Criminal Behavior on the Internet

Instructions:

Term Paper: Criminal Behavior on the Internet

Details of the Paper:

1. Create the Term Paper Outline on the Research Paper’s First Page.

2. Prepare at least a 10-page paper in Microsoft Word in APA format (see writing expectations in the Policies section below). At a minimum include the following: References (minimum of 10).

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4. The paper must be at least 10 pages double-spaced, with 1″ margin all around, black 12-point fonts (Times New Roman or Arial) with correct citations of all utilized references/sources, (pictures, graphics, etc are extra – allowed but extra for the minimum page count).
-The title page and references are also required but don’t count in the minimum page count. A minimum of 10 references are needed.
-The paper will be subjected to checking against plagiarism. The paper must follow acceptable originality criteria.
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ANSWER

Criminal Behavior on the Internet

Outline

Introduction:

Topic sentence: The internet is one of the greatest inventions of the current generation

Thesis Statement: Many people have become victims of criminal behavior on the internet, with some of the criminals going as far as stealing their identities, fleecing them, or using their identity to commit other crimes which eventually lands them in trouble; there are people who have gone to prison because their identity was stolen and crimes were committed using their identity.

Body

Paragraph 1

Topic sentence: Cybercrime can be committed against individuals, groups, or even institutions. It is usually intended to harm someone’s reputation, physically harm them, or even cause mental harm.

Paragraph 2: The internet has increased connectivity around the world. This means that offenders have a wider field.

Paragraph 3: The offenders on the internet do not use one platform. They target different victims. Some will target victims of a certain age; others look for victims who are more into spirituality or the church and use this against them.

Paragraph 4: Cybercrime is made easier by the fact that it is easier to dehumanize people online. It is easier not to see people online as names and pictures, not as human beings. This makes it easier to do terrible things.

Paragraph 5: There are different types of criminal behavior on the internet. The first is social engineering and trickery. This involves the use of deceitful methods to coerce individuals into behaving or performing in a certain way.

Paragraph 6: Criminal activity on the internet can be prevented. This can be done if internet users are vigilant and ensure that their computer systems are always updated.

Paragraph 7: Passwords are important in protecting oneself from internet criminals. The password one chooses can determine whether one will be hacked or not.

Conclusion: the development of technology and the internet has not been entirely rosy. It has come with its downsides, one of the downsides being the increase in criminal activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Criminal Behavior on the Internet

The internet is one of the greatest inventions of the current generation. There have been numerous advancements that have happened as a result of internet connectivity, and now people can work remotely. Companies have the opportunity to outsource their work to developing countries for cheaper labor and still monitor their operations. However, the internet has also made it easier for criminal activities. Cybercrime has been on the rise, with many companies facing threats from hackers and institutions such as insurance agencies losing their clients’ information to hackers (Arora, 2016). Many people have become victims of criminal behavior on the internet, with some of the criminals going as far as stealing their identities, fleecing them, or using their identity to commit other crimes, which eventually lands them in trouble; there are people who have gone to prison because their identity was stolen and crimes were committed using their identity.

Cybercrime can be committed against individuals, groups, or even institutions. It is usually intended to harm someone’s reputation, physically harm them, or even cause mental harm. As computer networks become more prevalent, there has been a long trail of criminal activity. There are many ways in which computers can be used by criminals to commit their crimes. They can computers to avoid detection or enhance their modus operandi (Pospisil et al., 2020). The internet gives criminals great access to their victims, with some criminals using the internet as a disguise to attract their victims. An example of such a case is the John E. Robinson case, who used the internet to lure some of his victims in and then sexually assaulted them. Such criminals can be hard to find as they are usually using the internet as a disguise and for the clever ones who know how to cover their tracks on the internet, it can take years before getting caught.

The internet has increased connectivity around the world. This means that offenders have a wider field. The internet has a significant amount of personal information. The offender can use this information to commit their con games. Offenders use different ways to target their victims (Stalans & Finn, 2016). For example, one offender may choose a dating site. They might decide to target women who are desperately looking for a relationship and con them into giving them their money. In the recent past, there was such a case where an Israeli man used this method to con several women from different parts of the world. He used the resources of other women to impress them; then, he lied to them that he was in distress, and they sent him money with a promise that he would refund. There are many cases of women and men being conned on the internet through dating sites.

The offenders on the internet do not use one platform. They target different victims. Some will target victims of a certain age; others look for victims who are more into spirituality or the church and use this against them. There have been cases where the offenders have even lured them and killed them. The offenders on the internet do ensure that they have gained the trust of their victims by using their victim’s information. Some of the offenses committed on the internet cannot be prosecuted because the victim was not forced to do anything. The offender ensures they have gained their trust before taking everything from them (Bada & Nurse, 2021). At this point, the victim is usually unsuspecting and in most cases, they do not have a case against their offender as they did everything without being forced as they trusted the offender.

Cybercrime is made easier by the fact that it is easier to dehumanize people online. It is easier not to see people online as names and pictures, not as human beings. This makes it easier to do terrible things. The internet makes it easier to dissociate from reality, and thus, it is easier to overlook the fact that one is doing horrible things to another human being. Criminals’ behavior on the internet can do more damage and can do it faster. Cybercrime is not just abstract; there are criminals who are psychologically violent. Some will look for pictures on the internet and use them to blackmail another person. Other are intended to harm the next person emotionally, and thus they will hack their victim’s phones and publish their personal data online.

Some of the criminal behavior on the internet ab get out of hand. For example, in December of 2005, 27-year-old Josie Phyllis Brown was reported missing in Baltimore. The digital evidence showed that the young lady had met a 22-year-old student John Gaumer and they had talked before the meeting. The two had met on myspace.com and decided to meet. The telephone traced her location to be miles from where Gaumer claimed to have left her. All the evidence pointed to Gaumer, who later led the police to the body. He had removed the nose and her teeth to stop them from identifying her. Some of the evidence used against him was a digital recording of thumping noises, shouting, and brief bursts of a woman’s muffled screams. The internet can lead one to their grave, like in the case of Josie, where she met someone she thought she liked, and the person ended up being a psychopathic killer.

Cybercrime against individuals

There are different types of criminal behavior on the internet. The first is social engineering and trickery. This involves the use of deceitful methods to coerce individuals into behaving or performing in a certain way. The next is online embarrassment. This is where one uses the information of the person to bully them on online platforms. This is one of the most common criminal behavior in the world today (Bergmann et al., 2018). Cyberbullying is rampant due to the high number of social media applications and websites readily available for people. The next is identity theft. In this case, the person’s identity is stolen and used to commit nefarious activity. Online harassment is regarded as individuals harassing each other online. Women and men face online harassment, but women receive various types of harassment online.

Criminal behavior against individuals is one of the most common types of criminal behavior on the internet. Some of the most common internet criminal behavior include online impersonation, social network fraud, and cyberbullying. Online impersonation is one of the most committed cybercrimes in existence. In Texas, it is a criminal act to use another person’s information without their consent for the purpose of making a recipient believe that the message is coming from the person (Mendoza, 2017). Online impersonation is mostly used by celebrities. Impersonators use the online handles of celebrities and promise people to have promotions, after which they con the person. This is one of the most commonly used forms of online criminal behavior on the internet and has led many people to lose their money. Impersonation can also be used to blackmail people on the internet over the information they share.

Cybercrime against organizations

When it comes to internet criminal activity, individuals are not the only ones that are affected. Businesses have lost money to cyber criminals because their systems were vulnerable to hackers, and their company information was accessed (Bergman et al., 2018). There are cases where hackers will hack into the company’s computer systems and access the company’s secrets; they then use the information they have accessed to blackmail the company into paying a ransom for the information or making it public. In the US insurance companies and hospitals have fallen victim to these hackers in some instances, the hackers obtain patient information and try to use it against the company or try to strong-arm the company into paying for the information. In other cases, they take the hospital systems hostage and offer to release them only after they have been paid.

One of the most distinct forms of criminal activities against governments and organizations is cyber terrorism. The individuals or groups involved in this type of criminal activity use the internet to threaten the international government and the citizens of the country (Nikolovska, 2020). A crime manifests itself as terrorism when it involves hacking government or military websites, and vital information is stolen from those websites. Other internet crimes against organizations involve password sniffing, denial of service attacks, network intrusions, forgery, and web jacking.

Behaviors in Cyber Crimes

Different offenders use different types of behavior on the internet. They use different techniques to commit crimes. In common fraud scams, criminals take their time to gather information by phishing and spoofing, leading to identity theft (Nurse, 2018). The person who reals the identity pretends to be the other person and uses their information to commit fraud. This also involves crimes related to healthcare, insurances and they are performed through hacking and identity forging. Cyber harassment and defamation involve pedophiles and stalkers. These ones fake their identities ad use their false identities to trap children and teenagers. These mostly occur on media sites and chatrooms. They are also a major source of harassment and defamation.

In cybercrimes, the offenders can either be internal or external. In some companies, the offenders are within the organization. They use the information they have gained in the organization to harass the organization’s officials (Nurse, 2018). This can be either to get a promotion or for other interests, such as asking for ransom money to prevent leaking the information online. There are also instances where they use the information they have gained to harass and bully each other online.

Preventing Criminal Activity on the Internet

Criminal activity on the internet can be prevented. This can be done if internet users are vigilant and ensure that their computer systems are always updated. Cybercriminals use software flaws to attack computer systems frequently and without being discovered. One can start their windows software to automatically download and update themselves (Michel & King, 2019). By ensuring that their software is up to date, they will protect themselves from criminal activity that goes on on the internet. They will also be protected against spyware and adware. To be safe, the antivirus should be configured such that it updates itself any time the system connects to the internet.

Another way of preventing criminal activity on the internet is by protecting personal information. This includes not sharing basic personal information. Common sense is one of the most effective ways of protecting oneself from online criminal activity. This means not sharing one’s address, phone number, social security number, or email address online. It is also essential to be careful not to respond to messages that are suspicious (Michel & King, 2019). If there is a message on the phone that does feel right, ignoring it is the best way to avoid making one vulnerable to scammers and cons on the internet. If an email looks suspicious. It is important to first contact the company to ensure that the email that was sent is authentic and that it is not one of the cons of trying to get money out of the email.

Passwords are an important part of protecting oneself from internet criminals. The password one chooses can determine whether they will be hacked or not. Most people choose easy-to-remember passwords without knowing that they are making themselves vulnerable to cybercrime. It is also important to ensure that one logs out of any site they log in using public computers. It is also important to ensure that the passwords are not tired. Using the same password for various sites is dangerous. This is because if one has access to one site they can use the one password to gain access to the other site. Being unpredictable and using passwords that cannot be easily predicted is another way that people can protect themselves from internet criminals as it makes it hard for them to hack into their systems.

Keeping the firewall turned on could also help protect the computer. A firewall helps protect the computer and keeps hackers out (Payne, 2016). Before signing up for any website, it is important to ensure that one reads the fine print on the website privacies. On most social media sites, the website keeps the photos and any information that one might have used even after one has left the website. For example, there was a conflict about Facebook and what happens to the information after one has deleted their account. Most of these social media sites ask for personal information, and thus the importance to understand their privacy policy before signing up for any website. If the privacy policy does not make one comfortable, they should avoid the website or the social media platform.

Lastly, it is important to understand that if the deal is too good, think twice about it. Nobody gives large sums of money on the internet. Any message about winning a large sum of money or sending money so one can receive gifts or job opportunities is a scam and should be reported and ignored. If a person calls and asks for personal information, such as bank account numbers and pins, so they can deposit money to the bank account, this should be taken as a red flag and avoided.

In conclusion, the development of technology and the internet has not been entirely rosy. It has come with its downsides, one of the downsides being the increase in criminal activities. There are scary stories coming from many people about their experiences on the internet. The rise of internet bullying, cybercrime, and harassment has been one of the most challenging things that the internet has brought. These can, however, be controlled especially if the internet users are careful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Arora, B. (2016). Exploring and analyzing Internet crimes and their behaviors. Perspectives in Science, pp. 8, 540–542.

Bada, M., & Nurse, J. R. (2021, June). Profiling the cybercriminal: a systematic review of research. In 2021 international conference on cyber situational awareness, data analytics and assessment (CyberSA) (pp. 1–8). IEEE.

Bergmann, M. C., Dreißigacker, A., von Skarczinski, B., & Wollinger, G. R. (2018). Cyber-dependent crime victimization: the same risk for everyone. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 21(2), 84-90.

Mendoza, D. K. O. (2017). The vulnerability of cyberspace-the cybercrime. Journal of Forensic Sciences & Criminal Investigation, 2(1), 1–8.

Michel, M. C. K., & King, M. C. (2019). Cyber influence of human behavior: personal and national security, privacy, and fraud awareness to prevent harm. In 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) (pp. 1–7). IEEE.

Nikolovska, M. (2020). The Internet as a creator of a criminal mind and child vulnerabilities in the cyber grooming of children. JYU dissertations.

Nurse, J. R. (2018). Cybercrime and you: How criminals attack and the human factors that they seek to exploit. arXiv preprint arXiv:1811.06624.

Payne, B. K. (2020). Defining Cybercrime. The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyberdeviance, pp. 3–25.

Pospisil, B., Huber, E., Quirchmayr, G., & Seboeck, W. (2020). Modus operandi in cybercrime. In Encyclopedia of Criminal Activities and the Deep Web (pp. 193-209). IGI Global.

Stalans, L. J., & Finn, M. A. (2016). Understanding how the internet facilitates crime and deviance. Victims & Offenders, 11(4), 501-508.