Definition of Cyber Crimes

Cyber crime has been a problem as early as the late 1970's. With the ever-changing technology, cyber crime offenders are right there, keeping up with new ways to attack possible Internet victims. While the Internet can bring purpose, and even joy to our technological lives, it has a way of creating its negative side effects too.

Types of Cyber-Crime

Types of cyber crime include identity theft, credit card fraud, cyber-stalking, phishing, child pornography, and spoofing. Many types of cyber-crimes happen often through everyday emails, or in chat-rooms. Other types of cyber-crimes also involve software pirating, downloading illegal music files, and stealing money from banks by breaking into online websites.

Punishment for Cyber-Crime

Punishment for a variety of cyber-crimes will often depend on the location and which state the crime took place in. Each state has their own set of laws that deal with internet crime and it's offenders. Child pornography is one of the harshest internet crimes and most often will be punished with jail time, and their name being registered in the sexual predators list.

The History of Cyber-Crime

The first spam email took place in 1978 when it was sent out over the ARPAnet, the Defense Department's network. It was used to flog a new computer. The first virus was installed on an Apple computer in 1982 when a high school student, Rich Skrenta, developed the Elk cloner. He hid it on a floppy disk that was needed to boot the operating system on the computer. For every fifty boots that were made, a bad poem appeared on the computer screen.

Cyber Crime Statistics

The Internet Crime Complain Center received over two hundred thousand complaints in the year 2006. The three main attacks that resulted in the loss of money for online businesses were financial fraud, viruses, and hackers. The Crime Complain Center had also conducted a five-year study proving that the numbers are increasing for children being exposed to unwanted pornography, youth being sexually solicited, and Internet harassment and bullying also increased.

Protecting Yourself from Cyber-Crime

Individuals can protect themselves from credit card fraud by not replying to strange or unusual emails asking for personal financial information. Shoppers also need to be aware that any shopping website has an encrypted secure shopping cart when inputting their credit card information. Parents can keep a closer eye on their children and install filters to block out unwanted material on the internet, and keep them away from chatrooms to prevent Internet harassment and block internet predators.

Resources

• Cyber Crime Statistics
• The History of Cyber Crime