Cybercrime : the transformation of crime in the information age

Cybercrime is crime that is mediated by networked technology. Old crimes such as

theft, fraud, and harassment find new forms in cyberspace and information
technologies. Other crimes, such as hacking or Internet-solicited prostitution, are
contested deviance, with significant subgroups labeling certain actions as nondeviant
and within a reasonable moral code. Further, additional cybercrimes involving
ransomware, malware, or worms sometimes are constructed as forms of resistance
to unfair government or business practices, lacking consensus on labeling specific
forms of hacking as crime.

Cyber criminals are becoming a major threat to computer users throughout the
world. Many of these criminals are very bold because they believe that they can hide
behind the cloak of anonymity on the Internet.

The Internet facilitates deviance and crime through providing visibility and
accessibility to alternative justifications and normative viewpoints on forms of
cybercrime. The fragmented and layered nature of the Internet further stimulates
deviant and criminal activity as there is no centralized government body to establish
the norms for appropriate conduct and to enforce criminal laws in specific countries.
Unlawful behavior in some countries is tolerated and legal behavior in other
countries, allowing offenders to choose jurisdictions for their websites that have the
least harsh legal consequences. Moreover, maintaining anonymity or bogus
identities during the commission of crimes is easier in virtual spaces than in real
physical space. Apps, avatars, disposable devices, and the deep web—where
search engines cannot detect websites due to an added layer of security—facilitate a
concealment of criminal transactions, socialization into subcultures, and networking
of those involved in illicit or nonconventional behavior. Specialized forums and chat
rooms in cyberspace have created virtual spaces to network and to form trustworthy
underground markets for illicit drugs, prostitution, and child pornography. Ideological
deviant groups to incite terrorism, engage in espionage, or engage in harmful health
risks such as “bug chasers” who seek sexual interactions with HIV-infected These
forums provide widespread outreach across the globe, establish reputations of
sellers of illicit goods or services through customers’ reviews, allow the sharing of
evasive strategies to avoid arrest, and create market norms that deter cooperation
with law enforcement. The permeating presence of information technology and
cyberspace in the connection of things such as cars, phones, home security, and
home temperature controls and its role as critical infrastructure for societal
institutions highlights the potential serious harmful effects of cybercrime.

Individuals with technological skills were more likely to engage in malware attacks in
the United States and South Africa, supporting the idea that malicious hacking is a
sophisticated type of offending that requires knowledge of computer program
languages and how to identify vulnerabilities in computer networks. An expert
examines if men and women have similar propensities to commit three forms of
cybercrime: digital piracy, harassment, and hacking. A consistent finding in
criminological research is that there is a gender gap in offending; men compared to
women are more likely to engage in crime in the real world. There’s a gender gap in
these cybercrimes through exploring the intersection of gender and socialization
concepts of self-control and immersion into the cyber environment for their influence
on online offending. His findings indicate that men are significantly more likely to
engage in online harassment irrespective of the offenders’ self-control or immersion
in the cyber environment. However, men and women who have high levels of
immersion into the cyber environment are equally likely to engage in digital piracy
and hacking, suggesting that technical sophistication and knowledge might mediate
gender differences. Men and women with low self-control reported similar rates of
digital piracy whereas among those with high self-control men had higher rates of
digital piracy than women.

Fortunately, computer hackers are not untraceable. You can identify them and help
the authorities make a case against cyber criminals if you follow a few measures.
Many hackers use proxies or dark web sites such as Tor. They can still be traced,
but doing so may be a bit more difficult. These guidelines may help you identify
some hackers, but you may need the assistance of an expert to catch many in real
life.

You will need to identify the IP address of the intruder. There are a variety of Linux
commands and tools that can tell you what the IP address is of any computer that is
trying to make a connection. You can find the IP address of anyone trying to hack
your own website on your hosting logs, Google Analytics or another analytics tool.
You can try to use a tool such as NetStat to identify the IP addresses of anyone
trying to connect to your computer.

What to do with the information: Once you have an IP address you can find out
where the connection is coming from. Keep in mind that these simpler tools won’t be
able to tell you exactly where they are, but can give you a reasonable idea what city
they are in and what hosting provider they are using.
You can use the traceart command to find the hostname of the IP address that the
hacker is using to access your machine. You can also put the IP address on the
trace-route tool on the Princeton website. Another alternative is to use the
GEOIPTool to get a rough idea where the hacker is located.

- You can turn them over to the authorities.

– You can report them to their hosting provider after learning their identity.
I would suggest the former in most situations. You will know which country’s
jurisdiction to contact to report the crime.