Defending+against+international+cybercrime

= Cybercrime: What is it? =

With the rise of interpersonal technology, such as laptops and wireless cell phones, the world is becoming more and more connected. The benefit of having the ability to connect with people easily over great distances is shadowed by a new era of criminal activity. Cybercrime is broadly defined as any illegal internet-mediated activities that will often take place inside global electronic networks [2]. Cybercrime includes illicit activities like fraud, hacktivism, cyber warfare, and cyber espionage. It is not held back behind international borders and cybercrimes have been spreading throughout the world since the dawn of the internet.

Each year, 556 people fall victim to a cybercrime. That's roughly 18 people per second or 1.5 million people every day. With the rise of social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, an individual's personal identity has become an easy target for hackers and cyber criminals. It is estimated that more than 600,000 Facebook accounts are compromised every day and 1 in 10 social network users said that they've fallen victim to a scam or fake link on social network platforms.

The United States and Russia lead the world as the largest contributors of malware attacks, making up 19.7% and 39.4% respectively. They are also two of the top five countries where cyberattacks originate the most (other countries include Taiwan, Germany, and Ukraine) [1]. General countermeasures have been introduced to help deter cybercrime. These measures include strict legal punishments, Internet content control laws, and computer forensics. For this article, I will explain the dangers of cybercrime and how it can be used as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.

= Cyber-criminals =

5 Kinds of Offences[[image:18.jpg width="494" height="346" align="right"]]
A cyber-criminal can manipulate the programming to attack, steal, or spy on internet activity. Generally, this range of illegal activity is broken down into five categories. = International Defense Group, J-CAT =
 * 1) The first, ** Intrusive Offences **, include Illegal Access or Hacking, Data Espionage, and Date Interference [2]. Hacking specifically refers to the unlawful access of a computer system. Data Espionage and Data Interference are when offenders violate data and communication on a server. This can be done by deleting, suppressing, or altering data in order to restrict access for a user. Intrusive Offences are defined as a series of internet based crimes that intrude on another computer without the owner's consent.
 * 2) ** Content-related Offences ** are much more offensive in nature. These crimes pertain to Pornographic Material, Racism, Hate Speech, Glorification of Violence, Religious Offences, and general Spam [2]. This series of offences all fall under the category of material that is available to users on the internet. This kind of behavior and content is lawfully forbidden in order to keep the internet a public domain.
 * 3) The third category of offenses are ** Copyright and Trademark-related Offences. ** Cyber piracy, software piracy, and piracy of music or movies are common offences in this category. Piracy is downloading material that is infringing on copyright or trademark laws [2].
 * 4) ** Computer-related Offences ** are some of the most serious crimes and cause an extreme amount of grief for the victim(s). These crimes include Fraud, Forgery, and Identity Theft [2]. Losing personal information has a devastating effect on a person, their legal welfare, and their financial situation. It is a dangerous threat to any person.
 * 5) The final category of offences is ** Combination Offences ** . These can be the most dangerous offences to an individual, a business, or an entire nation. It includes Cyberterrorism, Cyberwarfare, and C yberlaundering [2]. Warfare on the internet is on the rise.In a later section of this article, I will go into greater detail on how Cyberterrorism and Cyberwarfare nearly crippled Iran.

This new European cybercrime organization, launched in September 1, 2014, is the combined effort of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA). Appropriately, its acronym stands for Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce. During its first 6 months, its objective was to coordinate international investigations in order to take action against key cybercrime threats and top targets [3].

Led by Andy Archibald, Deputy Director of the National Cyber Crime Unit from the UK's NCA, the J-CAT is composed of a team of Cyber Liaison Officers, non-EU law enforcement partners, and European Cybercrime Center (EC3). Thus far, Austria, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the US are part of this elite cybercrime taskforce. Australia and Colombia have also committed to the initiative [3]. = = = Threats to International Security =

STUXNET[[image:stuxnet centri.jpg width="414" height="248" align="right"]]
In June 2010, a computer worm was discovered targeting an Iranian nuclear facility. Its objective was to sabotage the uranian enrichment facility at Natanz by systematically destoying the centrifuges, all the while reporting that there was no damage. The worm worked by first causing an infected Iranian IR-1 centrifuge (pictured) to increase its speed in an effort to destroy it over a long period of time [4]. If gone unchecked and unnoticed, it would have caused catastrophic damage to the facility and causing a nationwide blackout. This qualified STUXNET as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.

This form of cyberwarfare was the first reported incident of this mass proportion. The entire plan of STUXNET was deviously simple. By exploiting four significant flaws in the programming, the worm targeted software in order to collect information on industrial systems and causing the fast-spinning centrifuges to tear themselves apart. In all, STUXNET nearly destroyed one-fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges [4].

The only way that STUXNET could be introduced to target environment would have to be via an infected USB flash drive. This led investigators to believe that this was an inside job since someone would've had to be inside the building to spread the worm. But it was impossible to date when the worm was first introduced since its programming allowed it to lay dormant until specific requirements inside the system were created. Once its conditions were met, STUXNET would activate, modifying codes and feeding a loop of normal operations system values back to the users. It is still a mystery who developed this cyberweapon. With references to the Torah in its programming and tense diplomatic relations, Israel is a major suspect. Thanks to their advanced cybertechnology, Russia and the United States are also both suspects. When this attack happened, the United States and Russia both came forward saying that the virus could not have happened to a worse country [5].

Since then, the STUXNET worm has been rewritten and evolved into a more efficient weapon of cyberwarfare. The video below details the exact threat that STUXNET poses to the world.

media type="youtube" key="7g0pi4J8auQ" height="510" width="854" align="center"

[1] [|Cybercrime Statistics] [2] [|Wikipedia - International Cybercrime] [3] [|Europol Cybercrime Taskforce] [4] [|STUXNET - All About] [5] [|STUXNET and the United States]
 * Sources **