What is cybercrime? and types of cybercrime?
What is Cybercrime?
Cybercrime is defined as an unlawful action against any person using a computer, its systems, and its online or offline applications. It occurs when information technology is used to commit or cover an offense. However, the act is only considered Cybercrime if it is intentional and not accidental.
Cybercrime is a criminal activity that either targets or uses a computer, a computer network or a networked device. Most cybercrime is committed by cybercriminals or hackers who want to make money. However, occasionally cybercrime aims to damage computers or networks for reasons other than profit. These could be political or personal.
Cybercrime can be carried out by individuals or organizations. Some cybercriminals are organized, use advanced techniques, and are highly technically skilled. Others are novice hackers
Example of Cybercrime
- Email and internet fraud.
- Identity fraud (where personal information is stolen and used).
- Theft of financial or card payment data.
- Theft and sale of corporate data.
- Cyberextortion (demanding money to prevent a threatened attack).
- Ransomware attacks (a type of cyberextortion).
- Cryptojacking (where hackers mine cryptocurrency using resources they do not own).
- Cyberespionage (where hackers access government or company data).
- Interfering with systems in a way that compromises a network.
- Infringing copyright.
- Illegal gambling.
- Selling illegal items online.
- The fraud is done, by manipulating the computer network
- Unauthorized access to or modification of data or application
- Intellectual property theft that includes software piracy
- Industrial spying and access to or theft of computer materials
- Writing or spreading computer viruses or malware
- Digitally distributing child pornography
Type of Cybercrime
Hacking: It is an act of gaining unauthorized access to a computer system or network.
Denial Of Service Attack: In this cyberattack, the cyber-criminal uses the bandwidth of the victim’s network or fills their e-mail box with spam emails. Here, the intention is to disrupt their regular services. Distributed DoS attacks (DDoS) are a type of cybercrime attack that cybercriminals use to bring down a system or network. Sometimes connected IoT (Internet of Things) devices are used to launch DDoS attacks.
A DDoS attack overwhelms a system by using one of the standard communication protocols it uses to spam the system with connection requests. Cybercriminals who are carrying out cyberextortion may use the threat of a DDoS attack to demand money. Alternatively, a DDoS may be used as a distraction tactic while another type of cybercrime takes place.
A famous example of this type of attack is the 2017 DDoS attack on the UK National Lottery website. This brought the lottery’s website and mobile app offline, preventing UK citizens from playing. The reason behind the attack remains unknown, however, it is suspected that the attack was an attempt to blackmail the National Lottery.
Malware attacks: A malware attack is where a computer system or network is infected with a computer virus or other type of malware. A computer compromised by malware could be used by cybercriminals for several purposes. These include stealing confidential data, using the computer to carry out other criminal acts, or causing damage to data. A famous example of a malware attack was the WannaCry ransomware attack, a global cybercrime committed in May 2017. WannaCry is a type of ransomware, malware used to extort money by holding the victim’s data or device to ransom. The ransomware targeted a vulnerability in computers running Microsoft Windows.
When the WannaCry ransomware attack hit, 230,000 computers were affected across 150 countries. Users were locked out of their files and sent a message demanding that they pay a Bitcoin ransom to regain access. Worldwide, the WannaCry cybercrime is estimated to have caused $4 billion in financial losses. To this day, the attack stands out for its sheer size and impact.
Software Piracy: Theft of software by illegally copying genuine programs or counterfeiting. It also includes the distribution of products intended to pass for the original.
Phishing: It is a technique of extracting confidential information from bank/financial institutional account holders in illegal ways. A phishing campaign is when spam emails, or other forms of communication, are sent with the intention of tricking recipients into doing something that undermines their security. Phishing campaign messages may contain infected attachments or links to malicious sites, or they may ask the receiver to respond with confidential information.
A famous example of a phishing scam took place during the World Cup in 2018. According to our report, 2018 Fraud World Cup , the World Cup phishing scam involved emails that were sent to football fans. These spam emails tried to entice fans with fake free trips to Moscow, where the World Cup was being hosted. People who opened and clicked on the links contained in these emails had their personal data stolen.
Another type of phishing campaign is known as spear phishing. These are targeted phishing campaigns which try to trick specific individuals into jeopardizing the security of the organization they work for.
Unlike mass phishing campaigns, which are very general in style, spear-phishing messages are typically crafted to look like messages from a trusted source. For example, they are made to look like they have come from the CEO or the IT manager. They may not contain any visual clues that they are fake.
Spoofing: It is an act of getting one computer system or a network to pretend to have the identity of another computer. It is mostly used to get access to exclusive privileges enjoyed by that network or computer.
Cyber Crime Tools to help you with digital forensics
Kali Linux: It is open-source software that is maintained and funded by Offensive Security. It is a specially designed program for digital forensics and penetration testing.
Ophcrack: This tool is mainly used for cracking the hashes, which are generated by the same files of windows. It offers unsecured GUI system and allows you to runs on multiple platforms.
EnCase: This software allows an investigator to image and examine data from hard disks and removable disks.
SafeBack: SafeBack is mainly using for imaging the hard disks of Intel-based computer systems and restoring these images to some other hard disks.
Data dumper: This is a command-line computer forensic tool. It is freely available for the UNIX Operating system, which can make exact copies of disks suitable for digital forensic analysis.
Md5sum: A tool to check helps you to check data is copied to another storage successfully or not.
Source: https://www.guru99.com/cybercrime-types-tools-examples.html
https://usa.kaspersky.com/resource-center/threats/what-is-cybercrimean