About Cybercrime

According to Alvarez Technology Group, “a hacker attacks an internet-connected computer every 39 seconds in the United States.” (Admin.). Cybercrime is a dangerous game within the embodiment of the mysterious Internet. People who do cybercrime are anonymous and hard to track. There are many sources that help combat the rise of cybercrime. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation “today, these computer intrusion cases—counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal—are the paramount priorities of our cyber program because of their potential relationship to national security.” (“Cyber Crime.”). Unfortunately, some people use the Internet to do a crime like hacking, piracy, and cyber terrorism, but there are ways to prevent all this from happening to make the Internet safer.To begin with, hacking is when a program made by the programmer, also called a hacker, gets put into a computer system to alter systems and change the program of the computer without the consent of the user’s computer or unapproved intrusion of the code. The hacker uses hacking to change the code in which the computer or technology device is from what the original purpose of the technology. Hackers can use multiple techniques to accomplish their goal. According to Techniopedia, a website to understand tech terms, hackers can use “vulnerability scanner checks computers on networks for known weaknesses, password cracking [is] the process of recovering passwords from data stored [in the computer], and viruses [are] self-replicating programs that spread by inserting copies of themselves into other executable code files or documents.” (“What Is Hacking? - Definition from Techopedia.”). However, depending on how bad the hack goes, the hacker can get in serious trouble. Christopher Reinhart, Chief Attorney, states that “the law punishes hacking under the computer crime statutes. These crimes carry penalties ranging from a class B misdemeanor (able to be six months in prison, a fine of up to $1,000, or both) to a class B felony (able to be up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $15,000, or both).” (Reinhart). The law also punishes unauthorized access to a computer or computer network, that can range from a class B misdemeanor to a class D felony which is punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.In addition, another crime that is over the Internet is piracy. Piracy is described as the distribution of copyrighted material that does not have the consent of the own material. Online piracy is categorized into three different types of piracy: movie, music, and software piracy. The reason piracy is still active today is that people want to watch movies, use software, or listen to music for free. According to Laws.com, it states that “the most dominating example of online piracy [was] found in the illegal download market for free media, such a consequence to a person that used piracy. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, “criminal charges may leave you with a felony record, accompanied by up to five years of jail time and fines up to $250,000.” (“About Piracy.”). Lastly, cyberterrorism is the extreme crime that can be from the internet to cripple companies or government. An example of cyberterrorism is on the TechTarget SearchSecurity website, a website to help understand the security industry, which states that “this type of cyber-attack could disrupt major cities, …, endanger the public safety of millions of people as well as cause massive panic and fatalities.” (“What Is Cyberterrorism? - Definition from WhatIs.com.”). Cyberterrorism can be devastating to the welfare of cities and their countries. Some methods that cyberterrorist use is hacking to get into the government sensitive files, or “phishing attacks [which are] attempts by cybercriminals to collect information from victims through email” (“What Is Cyberterrorism? - Definition from WhatIs.com.”). With this information, people can steal other people’s identities. However, there are multiple of other crimes that are done over the internet, but it is time to talk about how to protect from crimes over the internet. As a result, there is a multiple of ways to protect computers that prevent hackers is by just not clicking on unknown servers. On the United States Homeland Security website, it states that people should “never click on links in emails, never open the attachments, and do not give out personal information over the phone or in an email.” (“Protect Myself from Cyber Attacks.”). The process of deceiving individuals into providing personal information to seemingly trusted agents who turn out to be malicious actors is called social engineering. According to this agency also states that people should “set secure passwords and don't share them with anyone, keep your operating system, browser, anti-virus, and other critical software up to date, and be suspicious of unknown links or requests sent through email or text message.” (“Protect Myself from Cyber Attacks.”).In the end, from hacking, piracy, and cyberterrorism to how to protect the computer from being hacked, cybercrime is an increasing crime that is happening around the world. Counterterrorism and other protective software not to just protect national security but to help protect the computers coding. Nevertheless, due to the privacy, the Internet can provide, criminals can be mysterious and do the crime right at their fingertips. Think while surfing the web, checking emails, or clicking a pop-up ad, all of these can be potential in which a hacker can get the information from a computer or technological device.

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