Computer and Crime
Navigating the risks of technology
Team 5:
- Humberto - Imaduddin
- Juan Andres - Calvin
- Khoa - Jiahao
- Adrian - Mohammad
Table Of Contents
1) Introduction
2) History & Background of Computers and Crime
3) Types of Computer Crime
4) Impacts of Computer Crime
5) Current Problems & Possible Solutions
- Ransomware
- Piracy
- Social Engineering
1) The Future of Computer Crime
2) Conclusion
Introduction to Computers and Crime
As technology becomes an integral part of our lives, it also
brings along an array of risks. One such risk is computer crime,
which affects individuals, organizations and society as a whole.
In this presentation, we will take an in-depth look at the issue
of computer crime and explore the different types of computer
crime, their impact, and the measures that can be taken to
prevent and mitigate them.
In this presentation, we will go over the following topics:
● Definition of computer crime and its significance in today's society
● Overview of the different types of computer crime and their impact
● Purpose of the presentation and main points to be covered
Background/History of Computer and Crime
Cybercrime, usually referred to as computer crime, is any criminal behavior that makes use of
computer networks or technology.
● When computers were first employed into industry and governments in the 1960s, computer crimes started to
appear.
● Strategies, employed by thieves to take advantage of technology, evolved along with it.
● The use of stolen computer time, referred to as "time theft," was one of the early instances of computer crime.
○ Entailed gaining unauthorized access to a computer system and using it to run programs or perform
calculations.
● As computer networks spread, so did the use of these networks to perform crimes including hacking, identity
theft, and online fraud.
● The development of the Internet significantly increased the breadth and depth of computer crime in the 1980s
and 1990s.
○ Criminals used the Internet to engage in a variety of unlawful acts, such as cyberstalking and
cyberterrorism, due to its anonymity and universal reach.
Background/History of Computer and Crime
● The techniques and motives of cyber criminals have changed
along with technology.
● As it can lead to huge financial losses and human suffering,
computer crime is a significant worry for organizations,
governments, and people.
● The history of computer crime is, in general, a tale of how
technology is a tremendous tool for advancement, but can also
facilitate tremendous harm.
○ Like a double-edged sword, technology is capable of
being used for both good and evil.
● As technology advances, the fight against computer crime is a
never-ending conflict that necessitates continuing awareness and
adaptation.
Types of Computer Crime
Computer crimes can be roughly divided into two categories:
● Crimes carried against computer networks, targeting them by using malicious software (Malware).
○ To damage the device or prevent it from operating.
○ To delete, steal or cryptograph data
○ To prevent users from using websites or networks, prevent businesses from providing services to customers.
● Crimes which utilize computer networks to carry out criminal activities.
○ Using computers or networks to spread illegal information or images.
○ Using computers or networks for financial fraud, theft, embezzlement, smuggling, illegal transactions, and
many other related activities.
Crimes carried against Computers
● Ransomware Attack
○ It is a type of malware capable of preventing users from accessing all personal data on the
system through encryption and then demanding a ransom to allow access to the encrypted
data.
● Hacking/Misusing Computer Networks
○ Gaining unauthorized access to a private computer or network and misusing it by shutting
down or tampering with stored data or by other unlawful means.
● Denial-of-Service Attack (DoS)
○ Attackers target systems, servers, or networks and flood them with traffic to exhaust their
resources and bandwidth. It is also known as a DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service)
attack when attackers use multiple compromised systems to launch this attack.
Crimes Utilizing Computers
● Phishing
○ Criminals send fraudulent emails pretending to be from legitimate businesses in an
attempt to collect sensitive personal information or to download malware and use it on a
target system to trick them.
● Software Piracy
○ Illegal use of paid items (software, music, movies, pictures, etc.) in violation of copyright
or licensing restrictions.
● Illegal trading
○ Illegal trading: Criminals use anonymous and hard-to-trace network features to sell illegal
items (including drugs, stolen goods, weapons, etc.)
Impacts of Computer Crime
● Worrying trend of increasing monetary cost of ransomware attacks
(Numbers based on US attacks)
○ Ransomware involves locking a computer network and
offering to unlock based on a monetary ransome
○ $8,965,847 lost by victims in 2019
○ $49,207,908 lost in 2021
○ 548.8% Increase in economic loss between 2019-2021
● Ransomware has been hitting critical infrastructure, especially the
healthcare sector
Continued in the next
slide….
Impacts of Computer Crime
● Attacks on computer systems might be the first thing in mind,
but even the ransomware economic impact is growing at a
smaller rate compared to computer scams such as fake tech
support (Numbers based on complaints from 70 countries)
○ $14,810,080 lost by victims in 2017
○ $347,657,432 lost in 2021
○ 2347.4% increase between 2017-2021
● Tech support scams are a crime of social engineering as they
pose as reputable tech repair or support representatives.
Current Problems & Possible Solutions
Cybercriminals, or people who indulge in cyber crimes, employ different strategies of
obtaining, manipulating and destroying information, data, and systems.
Cybercrime is so diverse that it would be impossible to talk about it all here, but we have
selected a few recent trends to examine more closely:
1) Ransomware
2) Piracy
3) Social Engineering
Current Problems of Computer Crime (Ransomware)
● Ransomware has been growing in popularity as a major method of cybercrime in
the past few decades.
● There have been several very high-profile ransomware attacks just in the last few
years, including the famous WannaCry attack that affected FedEx, Honda, and the
British NHS, among others.
● E.g. in May 2021, one attack managed to halt the operations of the US Colonial
Pipeline for six days, causing a large gas shortage in the southern US.
Possible Solutions of Computer Crime (Ransomware)
● Ransomware is generally a form of malware, so basic malware prevention steps
like only running software from trusted sources, and being careful with external
drives, are usually the most effective.
● No easy way to get rid of ransomware as a whole, but companies and users can take
many preventative measures to lower their risk of being compromised.
● Creating and maintaining offsite backups that cannot be easily accessed on the
same network as your data is also a good measure, so that you can avoid having to
pay the ransom if you are attacked.
Current Problems of Computer Crime (Piracy)
● Although commonly thought of as a form of theft, online piracy is often legally
more adequately categorized as copyright infringement.
● Usually nothing tangible is being stolen, and the real crime is the unauthorized
distribution of copyrighted work, leaving the rightsholder without compensation.
● For many people, this leaves piracy in a sort of ethical grey area, and some
consumers choose to pirate media when it becomes too inconvenient or
unaffordable for them to acquire legally.
● While some industries, like music, have mostly gotten piracy under control, others,
like TV and movies, have had piracy steadily on the rise in recent years.
Possible Solutions of Computer Crime
(Piracy)
● Main way to reduce piracy seems to be increasing the ease of access to copyrighted
material through legal means.
● The music industry has done a great job at this, with music piracy at near-zero levels
while most music can be legally accessed on any major streaming service.
● On the other hand, TV shows and movies have been increasingly difficult to access, with
fragmentation and exclusivity deals becoming more common among the major streaming
services, and as a result, there’s been a recent increase in piracy.
● In general, reasonably convenient legal access to media seems to be negatively
correlated with piracy of that media.
Current Problems of Computer Crime (Social
Engineering)
● Social Engineering is a form of art employed by cybercriminals exploiting the
psychology of people to gain access or divulge confidential information.
● In recent years humans are being manipulated to extract confidential information
and the technique is so-called as “Social Engineering”.
● Normally this is done to target institutions rather than individuals, gaining access to
restricted information by bypassing all security measures with an authenticated
user.
Possible Solutions of Computer Crime
(Social Engineering)
A couple of methods to prevent falling for these types of tricks is to:
1. Employee education and training: This involves educating employees about the various types of
social engineering attacks, such as phishing and spear phishing, and teaching them how to
identify and avoid them.
2. Strong authentication: Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) can help to prevent
unauthorized access to sensitive information.
3. Spam filters and email authentication: Spam filters can help to identify and block phishing
emails, while email authentication (e.g. DMARC, SPF, DKIM) can help to prevent attackers
from spoofing email addresses.
The Future of Computer Crime
In the future, computer crime will bring increased risk of theft, fraud, and abuse. Internet users become
more vulnerable to cyberattacks such as corporate security breaches, spear phishing, and social media
fraud.
According to Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime costs grow by 15 percent per year over
the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD by 2025. The damaged cost is based on cybercrime
figures including recent year over year growth, a dramatic increase in hostile nation-state sponsored and
organized crime gang hacking activities.
As technology keeps evolving at a rapid pace, cybercrime has developed many different ways to attack
users included pandemic-related phishing, ransomware attacks, mobile malware, cyberactivism,
cryptojacking…Thus, nobody can tell exactly what the major cyber threats will be or where it will
come from. However, paying attention to cybercrime attacking ways can reduce the probability of
being attacked.
Sources
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