User:MajorPayne99/Cybercrime

Cybercrime Article Draft
'''Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or networks. These crimes involve the use of technology to commit fraud, identity theft, data breaches, computer viruses, scams, and expanded upon in other malicious acts. Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in computer systems and networks to gain unauthorized access, steal sensitive information, disrupt services, and cause financial or reputational harm to individuals, organizations, and governments.'''

'''In the year 2000, The Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders placed cyber crimes into five categories: unauthorized access, damage to computer data or programs, sabotage to hinder the functioning of a computer system or network, unauthorized interception of data within a system or network, and computer espionage. '''

Internationally, both state and non-state actors engage in cybercrimes, including espionage, financial theft, and other cross-border crimes. Cybercrimes crossing international borders and involving the actions of at least one nation-state are sometimes referred to as cyberwarfare. Warren Buffett describes cybercrime as the "number one problem with mankind" and said that it "poses real risks to humanity". The major risk to humanity originates from cybercrimes having the potential to send a person or organizations livelihood into ruin.

A 2014 report sponsored by McAfee estimated that cybercrime had resulted in $445 billion USD in annual damage to the global economy. Approximately $1.5 billion was lost in 2012 to online credit and debit card fraud in the US. In 2018, a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in partnership with McAfee, concluded that nearly 1 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), close to $600 billion, is lost to cybercrime each year. The World Economic Forum 2020 Global Risk Report confirmed that organized cybercrime groups are joining forces to commit criminal activities online, while estimating the likelihood of their detection and prosecution to be less than 1 percent in the US. There are also many privacy concerns surrounding cybercrime when confidential information is intercepted or disclosed, legally or otherwise.

Combating Computer Crime
'''Due to cybercriminals using the internet for cross-border attacks and crimes, the process of prosecuting cybercriminals has been difficult. The number of vulnerabilities that a cybercriminal has an opportunity has to exploit has also increased over the years. From 2008 to 2014 alone, there has been a 17.75% increase in vulnerabilities across all online devices . The internet's expansive reach causes the damage inflicted to people to be magnified since many methods of cybercrime have the opportunity to reach many people.''' The availability of virtual spaces has allowed cybercrime to become an everyday occurrence. In 2018, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received 351,937 complaints of cybercrime, which led to $2.7 billion lost.

Prevention
The Department of Homeland Security also instituted the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program. The CDM Program monitors and secures government networks by tracking network risks and informing system personnel so that they can take action. In an attempt to catch intrusions before the damage is done, the DHS created the Enhanced Cybersecurity Services (ECS). The Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency approves the private partners that provide intrusion detection and prevention services through the ECS.

Cybersecurity professionals have been skeptical of prevention-focused strategies. The mode of use of cybersecurity products has also been called into question. Shuman Ghosemajumder has argued that individual companies using a combination of products for security is not a scalable approach and has advocated for the use of cybersecurity technology primarily at the platform level.

On a personal level, there are some strategies available to defend against cybercrime: 


 * Keeping your software and operating system update to benefit from security patches
 * Using anti-virus software that can detect and remove malicious threats
 * Use strong passwords with a variety of characters that aren't easy to guess
 * Refrain from opening attachments from spam emails
 * Do not click on links from spam emails
 * Do not give out personal information over the internet unless you can verify that the destination is safe
 * Contact companies about suspicious requests of your information

Awareness
'''Cybercrime is becoming more of a threat in our society. According to Accenture's State of Cybersecurity, security attacks increased 31% from 2020 to 2021. The number of attacks per company increased from 206 to 270. Due to this rising threat, the importance of raising awareness about measures to protect information and the tactics criminals use to steal that information is paramount. However, despite cybercrime becoming a mounting problem, many people are not aware of the severity of this problem. This could be attributed to a lack of experience and knowledge of technological issues.''' There are 1.5 million cyber-attacks annually, which means that there are over 4,000 attacks a day, 170 attacks every hour, or nearly three attacks every minute, with studies showing that only 16 percent of victims had asked the people who were carrying out the attacks to stop. Anybody who uses the internet for any reason can be a victim, which is why it is important to be aware of how to be protected while online.