New
methods of cyber theft and online fraud are becoming increasingly prevalent in
the new digital age. What effect will this have on both a domestic and
international scale?
New and sophisticated methods of cybercrime and online fraud are believed by Scotland Yard to be the
biggest impending threat to the UK. The current cybercrime statistics suggest
that online fraud could potentially be more lucrative than dealing drugs in the
near future. The increasing range of sophisticated cybercrime methods is in
part to blame, as well as general apathy from lawmakers, policing
organisations, and the general public who often believe cybercrime to be
harmless. Even if cybercrime doesn’t take on the form of fraud, monetary or
property theft, it can still have hugely serious consequences.
This can be highlighted in the now
infamous Sony Pictures hack, an act of cybercrime can have a devastating effect
without even stealing a penny. In the end, the company was ridiculed in the
media, its latest film was pulled from the box-office, and both the CEO and CFO
resigned. Sony itself was ill prepared for an attack such as this, which
suggests that many more corporations and individuals are at risk. The attack
itself is believed to have been carried out under North Korea direction in
response to a satirical film about Kim Jong-Un.
Online fraud itself has been able to
take advantage of new technologies which people are not familiar with. More
traditional methods of scamming people, such as over the phone, eventually
become unusable or difficult because preventative methods were put in place.
Now with the internet as our main form on communication, fraudsters have access
to a much wider range of tools and platforms in which to scam people. Serious fraud solicitors are frequently encountering new methods in which
cyberspace is utilised to target individuals and groups.
The
increasingly popular nature of cybercrime has led to a boom in professional
online security services, many of whom are hackers themselves and know which
forms these cyberattacks will take. Even Google itself offers security
positions to hackers if they can crack a purposefully hard line of code. The
demand for these services is still on the increase on both a domestic and
international level.
Last month, the Pentagon singled out
China and Russia as the biggest national cyber-security threats, and announced
with would be beefing up its cyber security programme. China in particular has
frequently been accused of the attempted thief of classified United States
information, both military and commercial. The growing reliance on
cyber-attacks on an international basis sets a worrying precedent for isolated
incidents on a domestic scale. Speaking on the subject to The Guardian, Chinese defence ministry spokesman
Geng Yansheng accused the US of worsening tensions:
“The
increasing use of cyberspace as a battleground will further exacerbate
contradictions and up the ante on the internet arms race. We are concerned and
worried about this.”
The theft of
private content and information was frequently covered by mainstream media in
2014, usually relating to hackers stealing personal photos from prominent
actresses and leaking them across the internet. In this sense, hackers have
been portrayed in many different ways in the media and it is about time the
public made up its mind. It appears the media contradicts itself when reporting
on hacking, by simultaneously claiming it is a massive threat to our national
security and then participating in the Sony leaks by exchanging and posting
information obtained through the same methods cybercrime.
The need for
de-escalation in the internet arms race is more prominent than ever. On both an
international and domestic scale, more clarity in the mainstream media, greater
commitment to cyber-security services, as well as well-prepared legal aid and
fraud solicitation can prevent the growth of cyber-crime networks in the
future.
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