Cybercrime is a bigger risk now than ever before due to the sheer number of connected people and devices.
You often hear the term ‘cybercrime’ bandied about these days, as it’s a bigger risk now than ever before due to the sheer number of connected people and devices. But what is it exactly? In a nutshell, it is simply a crime that has some kind of computer or cyber aspect to it. To go into more detail is not as straightforward, as it takes shape in a variety of different formats. In the UK, the first official estimate of the true scale of online shopping scams, virus attacks, thefts of bank details and other online offences was much higher than an initial ONS estimate in October last year, which put the annual figure at 3.8m, or 40% of all crimes.
Cyber Crime now costs the UK an estimated £193bn a year and with half of all crimes against people in the UK being committed from abroad. The ONS ( UK Office for National Statistics) said one in 10 adults had been victims of cybercrime in the past year. The chance of being a victim was the same regardless of social class or whether someone lived in a deprived or affluent, urban or rural area.
The 5.8m offences were made up of 3.8m fraud offences, including 2.5m incidents of bank and credit card fraud, and 2m computer misuse offences, including 1.4m virus attacks. The remaining 600,000 estimated offences related to unauthorised access to personal information, such as hacking of email, social media or other online accounts.
Cybercrime: The facts
- Cybercrime has now surpassed illegal drug trafficking as a criminal moneymaker
- Somebody’s identity is stolen every 3 seconds as a result of cybercrime
- An unprotected PC can become infected within four minutes of connecting to the Internet.
Identity Theft
Identity theft means stealing someone else identity such as social security number, date-of-birth, driving licence number to commit frauds such as bank frauds, credit card fraud etc. Identity thieves can go ahead to perform more serious crimes such as smuggling, trafficking drugs etc.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is harassing an individual or a group via the internet. A cyber stalker can go to the extent of making personal information of a user public on social sites. Cyberstalking is a serious crime and is treated as serious as physical stalking in the UK.
Phishing Attack
Phishing is an increasing threat which affects thousands of internet users every day. This is a technique used by cyber criminals to steal passwords, login details of internet users. Cyber crooks trick the internet users to phishing sites resembling a bank or a shopping site, where every detail entered is passed directly to the phisher.
Running Email Spam
Most people are unaware that running spam is a type of cybercrime. Those who are involved in sending spam messages, collects email address of users from social sites and chatrooms and send spam messages. These messages contains links, clicking on which the user may land to a website, where he will be motivated to make a purchase or enter their personal information.
These were some of the types of Cyber Crime, which affects one or other internet users. The best way to remain safe from these phishing attacks is to remain alerted and use an antivirus software.
