methods, depending on their abilities and goals. This should not surprise anyone after all cybercrime is merely an activity "criminal" to the ingredient that adds a computer or an electronic network for its commission.