in the current day there are
many crimes that are committed through the Internet. Many Internet criminals are
using a number of different methods in order to take what they want from
unsuspecting members of the public. There are a whole range of reasons why
criminals commit crime via the Internet, however the most common crimes are the
theft of money, the theft of identities or information and finally the damaging
of others computers via methods such as viruses.
Out of all of the crimes
committed via the internet the theft of money from others is the largest due to
a number of reasons, however the main reason is that its probably the easiest to
do as more and more people are buying and selling products via the internet with
the use of credit or debit cards. Criminals are easily able to access these
details if members of the public aren’t careful with their details, for example
if a member of the public puts their details into an unsecure website there is a
great risk of a criminal obtaining this
information.
The theft of identity and
information is also very common Internet crime in the current day. Many computer
criminals will try and attack big businesses to steal data and information on a
massive scale, for example in the news a while ago there was the story about the
PlayStation Network, a group of cyber criminals attacked the company and stole
millions of pieces of data from the PlayStation Network users. To businesses,
data is one of the most important things to them, and if they are stolen by a
group of criminals it can cause huge problems for the business. For example if
everything was taken the business would have to recollect of the customers
information which could be very time consuming and some customers may be
cautious and not give the business their information again in the fear that it
could be accessed by other computer criminals.
Cyber bullying is another
crime that occurs frequently in the current day. With many people registering
for social networking sites such as Facebook the crime is committed more
frequently than ever, however this usually happens between the younger
generation.
Phishing is also popular
amongst Internet criminals. Criminals will spend huge amounts of time devising
these schemes to make you fall for their methods, the most common type are mass
emails that are sent with links within the email. Things such as “get rich
quick” schemes are a sure sign of phishing and should be avoided at all costs.
You can usually tell the difference between a legitimate and a fake website
simply with common sense.
With crime on the up in the
information age crime prevention has to come into play and be a lot more
effective and it has with the newest technologies available to the police. For
example a great method of crime prevention available to the police these days
are databases, the Police are able to store huge amounts of data about anyone in
the country, information can include previous convictions if you have any,
simple personal information such as your date of birth and your fingerprints if
they have taken them. The use of the databases to the Police is invaluable to
them as it saves them huge amounts of time when searching through records as
they can filter through results quickly.
Another method of crime
prevention in the information age is the introduction of CCTV back in 1994. CCTV
(Closed Circuit Television) is hugely important to police in these current
times, CCTV allows the police to see exactly what’s going on without actually
being at that location. The cameras capture footage and transmit it to a set of
monitors wherever they may be. CCTV is enforced in areas such as stores,
airports, banks, casinos, estates, nightclubs/bars and car
parks.
Another method in which you
yourself can protect your machine from harm is to install anti virus software,
this will protect your system from all types of viruses, some can even sort out
your emails for you so you can avoid phishing scams if you’re unable to tell the
difference between a legitimate and a fake
website.
