Cyber Fraud and Identity Theft
A summary of the current issues and trends in cyber fraud and identity theft.
Technological advancement has seen enormous growth in the use of the internet and other forms of network. It has created a loophole for frauds and criminals to undertake any kind of crime that involve devices that communicate through an interface. These forms of crimes are known as cybercrime. Cybercrime has been one of the significant threats in the economic health of most nations. The significant types of cybercrime faced are cyber fraud and identity theft. Cyber fraud is an area within cybercrime that is the use of computers or any other form of technology to deprive another person of property or money. As a result, breaking federal law. Identity theft is the unlawful use of another person’s identity without their consent to conduct a crime. Within our fiscal environment, policymakers are working tirelessly to come up with ways of curtailing the crime. Ideally, it has remained to be a dominating consumer fraud complaint.
Lately, there have been several current issues in cyber fraud. For instance, in the past two years, increasing reports of a data breach due to unauthorized access to a company’s computer network have been reported in the united states. By February 2018, over 30 cases of suspicion for identity theft were already in the record. These were results of worldwide cybercrime through Infraud, which led to massive monetary losses. Cases of ransomware infection were reported in the city of Atlanta. Comparing the young and the old juveniles, millennials are more likely to be victims of cybercrime. Tying it all up, data breaching, phishing, ransomware infection, and increasing identity theft have been on the rise, causing unrest.
Monetary losses resulting from cybercrime has seen explosive growth. It is a threat that may hit $6 trillion within the next year. From a survey conducted in the recent past, malware, network interruption, phishing, spyware, together with denial-of-service attacks, were the primary forms of causes of cybercrime faced. Surprisingly, a good number of these attacks were resulting from the insiders, that is, from the former employees of the various organizations that were victims. Attacks such as these require internal protection as the organizations can control such.
Knowledge about the current trends is critical in dealing with cybercrime. Several measures have been put in place to understand the prevalence of identity theft. The need has built up several trends to help understand and solve cyber fraud and identity theft. One of the patterns is survey research on identity theft victimization, which statistically identifies the number of victims of identity theft and cyber fraud over a while. On the other hand, consumer complaints of victimization as another trend gives additional insight into the problem. Just as the estimated victimization from surveys increases, so does the consumer complaints of identity theft and cyber fraud. Data backup, data encryption, and firewalls are measures to curb cybercrime. Another trend is the ‘bring your own device’ programs whereby employees of a company are trained and updated on current issues using their phones and tablets. Protection can also be enhanced through the two-factor authentication and conducting updates and Backups as regular as possible. In 2FA, a user should have two types of login credentials to access an account. However, this is never an acuity of safety. Due to the advancement in technology, fraudsters are still able to hijack an authentication to find a way through the system. Thus, creating awareness amongst users is advised. Similarly, preparedness is another way of dealing with such forms of cybercrime.
Communications that involve the use of a network all depend on an internet protocol address in order for the information to be transmitted from the point of origin to the destination. This IP address has aided the resolution of cybercrime as it is the key to investigating such cases. After identifying the originating IP address, the investigator can acquire a variety of additional information that can act as sources of evidence for a cybercrime. Also, investigations involving the internet are much dependent on the time, date, and time zone information. Choosing an investigative approach for a specific type of cybercrime depends on the available resources as well as the individual judgment of the invigilator.
References
U.S. DOJ Investigations Involving the Internet and Computer Networks, Ch 1-2, pgs 1-15