Implications
Businesses & Large Organizations: Among large scale businesses that get affected includes the financial sector other than individuals. Electronic banking services have been greatly affected by these criminals who are euphemistically called hackers or crackers who conduct phishing or pharming. They not only steal the information and enter into the security system of banks but when they are caught they also retaliate. They retaliate using computer viruses, "worms" and "logic bombs" that can destroy hard drives. While robbers of banks using guns and other such weapons can also steal big amounts but they could end up in prison and the amount looted could be recovered. In case of these hackers, the sleuths have new technological tactics to deal with. These criminals use technology to support their criminal intentions. "Jeffry Scheel, president and CEO with Vocent, Mountain View, Calif., points out that the rising tide of password theft with tools like phishing, pharming, and spyware has more than a few banks on the hunt for solutions with broad reach" (Bielski, 2005).
All the big companies own up to the fact that some hackers and crackers have accessed their computerized information through phishing & pharming. A number of these organizations, banks and financial institutions had to suffer losses due to computer frauds. In 1994, the hackers' activities made headlines when these computer savvy and technology driven criminal broke into "firewalls," or security systems of Citibank. Citibank had to revamp its security system to prevent any future problems but the technical expertise of these criminals cannot be checked. They might update their skills and get back with more vengeance and greater technological prowess.
Computer frauds and hacking activities have become a constant war with these intelligent criminals. There have been instances in which they have been able to capture the complete systems of Internet service providers and even threatened them to destroy their system and to distribute all the credit card information. In certain cases there have been employees who sabotaged the whole system. Internal employees having access to critical files have also caused trouble in certain cases. Dealing with an outsider as well an insider is a hard to juggle task. All the major banks and financial institution are deeply worried about electronic money, open-access World Wide Web sites, investment dealings world wide and the threat of those breaking into secure systems.
Individuals: People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years cleaning the mess. Their hard-earned money is lost for no reason at all. Cleaning up the mess that the thieves have made by using good name and credit record is a Herculean task. In the meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, be refused loans, education, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit. A victim's losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but also substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible.
Correcting incorrect information about the financial or personal status, and trying to restore the good names and reputations are daunting tasks for the victims of identity theft and fraud. The damages done by the criminals take far longer to undo than it took the criminal to commit the crimes. Victims can suffer a lot once their identity has been stolen and abused. The hard-earned money of the person is lost for no reason at all. Apart from the financial aspect, peace of mind is also stolen along with the identity, as the victims have to go through a lot of trauma as a result of the crime. The proportion with which the crime has grown has also caused a dent on the economy. Some credit companies now keep a certain provision for the losses related to identity theft. Hence there are greater implications of the crime and the gravity of the situation is needed to be understood.
Solutions
Technological: Among many ways in which users can take care of the phishing, spyware, hacking and other such methods one method is also the use of technology. For example for spyware, anti-spyware software are available that identify and remove spyware from a user's computer. The issue again...
In one case in 2000, two-20-year-olds hacked into the Lowe's credit card mainframe from a white Pontiac Grand Prix parked outside a store, synching a single laptop to the wireless system that was meant for employees to use to locate products. The hackers, obviously to blame for the crime, played on the flaws of a computer system that should not have allowed for a security breach. While the same hackers
Wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft. Hoar, Sean B. Identity Theft: The Crime of the New Millennium (2001). U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved March 20, 2007 at http://www.cybercrime.gov/usamarch2001_3.htm. Has some clown taken over your good name? (2004). The Police Notebook. University of Oklahoma Police Department. Retrieved March 20, 2007 at http://www.ou.edu/oupd/idtheft.htm. Thorne, J. And Segal, a. (2006). Identity theft: The new way to rob a bank. CNN online. Retrieved March 20, 2007 at http://www.cnn.com/2006/U.S./05/18/identity.theft/index.html. New technology may increase identity
Criminals don't always need to have shotguns and masks to threat and rob money; it only takes a social security number, or a pre-approved credit card application from trash to make things according to their wicked way (ID Theft, 2004). Some consumers have had credit card numbers and Social Security numbers stolen and used fraudulently or identity theft. By taking reasonable steps to protect your personal information, this can mitigate the
Consumer Beware: The Growing Problem of Identity Theft American consumers today are increasingly concerned, with good reason, about how to avoid joining the ranks of unfortunate millions who are already victims of the newest, most widespread national financial crime: identity theft. According to the web article "The Crime of Identity Theft": It can happen to anyone. The phone rings and a collection agency demands that you pay past-due accounts for goods
Combating Digital Crime & Digital Terrorism "Describe the overall impact (e.g. economic, social, etc.) of utilizing technologies in combating digital crime and digital terrorism" It has become very obvious over the past few years that the United States' technologies that are supposed to combat cyber attacks on corporate, personal, and government computers are enormously ineffective. Some would say that is an understatement. This paper discusses ways to combat cyber crime and cyber
The prosecuting of identity thieves has proven difficult. Although there has been a rapid increase in the number of statutes addressing the situation on both the state and federal level, the nature of the crime, the anonymous aspect of it, and the time parameters make apprehension and prosecution quite difficult (Pastrikos, 2004). Nevertheless, there has been an aggressive effort on both the state and federal levels to increase their efforts
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