What is Cybercrime?

What is cybercrime?

Cybercrime is any criminal activity that involves a computer, networked device or a network.

While most cybercrimes are carried out in order to generate profit for the cybercriminals, some cybercrimes are carried out against computers or devices directly to damage or disable them. Others use computers or networks to spread malware, illegal information, images or other materials. Some cybercrimes do both -- i.e., target computers to infect them with a computer virus, which is then spread to other machines and, sometimes, entire networks.

A primary effect of cybercrime is financial. Cybercrime can include many different types of profit-driven criminal activity, including ransomware attacks, email and internet fraud, and identity fraud, as well as attempts to steal financial account, credit card or other payment card information.
Cybercriminals may target an individual's private information or corporate data for theft and resale. As many workers settle into remote work routines due to the pandemic, cybercrimes are expected to grow in frequency in 2021, making it especially important to protect backup data.

Cybercrime definition
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) divides cybercrime into three categories:
   1. crimes in which the computing device is the target -- for example, to gain network access;
   2. crimes in which the computer is used as a weapon -- for example, to launch a denial-of-service (DoS) attack; and
   3. crimes in which the computer is used as an accessory to a crime -- for example, using a computer to store illegally obtained data.

Types of cybercrime

As mentioned above, there are many different types of cybercrime. Most cybercrimes are carried out with the expectation of financial gain by the attackers, though the ways cybercriminals aim to get paid can vary. Some specific types of cybercrimes include the following:

    Cyberextortion
    Cryptojacking
    Identity theft
    Credit card fraud
    Cyberespionage
    Software piracy
    Exit scam

How to prevent cybercrime

While it may not be possible to completely eradicate cybercrime and ensure complete internet security, businesses can reduce their exposure to it by maintaining an effective cybersecurity strategy using a defense-in-depth approach to securing systems, networks and data.

Cybercrime risks can be reduced with the following steps:

    develop clear policies and procedures for the business and employees;
    create cybersecurity incident response plans to support these policies and procedures;
    outline the security measures that are in place about how to protect systems and corporate data;
    use two-factor authentication (2FA) apps or physical security keys;
    activate 2FA on every online account when possible;
    verbally verify the authenticity of requests to send money by talking to a financial manager;
    create intrusion detection system (IDS) rules that flag emails with extensions similar to company emails;
    carefully scrutinize all email requests for transfer of funds to determine if the requests are out of the ordinary;
    continually train employees on cybersecurity policies and procedures and what to do in the event of security breaches;
    keep websites, endpoint devices and systems current with all software release updates or patches; and

    back up data and information regularly to reduce the damage in case of a ransomware attack or data breach.

Source: https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/cybercrime

Thanks for reading.