The Dark Side of Technology: The Growing Threat of Cybercrime - Essay Sample

Introduction

Cybercrime is becoming more and more popular with the age of technology. The use of the internet has increased steadily throughout the years, with more people getting online. By 2004, only 14.2% of the world population used the internet (Internet World Stats, 2020). In 2019, the number of people accessing the internet was 4,574,150,134, making up 58.7% of the global population (Internet World Stats, 2020). The trend has increasingly connected people across the world, making the internet a medium by which companies engage their clients, people interact with each other, schools engage their parents and students, while governments deliver their services among the endless uses. The internet has become an enabler for all players in business and politics, empowering the small payers while opening vast opportunities for the big players, thus helping them compete favorably (McQuade III, 2008). However, it also opens doors and empowers the criminals and terrorists who willingly disrupt the society by shutting down the online services and illegally getting access to confidential information belonging to individuals, businesses, or the government. Cybercrimes such as defamation, hacking, cyberstalking, trafficking, virus transmission, and cyber terrorism have increased (McQuade III, 2008). The popularity of cybercrime is that they do not need to be there in person, and in most cases, it goes invisible. Cybercrime poses a threat to the global community, disregarding the moral values that society always protects, which has called for condemnation from the worldwide population.

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Risks

Fraudsters or hackers access and manipulate vital information through the internet. However, the greatest threat of cybercrime is its invisibility. Hackers can get into an individual, organization, or government database and go undetected. While people have appreciated the value of anonymity continuously on the internet, its negative side emerges when it conceals the criminal traces of fraudulent activities on the internet, making them invisible and anonymous (Nurse, 2018). Once into the system, hackers can illegally access information for months or years without being detected. For instance, in 2016, attackers breached Marriot International systems but were not discovered until 2018. They obtained vital information of more than 500 million customers throughout the two years. Cyber Criminals attack technology assets, stealing, selling, and holding valuable information for ransom (Nurse, 2018). In 2016, in California hospital, hackers got into the hospital's technology systems and encrypted all data on patients and requested for a ransom of 9,000 bitcoins (Associated Press, 2016). Doctors were unable to efficiently treat their patients for more than a week putting the lives of the people at risk. However, they got away with such crimes as nobody could trace them, forcing their targets to abide by their requests after risking the lives of the people for their benefit.

The invisibility of the cybercrimes poses a more significant threat to the e-commerce industry. Hackers write algorithms to exploit the loopholes in the e-commerce payments, procuring goods with 100% discount coupons for as long as they remain anonymous. It can take up to a financial year for a business to detect a loophole in the system after experiencing massive financial losses (Swinhoe, 2020). Moreover, unsolicited commercial emails (UCE) used by criminals deceive online users into purchasing non-existent products using fictitious accounts while hiding the identity of the senders and the origin of the emails. In case of losses, victims do not have any approach to request compensation since they cannot trace the senders. Cybercriminals send spurious messages to financial departments, tricking them into sending funds into fictitious vendor accounts, leaving a considerable loss in the respective businesses (Gercke, 2012). Email spasm has escalated despite the availability of anti-spasm technologies, causing much havoc to the individuals, companies, and governments. The invisibility of cyberspace crimes such as financial fraud, identity thefts, and medical scam disrupts the ordinary lives of the people and businesses in the society, creating intangible losses that, in most cases, go undetected, thus resulting in long-term deficits (Gercke, 2012. While IT ethics prohibit the use of the internet to cause destruction, cybercriminals use information technology in unethical ways that harm individuals and the general public. The cyberspace crimes are like a virtual reality that is unseen, but in a real sense, they do exist.

Moreover, Computer ethics prohibit the use of information systems in ways that result in undesirable losses of information (Gunarto, 2014). However, cybercriminals violate the moral principles, hacking into the individual, business, and government information systems, stealing, deleting, or interfering with vital information resulting in loss of data (Gercke, 2012). Most organizations complain about information disappearing on their sites without the knowledge of who or how they stole or interfered with files. According to computer ethics, harmful actions include the activities that intentionally destruct or modify programs and data, resulting in loss of original information and unnecessary expenditure to protect the systems from computer viruses when the real cause of data loss is cyber criminal activities.

Cybercrimes compromise the security and privacy of online users accessing and releasing sensitive information. They steal personal information putting the safety and privacy of the people at risk (Gunarto, 2014). The 21st century has experienced millions of cyber breaches that have left individuals and organizations' passwords, credit card accounts numbers, and emails in the hands of cyberspace criminals. Among the latest cyberattacks is the First American Financial Corp data breach that exposed bank account numbers, social security numbers, tax and mortgage records, drivers' licenses images, and transaction receipts of 885 million users (Swinhoe, 2020). The exposure of such information compromised the financial and personal security and privacy of millions of people. In addition to breaching data for commercial purposes, some hackers release confidential information to the public to shame others while exposing their real lives to the world. Hackers reveal personal identities, images, videos, and recordings to the public without their consent (Gunarto, 2014). Every person has the right to privacy. However, cybercriminals take advantage of the digital advancement and increased use of information technology to threaten the security of the people in the society and deny them their privacy.

Security

Individuals and businesses should take security measures to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing or stealing vital and confidential information from their information systems. The most targeted data is personally identifiable information, passwords, and account numbers, which must be protected to prevent access by the cyberspace criminals (Stewart, 2013). Firewalls are efficient and active tools that block unauthorized people from entering individual or business information systems from the internet. Firewalls regulate the traffic being sent and received in computer devices, web applications, and servers, blocking malicious traffic trying to access the devices (Stewart, 2013). Therefore, they prevent hackers from embedding malware into the systems. In case the computer is already infected with malware, the firewalls prevent the outgoing traffic that malware uses, thus blocking Trojans and other information stealers from sending data to the hackers.

Furthermore, the Domain Name System (DNS), a phonebook that matches names with numbers over the internet, is the most vulnerable to attacks. Hackers hijack the DNS settings getting ultimate control over where users go on the internet. Attacks on DNS can be fatal since by manipulating the name system, hijackers can bring down an entire website without accessing an information system. Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides one of the most efficient protection against cyber attacks on information systems such as the DNS (Stewart, 2013). VPNs connect computer devices to secure networks and servers through which uses can access the internet privately. They ensure the privacy and security of information systems allowing users to protect their data online.

Internet service providers (ISPs) add protection against cybercrimes. Cybersecurity is the top priority of the providers as they ensure their clients are not at risk of their information being compromised or accessed without permission. Most ISPs offer online viruses, content, and spam filters, which reduce the amount of spam and infected emails users receive (Rowe et al. 2009). They also offer a variety of privacy software like firewalls, block banner, anti-virus, registry cleaner, and anti-spyware. Such software cleans browsers, prevents phishing, stops spam, identifies web bugs, and manages cookies, protecting clients from cybercrimes while ensuring their privacy. ISP security provides protection mechanisms that monitor, record, and alters the type, content, and rate of internet traffic sent by hosts, which helps detect attacks from malicious users or hackers (Rowe et al. 2009). It acts as the gatekeeper, blocking traffic on malicious ports. They protect their customers from intrusion, detecting, and shutting down Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attacks from other ISPs (Valls-Prieto, 2015). ISP also enhances network transparency, such as keeping a record of IP to IP "calls" in the customer's computers, enabling the providers to supervise, track and record network traffic more efficiently (Rowe et al. 2009). Therefore, consumers should go for ISPs that provide security mechanisms, which guarantee the security and privacy of their information as they navigate the internet.

Criminals in the cyberspace are well-known for their internet prowess, which enables them to develop systems that can accomplish malicious activities and exploit computer networks (Gercke, 2012). Therefore, to curb cybercrimes, personnel in the different business and government offices should equip themselves with the knowledge and comprehension of the structure of the internet protocols to understand how criminals compromise the information systems. By following how cybercriminals execute their attacks, individuals can know how to navigate to get around the traps and avoid getting their computer devices compromised. Further, with a better understanding of the internet protocols, individuals can set up secure connections that encrypt the data flowing between nodes, ensuring its security. Cybercrimes can only be curbed by going ahead of the criminals, understanding their tactics and plans before they accomplish them.

Conclusion

Cybercrimes unethically continue to devastate the safety and privacy of vital information. Cybercriminals compromise information systems for their benefit, not realizing the harm they cause to the entire society. They access individual and organization data and steal personal information such as passwords, social security numbers, real names, and bank account numbers without the consent of the owners. Criminals in cyberspace have deceived people with spam messages, including finance managers in various organizations, requesting them to send money into fictitious accounts, resulting in massive losses. Other crimes committed online such as medical fraud, risks the lives of the patients. The invisible nature of the cybercrimes makes the criminals execute their plans without being detected or traced. While in pursuit of financial and personal gains, cybercriminals interfere with the ordinary...