Abstract
Cybercrime is defined as a crime when a computer is the object of a crime or is used as the primary tool for committing a crime. Cybercriminals often use the information obtained by users for personal purposes, including extortion of money or blackmail. The problem of cybercrime is one of the most acute since no practical measures have yet been developed that will protect Internet users from stealing information in order to obtain a particular benefit. This study is devoted to studying the problem of cybercrime, reviewing and analyzing the literature on this topic, and giving recommendations for people posting personal data on the network.
Introduction
In modern times, technology has achieved some success; for example, people have the opportunity through affordable Internet access to communicate via video and audio communication from different corners of the planet. In addition, they can share photos, videos, documents, and other personal information without leaving home. Such an easy access to the Internet has created a new kind of crime, which is called cybercrime. Cybercrime is a criminal activity whose purpose is to misuse a computer, computer network, or network device. The relevance of cybercrime research is dictated by the fact that it is challenging to ensure the complete safety of data on the Internet. This essay aims to study the literature on cybercrime in detail, drawing conclusions and making recommendations based on the data obtained. Although not every person faces the problem of cybercrime, it still causes many issues to people and needs to take measures to eliminate it.
Literature Review
In the article Challenges to enforcement of cyber-crimes laws and policy, the author proposes to consider the results on the studied topic of cybercrime. Ajayi (2016) states that the identity of criminals on the Internet is carefully hidden, which makes many rows invalid. It is impossible to apply punitive measures due to the inability to find the person who committed the cybercrime. In addition, this article describes the laws that apply to criminals working on the Internet and suggest considering the types of cybercrime.
Cybercrime is a relatively thriving type of crime for different reasons. Lassen et al. (2020) describe in their article Review and insight on the behavioral aspects of cybersecurity that there are too few specialists who are engaged in investigations and suppression of cybercrimes. In addition, the article clearly describes the problems that cybercrime entails. The authors want to emphasize the need to develop safety measures for Internet users to protect them from cybercriminals.
To most clearly understand which groups of people are at risk, it is necessary to conduct a quantitative analysis. Viraja and Purandare (2021) conducted a study, described it in detail in their article and claimed that the main reasons for committing cybercrimes are financial motivation and personal motives. These factors encourage criminals to engage in illegal actions to obtain their benefits. Their goals and aspirations cause many problems to some Internet users. The conclusion is that users should be attentive to the placement of personal information and realize that in case of personal data being stolen, cybercriminals will have to work on their terms.
For the most coherent understanding of what cybercriminals are, it is also necessary to conduct a study and introduce a classification. There are often three types of cybercriminals who have different motives and choose a particular crime-solving style (Arora, 2016). The author describes the variety of criminals, the behavior of cybercriminals and provides statistics on the growth of the number of crimes committed. These statistics show that the number of crimes is growing despite the weak efforts of specialists to prevent this growth.
Although the efforts made against cybercriminals are not so great, special units have been created that are engaged in investigation and strategy against cybercriminals. Digital forensics makes it possible to understand the motives of the crime, restore the chronology of the work of cybercriminals, and conduct a detailed examination of files and repositories that people have illegally accessed (Horan & Saiedian, 2021). The article Cyber crime investigation: Landscape, challenges, and future research directions describes different types of sources that are used or infiltrated by criminals, thereby violating the personal space of users. The authors also conducted a study and found that currently, there are quite a lot of programs and technologies that contribute to the successful activity of offenders.
Methods
These articles were chosen because they help to understand the problem of cybercrime in the most profound and detailed way. The difficulty was to find the most transparent and meaningful information that would help to investigate the issue of cybercrime thoroughly. Despite this, after studying each article, one can form their own opinion about how important and relevant the problem of cybercrime is. In addition, knowing about the existing problem, people will be more careful in posting their information on the Internet.
Results
The problem of the complexity of protecting the data of Internet users is becoming more acute every year, as more and more people place personal information in cloud storage. In addition, it is terrifying that the necessary programs and technologies for finding criminals have not yet been developed, but what is needed directly by the perpetrators themselves to commit crimes is in the public domain.
There are such divisions of data warehouses as the dark web, the deep web, and social networks (Horan & Saiedian, 2021). Criminals actively use each of them to get the necessary information. The collected information will help to understand the severity of the problem, as well as to find strategic solutions to prevent cybercrime. Furthermore, based on the collected data, it is possible to develop a strategic action plan that will help find measures to protect personal information posted on the Internet.
Discussion
Cybercrime activities are carried out by individuals or organizations. Based on the information collected, it becomes evident that the problem of cybercrime needs to be solved. In addition, it is essential to find ways to ensure the security of user data that they post on the Internet. After analyzing the data from sources, it can be understood that people need to be aware of legislative acts that contribute to their protection against cybercrime.
Moreover, the media must regularly inform people about the importance of preserving and non-proliferation of personal data using various Internet resources and platforms. I think that people themselves should be aware of the danger of posting personal information on the Internet and social networks, and they should also know the legislation that will allow them to protect themselves from cyber-attacks. All people become as vulnerable as possible when using the Internet, and it is in their interests to be attentive to their personal data, access to which they can provide to cybercriminals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this study aims to demonstrate how easily cybercriminals can get information from the Internet using the latest technologies and programs. The main discoveries are that realizing the full scale of the problem, and there are too few professionals who strive to work on the eradication of this type of crime. It is unexpected that despite many articles and studies on this topic, no objective measures have been developed to reduce the number of cybercrimes committed. The consequences of the conclusions are that it is necessary to form an extensive list of steps aimed at combating violators and finding people who have committed illegal actions against other people using the Internet.
Recommendations
In order to protect themselves as much as possible from Internet criminals, each person needs to take several measures. These include installing antivirus programs on gadgets that can steal users’ personal information. These programs need to be updated regularly so that they work as efficiently as possible. In addition, it is necessary to come up with complex passwords for those repositories that contain essential information.
This will not allow criminals to hack mailboxes or other online storage. If one receives a spam email, it is not recommended to follow the links or share any information. At the state level, it is necessary to pay closer attention to suspicious sites and restrict access to them. In addition, it is needed to create a group of specialists who will work on the development of measures to protect against cybercrime and search for violators of order.
The goal of future research will remain to find the most secure measures for storing personal information on the Internet. Furthermore, it is necessary to develop a strategic plan to protect against illegal actions of criminals. Moreover, as a future study, it is required to consider the work of state bodies to eliminate this type of crime and the development of penalties against people who use users’ data for their purposes.
References
Ajayi, E. (2016). Challenges to enforcement of cyber-crimes laws and policy. Journal of Internet and Information Systems, 6(1), 1-12. Web.
Arora, B. (2016). Exploring and analyzing Internet crimes and their behaviours. Perspectives in Science, 8(1), 540-542. Web.
Horan, C., & Saiedian, H. (2021). Cyber crime investigation: Landscape, challenges, and future research directions. Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy, 1(4), 580-596. Web.
Lahcen, H., Caulkins, B., Mohapatra, R., and Kumar, M. (2020). Review and insight on the behavioral aspects of cybersecurity. Cybersecurity, 3(10), 1-18. Web.
Viraja, C. and Purandare, P. (2021). A qualitative research on the impact and challenges of cybercrimes. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1964(1), 1-11. Web.