Cybercrime in Today’s World Essay

I have been asked to write a paper concerning cybercrime in the world today. I will go over what cybercrime is, how much it is affecting the United States, possible ways of enforcement and why or why not enforcement would be effective. What is a cybercrime, in your own words? Cybercrime is using computers or technology in order to steal information or to create fake identities over the World Wide Web. It is a growing problem in the world today, especially in countries like China, Japan and the United States where populations are high. Phone scams are another type of cybercrime as people will try to glean vital information from another by pretending to be a grandchild or a salesman. Cyberspace allows people to invade another person’s or company’s computer and download sensitive materials such as social security numbers, birth certificates and tax information. What is the extent of cybercrime in the United States? Computerescape. om says that â€Å"Cybercrime is widespread throughout the United States with 73% of American internet users being victims of cybercrime, either through viruses, online credit card or identity theft†*. With over 300 million Americans in the US, that comes out to 219 million Americans that have been or are currently victims of a cybercriminal. Most of the victims of identity theft are infants and the elderly. My own infant cousin had his social security number stolen shortly after his death. It took several months to recover it. How do you think we should control / enforce cybercrime? I personally believe that the only way to control cybercrime is to attach a major virus to sensitive files, so that when an unauthorized person tries to access it, it attaches itself to that person’s computer, downloads any information regarding the owner of the computer, sends that information to the authorities, and finally scrambles all data on the computer. The authorities will then be able to make an arrest and unscramble the computer so that evidence can be obtained. The offender should then have an appendage cut from their body on national television, so that others thinking of committing the same crime will hopefully be deterred. If the person should offend again, then they should be stoned until dead by the people that they have stolen from. Do you think enforcement can be effective? Why or why not? I don’t think that any type of enforcement would be effective as tracking anything in cyberspace is time consuming and if the person was determined enough, they would find a way around the enforcement. Security cameras are an excellent point. You can have the main points of a store being watched by cameras, but the only places you have issues with theft is in the cameras blind spots. A security system will alert you if someone comes in through a door or window, but isn’t programmed to respond if a person decides to cut a hole in the wall or ceiling and enter the premises without ever tripping the system. If someone wanted to commit a robbery and they knew that a police patrol car passed by every 45 minutes, they would wait until 10 minutes after the patrol car had passed and then rob the business, knowing that it would be at least another 10 minutes before police could respond. Criminals will always find a way to circumvent the enforcers of the law.