Computer Security and Identifying Cybercrime - Research Paper Example

Identity Theft: A Significant Computer Crime By Author Date Introduction After entering into the twenty first century, there have emerged a large number of new technological revolutions and inventions, which have impacted the ways of life to a great extent. It has created a lot of easiness and diverse ways to lead the lives. People are experiencing quite different methods of learning, how people are getting education, doing shopping, seeking entertainment, and also most importantly doing the businesses. Due to the fast developments happened in the information technology as well as computer technology, the human life has been totally advanced and revolutionized. Such developments have made communication a second task, where a large amount of data and information can be collected and used for a number of purposes easily. However, these developments can be seen as positive for human beings, but these can also be seen as a negative phenomenon. It is usually called as the “double edged sword”, where it has both bright and dark sides. Though computer and information technology has proved to be much useful for communication and business development, but it has also created new ways for doing illegal or criminal activities (Smith & Spafford, 2004; Gordon, et al., 2003). Up till now a large number of security threats have been emerged in the world of computing, however the identity theft is believed to be the most critical computer crime among all of them. This paper presents an overview of identity theft. This paper discusses the basics and impact of this computer crime on various entities. This paper presents a review of literature on the identity theft. Computer Crime According to (Morley & Parker, 2014, p. 399), “the exploitation of computer has given birth to a concept called ‘computer crime”. Newman has defined the computer-crime as, def. “the behavior in which computers or networks are a tool, a target, or a place of criminal activity” (Newman, 2009, p. 552). Cybercrime is such an evident kind of world-wide crime, where it has impacted the worldwide developments and advancements in information and communication technology. As per a research conducted by McConnell (2000), it is found that computer crimes can be distinguished from other crimes in four concerns: as, “they are easy to learn how to commit; they require fewer resources relative to the potential damage caused; they can be committed in a jurisdiction without being physically present in it; and they are often not clearly illegal.” (Mcconnell, 2000, p. 60). In this regard, it can be said that such new kind of crime needs to be detected and investigated form new perspectives and can be studied through different research methods. These computer crimes are posing new threats to legislators, law implementation organizations, and global institutes. According to Morris (2004), such level of crime compels the presence of an active, international based along with national appliances, which can control and explore the employment of ICTs in order to perform any criminal actions in World Wide Web (Morris, 2004). Computer crimes are available in many forms and also bring numerous problems with respect to the online working. In addition, online frauds are the modern form of the online criminal activities that involves the information and data hacking and later on use of that information to perform the illegal activities, such as cash based scandals. Numerous modern and up-to-date technologies in the industrial period have given birth to the innovative criminal activities. Information technology, especially Internet is open for everyone which gives the opportunities to criminal people, to steal, new ways to steal them, and new techniques to harm others. In most simple word computer crime can be defined as the unlawful actions by using a computer or against a computer system. The Internet's user-friendliness and convenience have given birth to modern ways for computer crime and at the present identity theft has emerged as a biggest computer crime (Laudon & Laudon, 1999, p. 147). Identity Theft A number of commercial websites are performing business activities online, or others using computers to gather and accumulate critical information in order to use it for business purposes. Such businesses have been nowadays facing the issues of misuse of information or other kinds of crimes with regard to the sensitive information. In order to combat these criminal and delinquent activities, they have to perform overwhelming, and expensive job of safeguarding their critical information, which can be used for delinquent actions. In these days, it is easier to do crime, as criminals are able to manipulate the data, which is showing some proofs against their delinquent actions, and also transfer such data regardless of having fear of being noticed from the police side or Law agencies. Such criminal activities have made it more complex to detect any corruption. As the internet has astonishing effects on this area, where it is being impossible to detect a person due to the fact that the crime can be held regardless of any geographical area. This situation has convoluted the inquiry of cybercrime to the greater extent (Gordon, et al., 2003). As the Federal Trade commission found that among all cybercrimes, the identity theft is the major threat, which must be researched over and be comprehended more. The following shows the results of the research conducted by the Federal Trade Commission about the complaints data. Figure 1. FTC Top Ten Complaint category for 2012. Source: federal trade Commission, 2012 As the above figure shows that the major complaints recorded by the Federal Trade Commission were about the identity theft category in 2012. So, it is more important to find the research methods about the identity theft category in the cybercrime. Identity theft is the most prevalent computer crime found to be threatening to most of the people and businesses, as shown above in figure 1. But there is little empirical and experimental research is conducted over this issue, due to some important reason, such as the detection rate, demographic dimension of the crime, and the criminals; identify-ability (Allisona, et al., 2005). Identity theft is a form of computer crime, which can be defined as, “identity theft is a misuse of a another person’s identity, such as name, social security number, driver’s license, credit card numbers, and bank account numbers” (Denning, 1999, p. 241). In an another definition of identity theft given by US legislation, it can be demarcated as, def. “It is the act of knowingly transferring or using, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable State or local law” (U.S. Code, Chapter 47, Title 18, Section 1028 (a)). This definition is broader than the previous one. It has detailed the Identity Theft phenomenon. As the definition suggests that identity theft can be done from a number of ways, so there some different kinds of the identity related crime, but the most usual type is the credit card theft, where the credit card numbers are used in order to steal a heavy amount. There is an evidence as per a research conducted by Newman and McNally (2007) that the degree of credit card theft through the internet has been snowballing as internet setting provides such chances to commit such crime (Newman & McNally, 2007). The identity crime is developed along with the increase in the internet users. But it has been common type of fraud, where the credit card is involved, and now there are solutions to this, but the statistics related to identity theft and specifically for the credit card crimes are shown in the following two figures. Figure 2. FTC Identity Theft Complaints Data 2000-2012. Source: (Federal Trade Commission, 2012) The above figure shows that from 2000 to 2012, the number of complaints registered with the Federal Trade Commission has been increasing continuously. In addition to these, Federal Trade Commission (2012) has also noted that the predominant identity theft cases relate to the consumer’s identity theft. Figure 3. Credit Card Frauds Trends. Source: APCA, UK Payments Association, Observatory for Payment Card Security (France) and Visa Inc. Moreover, the survey conducted by the Smith (2011) for the Australian criminology report, it is evident that the credit card fraud was at 2.4% in 2007, but there was a 73% increase in the fraud level recorded in 2011, which is 3.7% (Smith, 2012). Such statistics are pointing out one important point that the crime of identity theft has been increasing mostly. The above graph suggested that it was greatest in 2001 – 2002, which is the era of start of the 21st century. But the credit card theft is not the only one which relates to identity theft. Rather, many researchers do not consider it a truly identity related theft, they argued that it can be done only one time for one person, and it is detected very soon (Newman & McNally, 2007). There are many other kinds of identity theft, for instance, account hacking which more time is taking and one cannot detect it easily and quickly. There are the seven general categories of the identity theft as defined by Newman & McNally, (2007); such as, Take advantage of flaws in particular technologies, Monetary Frauds, Small Crime to do a bigger crime (for instance, paying off employees to get the PINs or secret codes), Assisting in other frauds, Dodging detention, Recurrence victimization (typical form of identity theft), and Systematized identity theft (Newman & McNally, 2007). However, another survey was conducted by Federal Trade Commission (2012) in order to find out the categories of the identity theft. As stated in this report, the identity theft can be decomposed into the three major categories of misapplication, which are mistreatment of prevailing credit cards or its numbers (financial theft), opening up new bank accounts with intention of other scams (criminal identity theft), and misapplication of current non-credit card (cloning) (Federal Trade Commission, 2012). It was also pointed out that “almost 10 million Americans have discovered that they were the victim of some form of ID Theft within the last year,” (Synovate, 2003, p. 4) where this number is snowballing day by day. Another research over the identity theft has identified the stages of this crime, which can be classified in three steps, such as getting another’s identity by means of theft, using that identity for getting monetary returns or fame, the detection of that crime. These stages are identified by researchers with the help of survey method of research. But this area of research about how the offender or criminal perform this kind of theft needs to be researched over. It is not much researched and literature has not provided adequate information regarding the “how” question about identity theft (Compomizzi, et al., 2013). There are a number of reports and statistical data which are prepared by the Federal Trade Commission in order to see the level of identity theft and ways of doing so, but much of literature lacks the subjective interpretation of the question, “how such ways adopted by criminals helped them to commit crime”. So, there is need to develop a framework, which would identify the whole process, which can be beneficial in terms of the prevention of such crime. The features of this crime and lack of adequate data and information related to the identity theft has obstructed the proper research ways. It is found that the identity theft is quite complicated to define and detect, as there are various and diverse ways to do this crime, which needs to be elaborated beforehand (Felson, 1998; Felson & Clarke, 1998). In addition to these, Kabay (2013) reviewed the research limitations for the computer crime, where the study developed some important issues in the course of conducting research over the computerized frauds. The research of Kabay (2013) is also in line with the research by Felson and Clarke (1998) in a way that both pointed out the lack of detection of such crimes and also criminals is the major cause of impedance of research. Bosworth, Kabay, & Whyne, (2009) also identified some other research impediments, such as the issue of reporting the crime, where if the delinquency is detected, but it is not reported to the police or law agencies (Bosworth, et al., 2009). Such issues have created the data insufficiency (Kabay, 2013). Conclusion The research paper has described and analyzed the research methods applied to the cybercrime, specifically for the identity theft. In this paper, after defining and explaining the cybercrime and identity theft, the previous literature is reviewed. The literature suggests that the most prevalent computer crime is the identity theft. This research has shown the facts and data about the facts and issues that are causing due to this crime. This research has discussed the perspectives of different authors in order to determine the impact and effect of this computer crime. The research clearly indicates that in the past few years there have been an immense increase in the computer crimes. In addition, there are a large number of different crimes however identity theft is believed to be the most significant computer crime. Additionally, in the past few years there have been massive increase in the ratio of this computer crime. A large number of people from all over the world are facing this crime. In fact, this computer crime causes serious consequences to individuals, firms and governments all over the world. This paper has also discussed the ways this crime is conducted by the criminals. This paper has discussed the objectives of this crime that criminals want to achieve through this rime. References Allisona, S. F., Schuck, A. M. & Lersch, K. M., 2005. Exploring the crime of identity theft: Prevalence, clearance rates, and victim/offender characteristics. Journal of Criminal Justice, p. 19–29. Bosworth, S., Kabay, M. E. & Whyne, E., 2009. Computer Security Handbook. New York: Wiley Publishers. Compomizzi, J., D’Aurora, S. & Rota, D. P., 2013. IDENTITY THEFT AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES: THE COST IS ALL YOUR’S. Issues in Information Systems, pp. 162-168. Denning, D., 1999. Information Warfare and Security. Boston: Addison-Wesley. Federal Trade Commission, 2012. Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. [Online] Available at: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/itada/itadact.html [Accessed May 14, 2015]. Felson, M., 1998. Crime and Everyday Life. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. Felson, M. & Clarke, R., 1998. Opportunity Makes the Thief. Police Research Series, p. 98. Gordon, G. R., Hosmer, C. D., Siedsma, C. & Rebovich, D., 2003. Assessing Technology, Methods, and Information for Committing and Combating Cyber Crime. New York: U.S. Department of Justice. Kabay, M. E., 2013. Understanding Studies and Surveys of Computer Crimes, Northfield: Norwich University. Laudon, K. C. & Laudon, J. P., 1999. Management Information Systems. 6th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Mcconnell, 2000. International, Cybercrime...and Punishment? , Global Information: Archaic Laws Threaten. Morley, D. & Parker, C. S., 2014. Understanding Computers: Today and Tomorrow, Comprehensive. 12 ed. New York: Course Technology. Morris, S., 2004. The future of netcrime now: Part 1 threats and challenges, Online Report: Home Office. Newman, G. R., 2009. Cybercrime. In: Hand-book on Crime and Deviance. Online: Springer, pp. 551-584. Newman, G. R. & McNally, M. M., 2007. Identity Theft Literature Review, New York: National Institute of Justice. Smith, R. G., 2012. Cyber Crime Research, Sydney: Australian Institute of Criminology. Smith, S. W. & Spafford, E. H., 2004. Grand Challenges in Information Security: Process and Output. IEEE Security and Privacy, 2(1), pp. 69-71. Synovate, 2003. Federal Trade Commission—Identity Theft Survey Report, Report prepared for the Federal Trade Commission, McLean, VA: Federal Trade Commission . Read More