The term “cybercrime” was introduced after the latest evolution in the computer industry and networks.

Cybercrimes are considered a major risk because they can have devastating effects like financial losses, breaches of sensitive data, failure of systems, and also, it can affect an organization’s reputation.

In this article, we will discuss more about cybercrimes, and what are they? How do they happen? Who are Cybercriminals? Also, we will demonstrate different types of cybercrimes.

What is Cybercrime?

Cybercrime can be defined as “The illegal usage of any communication device to commit or facilitate in committing any illegal act”.

A cybercrime is explained as a type of crime that targets or uses a computer or a group of computers under one network for the purpose of harm.

Cybercrimes are committed using computers and computer networks. They can be targeting individuals, business groups, or even governments.

Investigators tend to use various ways to investigate devices suspected to be used or to be a target of a cybercrime.

Who are The Cybercriminals?

A cybercriminal is a person who uses his skills in technology to do malicious acts and illegal activities known as cybercrimes. They can be individuals or teams.

Cybercriminals are widely available in what is called the “Dark Web” where they mostly provide their illegal services or products.

Not every hacker is a cybercriminal because hacking itself is not considered a crime as it can be used to reveal vulnerabilities to report and batch them which is called a “white hat hacker”.

However, hacking is considered a cybercrime when it has a malicious purpose of conducting any harmful activities and we call this one “black hat hacker” or a cyber-criminal.

It is not necessary for cybercriminals to have any hacking skills as not all cyber crimes include hacking.

Cybercriminals can be individuals who are trading in illegal online content or scammers or even drug dealers. So here are some examples of cybercriminals:

– Black hat hackers

– Cyberstalkers

– Cyber terrorists

– Scammers

Cybercriminals who conduct targeted attacks are better to be named Threat Actors.

How do Cybercrimes happen?

Cybercriminals take advantage of security holes and vulnerabilities found in systems and exploit them in order to take a foothold inside the targeted environment.

The security holes can be a form of using weak authentication methods and passwords, it can also happen for the lack of strict security models and policies.

Why are Cybercrimes Increasing?

The world is constantly developing new technologies, so now, it has a big reliance on technology. Most smart devices are connected to the internet.  There are benefits and there are also risks.

One of the risks is the big rise in the number of cybercrimes committed, there are not enough security measures and operations to help protect these technologies.

Computer networks allow people in cyberspace to reach any connected part of the world in seconds. 

Cybercrimes can have different laws and regulations from one country to another, mentioning also that covering tracks is much easier when committing a cybercrime rather than real crimes.

We are listing different below reasons for the big increase in cybercrimes:

– Vulnerable devices:

As we mentioned before, the lack of efficient security measures and solutions introduces a wide range of vulnerable devices which is an easy target for cybercriminals.

– Personal motivation:

Cybercriminals sometimes commit cybercrimes as a kind of revenge against someone they hate or have any problem with.

– Financial motivation:

The most common motivation of cybercriminals and hacker groups, most attacks nowadays are committed to profit from it.

Two Main Types of Cyber Crimes

– Targeting computers

This type of cybercrimes includes every possible way that can lead to harm to computer devices for example malware or denial of service attacks.

– Using computers

This type includes the usage of computers to do all the classifications of computer crimes.

Classifications of Cybercrimes

Cybercrimes in general can be classified into four categories:

1. Individual Cyber Crimes:

This type is targeting individuals. It includes phishing, spoofing, spam, cyberstalking, and more.

2. Organisation Cyber Crimes:

The main target here is organizations. Usually, this type of crime is done by teams of criminals including malware attacks and denial of service attacks.

3. Property Cybercrimes:

This type targets property like credit cards or even intellectual property rights.

4. Society Cybercrimes:

This is the most dangerous form of cybercrime as it includes cyber-terrorism.

Most Common Cyber Crimes

Now that you understand what cybercrimes are, let’s discuss some common cybercrimes.

1. Phishing and Scam:

Phishing is a type of social engineering attack that targets the user and tricks them by sending fake messages and emails to get sensitive information about the user or trying to download malicious software and exploit it on the target system.

2. Identity Theft

Identity theft occurs when a cybercriminal uses another person’s personal data like credit card numbers or personal pictures without their permission to commit a fraud or a crime.

3. Ransomware Attack

Ransomware attacks are a very common type of cybercrime. It is a type of malware that has the capability to prevent users from accessing all of their personal data on the system by encrypting them and then asking for a ransom in order to give access to the encrypted data.

4. Hacking/Misusing Computer Networks

This term refers to the crime of unauthorized access to private computers or networks and misuse of it either by shutting it down or tampering with the data stored or other illegal approaches.

5. Internet Fraud

Internet fraud is a type of cybercrimes that makes use of the internet and it can be considered a general term that groups all of the crimes that happen over the internet like spam, banking frauds, theft of service, etc.

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