The Advancement of Technology and Cybercrime

The Advancement of Technology and Cybercrime

The United States Department of Justice in recent years defined cyber crime as “any violations of criminal law that involve a knowledge of computer technology for their perpetration, investigation, or prosecution." (Kim 2) With the introduction of computer viruses, it was shown that new technology was not as flawless and secure as it seemed to be. Throughout the past decade, these computer viruses have become more advanced and hackers have become more and more knowledgeable in their fields. This brings the attention to both the government and the public that there should be a much heavier concern on how

The first way security was put into play was use of ciphers. The Government used basic encrypted messages to keep their documents secure (Kim, 14). The National Research Council claims the encryption policy active at the time was not as secure as it needed to be. Use of cryptography should be heavily enforced to provide increased protection against hackers. It is thought by policymakers that this could possibly be a large leap in security for both public and government entities.

Computer security grew more prominent in the late 90s when ideas that the change of the late 1900s to the 2000s would cause systems to crash and the nation would go into a state of panic. While it may seem ridiculous in modern times, it was thought almost every computer would crash because it could not keep up with the software installed on the machine. This would make files much more vulnerable and easier to access to those with the intent of doing wrong with sensitive information.

Technology has progressed rapidly since the early 2000s beyond a level that society could have ever imagined at the time. However, when more advanced technology becomes available to the public, there is much more opportunity for it to be taken advantage of. Maintaining a strong level of security in the nation has always been an exponential concern. Policy makers have been working to make as few loopholes as possible so when an individual takes it upon themselves to abuse technology for malicious purposes, they can be punished.

The idea of computer crime was first developed in International Institutions. The Report of the European Committee on Criminal Problems expresses these terms as “cybercrime” and “computer-related crime.” A solidified definition rose about in 1996 and is stated as, “computer abuse is any illegal, unethical or unauthorized behavior concerning an automatic data treatment and/or data transmission” (Stoian, 1). This is the internationally recognized definition for computer crime through the world.

Issues that exist in the international cyberspace heavily correlate with international financing, terror groups, and acts of violence. Data is critical and security is very important, especially in the modern world when it comes to technology. Terror groups attempt to gain backdoor access to bypass government detection. “In addition, the development of sophisticated computer technology has enabled organized crime and terrorist groups to bypass government detection and carry out destructive acts of violence” (Kim, 43).

Security in the government has always been a top priority on the topic of security. When technology advances in the nation, it also becomes available to the United States’ enemies in the world. Terrorists can use the United States’ technology against them in attempts to salvage sensitive data that could possibly be used against the United States. There is much more to war than violence and cyber warfare is a very large aspect of it, especially when the nation’s very own technology can be used against itself.

The Bush administration made a very important push for cybersecurity to become a prominent issue with the nation. “The new Bush administration agreed with the Clinton administration about the importance of cybersecurity and began a review of cybersecurity policy when it entered office in January 2001” (Berkowitz, 13). No government entity has taken the consideration that this needed to be focused on until the Bush administration had. This was a major turning point for cyber security.

The issue with technology advancing so quickly is the lack of security alongside it. With the ever expanding cyberspace and technology used to access and interact with it, there is nowhere near the protection it so rightfully needs. A large portion of businesses and organizations use electronic technology to store their records and data (Kim, 2). With all of this data being clustered together, all a hacker would need is the knowledge and will to make their way into their database. When hackers gain access to that data, it could become information in a way that could very well damage and even tear a business apart.

One primary issue with this is that no state has a level of defense to defend against high technology. No individual can be charged if they can only be identified by an address for a computer. All computers have an IP address which act as the only form of identification a computer itself holds. This information can also be used to launch a DoS attack on a target machine (Kim, 4). The only way individuals can be charged is if they can prove the computer’s IP address is relevant with the personal information of an individual. This can be very difficult when an individual can mask their identity using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and proxies to mask their IP address.

With all of the given factors, it can be almost impossible for government officials to crack down and identify a hacker if they clean up and leave almost no footprint behind. Another aspect of anonymity often not accounted for is identity theft. Identity theft is a very common phenomenon with malicious users of the internet (Kim, 18). On top of having no directly visible IP address, hackers can make it almost impossible to find them by using another person’s identity to trick others into believing they are not who they say they are.

A large cause of cybercrime is money. Hackers often work for money or steal it on very illegal terms. If an average middle-class citizen started receiving large amounts of income, their bank would find it very suspicious. To avoid this problem, there are very shady, “don’t ask, don’t tell” banking organizations scattered across the deep web. This is a great way for hackers to store their money without being found by government officials.

For hackers, the banks are a great thing. It is predicted that cybercrime will expand dramatically in the coming years (Yang, 2). This is partially due to more business opening up. When more businesses open up, there is more opportunity to profit from the data the business will accumulate. New businesses often have very poor security as they