Cyber crime is something that many talk about but that few actually understand. Unfortunately, in most cases there is no warning that a cyber attack is going to come. It just happens out of the bloom. There are many types of cyber crime that exist at the moment, with some being incredibly difficult to deal with.
James Scott ICIT highlights how serious cyber crime is by talking about cyber bullying. There were cases in which children were bullied online and that ended up committing suicide because of all the abuse that happened.
Not Just Businesses
When we look at what the media presents, we quickly figure out the coverage that business cyber crime has. Basically, there is all this talk about how businesses can be affected by security holes and lose a lot of money in the process. Unfortunately, nothing is actually said about how prevalent cyber crime is at a personal level. This is a pretty clear available instrument that can be used to attack individuals. The above mentioned cyber bullying example is a clear example of that.
When Cyber Attacks Hit Businesses
Nobody can really blame the media for the extra coverage that is obtained by business cyber attacks. This is because when a cyber attack hits a large business, huge havoc appears. There are many hackers these days that are simply at a genius level. They understand what they have to do and their computer knowledge is simply incredible. In fact, there are people that were 14 year old or younger when they managed to hack NASA.
When hackers gain access to business data, a lot of damage can follow. Many think that these attacks are just connected with websites. This is incorrect. For instance, when a hacker gain access to consumer databases it is possible to continue the attack with identity theft. When credit card data becomes available, it is so easy to cause huge financial losses for business clients. Those clients can then sue the company. Some cases like this even led to bankruptcy.
Hundreds Of Cyber Crime Types
There are countless examples of cyber crime types. Besides those that were already mentioned, we can mention denial service attacks, salami attacks, logic bombs, web jacking, virus attacks and email bombing. There are more and more crimes appearing every single year as hackers figure out brand new ways to use their knowledge in order to create damage. Cyber crime can destroy financial information and when looking at cyber bullying, harassment sent through emails can lead to depression at the very least for many teenagers and young adults.
The Good News
Fortunately, some good news can be mentioned in the fact that new laws did appear and were created in order to protect people from cyber crime. Governments from all around the world look into the problem and do all they can in order to find ways to stop hackers. Even if this is close to impossible because of how fast hacking evolves, a proper education campaign can make most people secure as they understand most possible threats.
