Cybercrime often referred to as computer crime involves a computer and a network to commit a crime or a fraud. The computer, as well as internet, is used to further illegal ends such as cyber-stalking, identity theft, pornography or violating privacy etc. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target and this cybercrime refers to criminal exploitation of the Internet. It has been observed that most cybercrimes are aimed to attack information about individuals, corporations, or governments. Although the attacks do not take place on a physical body, they do take place on the personal or corporate virtual body to steal information about a particular person or an organization. Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm to the victim directly or indirectly, using modern telecommunication networks such as Internet Chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups as well mobile phones SMS/MMS collectively refer to as cybercrime.

New technologies create new criminal opportunities as well as new types of crime. With the modernization and availability of technology at affordable prices, it has led to widespread use of technology for developmental as well as destruction purpose. There are a lot of people using computers and the internet to commit certain crimes like stalking, committing fraud, cyber defaming, and pornography as well as stealing the identity. It has been noted that generally young people in the age group of 16-26 are involved in the most of the cases of cybercrime and most of the time they commit these crimes unknowingly to take a revenge, to play a prank or to defame a particular classmate or a colleague which at times can land them in some serious trouble.

Cybercrime highlights the centrality of networked computers in our lives, as well as the fragility of such seemingly solid facts as individual identity. These days our lives are revolving so much around the technology that we are really vulnerable to some major losses through this connectivity. Such crimes may also threaten a nation’s security and financial health. Issues surrounding this type of crime have also created a problem for some high-profile companies, particularly those surrounding cracking, copyright infringement, child pornography, and child grooming. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise. This is what cybercrime is all about.

Types of Cyber Crime

Cybercrime is not just limited to certain forms like internet fraud, stealing identity or data theft; instead, it ranges across a spectrum of activities. At one end are crimes that generally involve fundamental breaches of personal as well corporate privacy and are generally targeting companies and business firms to attack the integrity of information held in digital depositories and the use of illegally obtained digital information to blackmail a firm or individual. Also at this end of the spectrum is the growing crime of identity theft that may involve stealing identity as well as other information of an individual like credit card details etc and then using that information for the personal purpose. Also along the corner lie transaction-based crimes such as fraud, trafficking in child pornography, digital piracy, money laundering, and counterfeiting etc which is also a great cause of concern. These are specific crimes with specific victims, but the criminal hides in the relative anonymity provided by the Internet. Another part of this type of crime involves individuals within corporations or government bureaucracy’s deliberately altering data for either profit or political objectives. Also existing are the virtual viruses that stop the working of the internet or device and may harm your device or extract some vital files stored in.

The major threat from the cybercrime is faced in the terms of cyber-terrorism that focuses upon the use of the Internet by non-state actors to affect a nation’s economic and technological infrastructure. Terrorists may use the internet to leak out some vital information related to the security of a nation and release of this information may pose a certain threat to the security of the nation. Terrorists may also use the internet to upload certain videos or speeches that may lead to a mass outrage, thereby posing a threat to a nation’s security as well as internal peace. However different types of cyber crimes are:

• Internet Fraud: Internet fraud has been at rising from past few years, there have been reports of internet frauds from different parts of the world where people were being fraudulently looted of their money by some online lottery scam or some other kind of scam. Schemes to defraud consumers abound on the Internet are very common these days where frauds lure people of a large amount of money and ask them to pay a certain amount as tax. Among the most famous is the Nigerian, or “419,” scam; the number is a reference to the section of Nigerian law that the scam violates.
  This type of fraud has also been prevailing via fax, mobile, and other forms but internet has added another dimension to this type of fraud wherein sender writes an e-mail asserting that a huge amount of money transfer needs the help of the receiver and the person receiving the e-mail has to bear some costs of money transfer and in return a huge share of the amount is promised. Once a person falls in for this scheme he sends money to frauds in the hope of receiving a huge amount of money which he never gets and thereby ends up losing his own money that is unrecoverable.
• Identity Theft: Identity Theft is another kind of very offensive cybercrime known across the globe which had lead to frauds involving an amount in millions of millions. Identity theft through the internet is actually a way through which criminals somehow obtain the personal information of people whose identity or details the hacker wants to use for any illegal purpose. The criminal breaks in through the internet to get the key personal information as well as details like Driving License Number, Social Security and Pin Codes of ATM and other cards. Once the criminal has all these he can easily use all that information for making purchases online on the name of the victim. The Identity theft can lead to serious consequences as the criminal can use the information for immigration or other such important applications which at times can be really serious or may involve some serious threat for a nation’s security.
  The most serious consequence of the identity theft is that crime is often done by identity theft experts who perform their task very meticulously and thus the charge of crime comes on the victim, whose identity has been theft. There are two broad types of Identity Theft:
  • Account Takeover: Account Takeover is a kind of situation where the criminal uses the information which he has stolen in order to have the access of victim's existing accounts and further misuse the information obtained for various purposes
  • True Name Theft: While in true name theft the thief the personal information of the victim to open new accounts. In this, the thief can open a new credit card, cellular phones number, chequebooks of the existing account and may misuse all. Now as it's a part of life using these facilities which had made our lives easier, there is only a way not to become a prey of such thefts is safety and precautions. Be sure, not to share any personal information at any public place or to anyone online. Also, do keep in mind when you log-in into a website do remember to watch out for green ‘https’ where ‘s’ indicates a secure network/site to log-in.
• Hacking: We may come across the term hacking or hacker very commonly but still, not many of us must be aware that what the word hacker actually meant. Hacker initially was used for an exceptionally talented programmer who would solve every programming related problem. However, the definition has changed and these days it is largely used for people practising unauthorized and unethical use of internet and other network resources to access information of other people, company or an organization. Hacking is considered a crime in most of the countries and is a punishable offence in most parts of the world. However, hacking is also used for a few useful purposes also as there are times when the police or investigation teams require the help of hackers to solve a case. Hacking done for such a purpose is not regarded as unauthorized. These hackers are given the authorization to look into the details of the person in question.
• Computer Viruses: Yet another form of cyber attack that poses a major threat is in the form of the virus. The deliberate release of damaging computer viruses is very dangerous. The virus is self-propagating and replicating computer programs that enter in the device and may damage them partially or completely. Some of the Virus directly affects that working of the device and may render them completely useless. These viruses infest into the computer using certain internet flaws that infects the system and these can also be used to extract some useful files and information from the infected system. The scale of virus crimes is among the most difficult to assess because the victims often prefer not to report the crimes sometimes out of fear of further security breaches. Officials estimate, however, that virus protection costs the world economy billions of dollars annually.

Effects of Cyber Crime on Society

Cyber crimes are growing at a rapid rate and these crimes have a great deal of negative effect on our society. Cyber crimes in the form of bullying, identity theft, cyber stalking and cyber defamation are very common these days and often lead to an awkward situation for the victims of these attacks. Identity theft on networking sites has become really common. People using fake photographs as well as stolen photographs of other people from networking sites to create a fake account have become really popular and is an issue of serious concern. Different forms of cyber crimes affecting our society are:

• Exploitation of children and trafficking in human beings
• Cyberbullying
• Stalking
• Child-pornography
• Obscenity
• Drug trafficking
• Threats
• Harassments
• Cyberterrorism

Although freedom of speech is protected by law in most democratic societies, that does not include all types of speech. In fact, spoken or written "true threat" speech/text is criminalized because of "intent to harm or intimidate", that also applies for online or any type of network related threats in written text or speech. Internet medium has been widely used for issuing threats personally or by certain terrorist group etc to create an atmosphere of fear and unrest. Another form of cybercrime in the form of bullying and stalking is also becoming widespread and notorious. People bullying their bosses, teachers, classmates, and co-workers have become very common also the cases of dejected lovers stalking people is at rising which has become a serious issue of threat for our society. Though the government is coming up with laws to curb these cases there is also a need for moral counselling.

Effects of Cyber Crime on Economy and Business

Increasing cyber crimes pose a great threat to the business as well as economy. There have been many cases of data theft and other cyber attacks on some big business houses in the past few years. Every year there are millions of complaints around the world where companies report of theft or data loss owing to cyber invasion. This has a huge effect on the business as well as economy. Every year companies spend millions of dollar on anti-virus protection to secure their systems from any kind of malware, phishing attack or any kind of virus. Cyber-crime is on the rise among businesses around the world, and it is costing them dearly. Cyber-crime includes a myriad of devious criminal practices designed to breach a company's computer security.

Today there is a need for an online database for every major business, everyone needs to transfer information as well money from one branch to other through the internet. Hence these days no one can prevent the use of computers as well as internet. All businesses that operate online have to deal with cyber-crime one way or another. Fighting cyber-crime is expensive and must always evolve as new threats and methods emerge. Companies are working hard by employing special IT cell in every office which effects the economy considerably. Companies have to spend a lot of amount in updating their database as well as operating system, buying anti-virus protection and anti-spam or trojan protection. The following examples are the ways that cyber-crime affects companies and their customers:

• Lost Sales: Cyber-crime isn't just for thieves anymore. A new subculture has emerged in the past few years known as the cyber-activist. These are the online equivalents of protesters who chain themselves to buildings or trees. Their purpose is to shut down a company's online operations to send a message about the company's business practices. In the past two years, major corporations, such as PayPal and MasterCard, have been attacked in this way.
• The Cost of Protection: As the online cyber attacks are increasing the companies need to buy protection against the cyber threat. Companies that want to protect themselves from online thieves have to pull out their wallets to do it. There are costs in identifying risks, building new and safer operating procedures, and buying protective software and hardware. For businesses with complex or sensitive operations, this often involves hiring a cyber-security consultant to develop a customized solution. Also along with this companies have to spend a lot on hiring expert IT professionals to deal with this problem.