Cyber Crime

By Sally Raskoff

We’ve been hearing a lot about “cyber” crime lately. Are cyber crimes increasing? What is the impact of cyber crime on society?

If we have a phone, most of us get those annoying phone calls, most of which are hang-ups, but some of which inform us that the IRS wants our money or there’s a deal that we “must” take advantage of. Individuals have the freedom to react to calls like these as we prefer, but this personal nuisance is certainly part of a societal issue.

Technology is being used to generate profit at the expense of legality and ethical treatment of others.

On a national scale, Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has been in the news, although to date, not much has been said about results and whether it had an impact on the election.

The FBI has authority over cyber crime investigations and is the source of those many crime reports that we use in sociology classes to see the patterns in crime over time (the Uniform Crime Reports, or UCR). Their website has a lot of information about what cyber crime is, tips on how to avoid it, and what to do if it happens, yet there is little data there about the incidence or patterns over time. Homeland Security also has a web page about cyber crime, but, again, not statistics that I could find.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics also reports on cyber crime, yet their latest data are from 2005. Their data point out that many businesses have experienced some form of cyber crime. “The majority of victimized businesses (86%) detected multiple incidents, with half of these (43%) detecting 10 or more incidents during the year.”

I invite you to see what you can find for current legitimate sources of data on the incidence of cyber crime.

So, it seems that cyber crime happens quite often, according to anecdotes, major cases, and the news media. What are the impacts of cyber crime on society?

For those whose computers are affected, no work can be done before the problem is cleared up. My campus was recently the target of cyber crime, as many other educational, law enforcement, health care, and other organizations have experienced. Voicemail was down, along with the campus website, email, and the servers where much of our work resides.

Classes went on, since teaching involves students interacting with professors, either in person or in an online learning management system (which is usually not connected to a campus server). But communication all across campus all but stopped. Students couldn’t reach counselors, staff, and faculty, who could not reach each other, unless they had already shared their personal cell phones or personal email. Offices that needed access to files and data had no access to anything since their computers were virtually and literally untouchable until the issue was resolved.

Go back up your files, in a location other than your usual place, do it right now, even before you finish reading this blog. Save all of your files. If you have files in a cloud, save them in some other manner as well.

When businesses are hacked like this, work, whatever it is, is impacted in dramatic ways. When organizations are hacked and data breaches occur, those whose information is gathered may suffer future problems if that information yields useful identity details. While those who do the cyber crime may gain financially, the organizations and individuals who are defrauded suffer, as does the productivity of the nation.

Cyber crime is more than just a crime against individuals. What other ways might cyber crime impact organizations, and society as a whole?

Comments

[Tamicih Cudges]

Cyber Crimes impact individuals and society as a whole because if we as society do not feel that our information is safe, meaning credit card information, then we will not use our credit cards to purchase items at a store. If we don't use our credit cards then the banks don't make money by charging us interest. If the banks don't make money then people get laid off and lose their jobs and we all know if people lose their jobs then the economy goes down. As you can see cyber crimes have a huge impact on society and we must do all that we can to ensure that our information is safe at all times.

[Lauren Winters]

Cyber Crimes impact individuals and society as a whole because if we as society do not feel information is safe, meaning credit card because people use money sometimes people can get charge for what interest and economy their have for jobs for losing it because most people don't know what their want to do in their lifetime.

[V Lakshmi]

Nice article! Cyber crimes are increasing rapidly I believe we all must work on alternatives to protect ourself's check more on http://www.publicdebate.in/deal-increasing-cyber-crime/

[tegrtg]

can I paste this on my project? because I have the project about cyber crime

[eunah]

cyber crimes are increasing at an alarming rate. people no longer feel safe because you do not know who has your information

[Simon Kiplangat Bett]

We have all been victims of cyber crime in one way or another. forgeries are increasing every time and even people have started forging online certificates