Navigating Cybercrimes: Impact and Implications in Today's Digital Age

The introduction of the internet and computers in today's world has made carrying out various activities like communication faster, easier and more efficient. Nikola Tesla said, "When the wireless internet is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole.

We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly irrespective of distance." However, its introduction has not only brought creative innovations through invention alive but it has also brought along with it some drawbacks through various cybercrimes we will discuss below.

Industrial espionage is a major crime that seems to affect countries more than we could think of. It involves losing companies or organizations' privacy by hackers or one of the workers in that company. More often than not, we hear company leaders complain that their system has been hacked down and private information lost to the public.

A good example is how the leading communications company in Kenya, Safaricom lost a significant amount of money on the 24th of October 2019 due to being hacked and paving way to the public to access their internet bundles.

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A major cause of Industrial espionage being the employees that leave their jobs or those that are still working in that company leaking information out to the media and the public and becoming criminals.

According to Ronald Payne (2018), "In a way, they are more dangerous than other criminals. For they are people who enjoy trust, who have positions of some responsibility.

"(p.2). A study conducted revealed that 59% of employees that leave their job normally take sensitive information with them. This kind of violation of privacy remains undetected for years leading to loss of millions to the country.

This significantly kills local businesses and it is the common 'mwananchi' that suffers. One of the ways to lessen the occurrence of such acts would be to educate the masses concerning such conduct and imposing legal action on the individuals involved. All things considered, industrial espionage cases continue to manifest itself all over the world affecting the people day by day.

Secondly, copyright infringement remains to be one of the most prevalent cybercrimes in the digital era. Everyone deserves credit for the work and sweat poured into making, producing, designing or coming up with any form of intellectual works.

This over the years has been made possible by copyright laws that according to The library of congress (2002), "Copyright laws protect original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain works"(p.4). However, even with the laws, people still engage in this illegal act. More often than not, you will witness foreign shows in local dialect and 90% of the time no permission is granted to the individuals in charge.

The major cause of this is unavailability where the legitimate sellers fail to provide their materials in a particular language. Secondly, the pricing of the majority of material leads many to this habit. Providing locals with pirated versions of movies coupled with videos at a cheaper price.

Copyright infringement leads to a reduced economy as valuable material at a cheaper price. In copyright infringement, issues are resolved by the direct negotiation hence not much legal action is taken. This makes more people engage in the act as Peter Decherney (2012), says "year after use of illegal copyright tools and illegal means of acquisition becomes more and more naturalized as legal alternatives remain scarce and limiting"(p.543).

Thirdly, another cybercrime that is ranked the worst and the most common by the Kaspersky Company is phishing. It is the method of trying to gather personal details using deceptive emails and websites uses the emails and website as a weapon. The goal is to trick email to believing the message is something they want or need. These scams have prospered well to make waves lie. In 2016 employees at the University of Kansas responded to a phishing email and handed over access their paycheck.

Types of phishing include;

• Clone phishing- It takes advor legitimate message that the victim might have already received.
• Smishing- this is when cybercriminals download malicious payloads by sending texts that appear real.
• Spear phishing- uses tactics to blast thousands of emails. The method is of social engineering tactic.
• However, as much as it sounds bad phishing can have its advantages.

They include:

• Reduction of fraudulent
• Brothers and sisters in arm.

Stimulation of reporters.

Its disadvantages include:

• Scarcity- where it informs the reader that it contains a link and immediately disabled.
• Validation- this is when the attacker calls the client and pretends to be working for a legitimate company that the person is a client of, this makes the client to believe that is a legitimate email.
• Causes permanent damage to brands by leading to loss of customers in the company because sometimes the customer find out and move by this there is a great loss.
• Here are some ways that can help individuals and companies counter the problem of phishing.
• Prevent phishing emails from reaching the society used by anti-phishing software.
• By educating users and the introduction of educational programs that helps users to identify and take precaution of fraud emails.
• Ensure the sites you visit are secure.
• Installing anti-phishing programs/software.

In conclusion, they trick an individual to use their link. It is the most common and successful. It can cause great harm to both individual and business.

Computer fraud can be defined as a subset of computer crime. Computer fraud uses electronic resources to present fraudulent or misrepresented information as a means of deception. According to the department of justice the fraudulent activities currently taking place that use electronic resources are largely an extension of traditional existing fraud activities exploiting resources are largely on a new medium.

The bureau of justice statistics outlines fraud as "...the intentional misrepresentation of information and identity...." and adds the qualifier of "use of electronic means" to delineate computer fraud (Rantala, 2004).Computer fraud is one of the most rapidly increasing forms of computer crime. It is also viewed as internet fraud .It's the type of fraud scheme that uses one or more components of internet such as chat rooms, emails, messages or web sites to present fraudulent transaction or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions of other connected schemes.

Eavesdropping is one of the types of cybercrimes. It refers to the interception of communication between two parties by a malicious third party. It also refers to the act of secretly or stealthily listening to the private conversation or communications of others without their consent.

The practice is widely regarded as unethical and illegal. Eavesdropping attacks are difficult to detect because they do not cause network transmissions to appear to be operating abnormally. Some of eavesdropping effects include: payment information can be used to transfer money to the cyber criminal's account or used to purchase items without the user's knowledge, cybercriminals can commit crimes and put blame on the victims of eavesdropping, user accounts and passwords may be stolen.

Cyber sabotage is yet another new wrinkle in the emerging threats firm cyber space. Whether delivered over the internet or purposefully installed during the manufacturing process, contaminated hardware or software is now a concern. Sabotage is defined as deliberate and malicious acts that result in the disruption of the normal processes and functions or the destruction or damage of equipment or information. It is also the act of deliberately causing another user or company grief.

Last but not least, is a common drawback but the most heartfelt and hurtful, cyberbullying. Defined as "willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text" (Patchin and Hinduja 2006:152), cyberbullying does not only undermines a person's freedom to use and explore valuable online resources, but also can result in severe functional and physical ramifications. Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets.

It can also occur through SMS, text, and apps, or online in social media, forums or even gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. It includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else.

It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment and humiliation. These bullies use social media and smart phones to harass victims from remote or local areas. Bullying builds characters like nuclear waste creates superheroes. It's a rare occurrence and often does much more damage than endowment.

In summary, crimes brought about by the internet have caused a lot of damage to the world as much as it has brought about effectiveness and efficiency in everything it entails. As responsible citizens and human beings, it is up to us to ensure that we use the internet in a manner that is meaningful and upright. "Technology is a good servant but a bad master.

The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow. You have to have a big vision and take very small steps to get there. You have to be humble as you execute but visionary and gigantic in terms of your aspiration." Says Jason Calacanis in response to what he believes technology is.

References

• Copyright office, (2002).Copyright Basics: Washington, Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
• Gordon, LA, Leon MP, Lucyshyn W, Rechardson R.2004.computer crime and security survey. Computer security institute, 2004.
• Grabosky, P. N., & Smith, R. (1998). Crime In The Digital Age: Controlling Telecommunication And Cyberspace Illegalities, Transaction Publishers. New Brunswick
• Hundley, R. and Anderson, R. (1995). Emerging Challenge: Security and Safety in Cyberspace.
• IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 14, 4:19-28.
• Patchin, J. W and S. Hinduja. 2006. "Bullies Move Beyond the Schoolyard: A preliminary look at cyberbullying." Youth violence and Juvenile Justice 4 (2): 148-169.
• Peter.D, (2012).Hollywood copyright wars: from Edison to the internet. New York, NY, Columbia University Press.
• Rantala, RR, cybercrime Against Business. Bureau of Justice Statistics, March 2004.
• Ronald Payne, (2018).Private spies: The secret world of Industrial Espionage: London: Endeavour Media Ltd.