What is the overlap between criminal justice and cybercrime?
According to Cornell Law School, “Criminal justice is an umbrella term that refers to the laws, procedures, institutions, and policies at play before, during, and after the commission of a crime”. Fundamentally, the difference between cybercrime and criminal justice is the methodology of the crime in question. Cybercrime refers to crime committed using computing or networking technology. This means that cybercrime could be described as a specific type of crime under the broader umbrella of criminal activity. Anywhere the term “criminal justice” is being applied to cybercrime would be considered an overlap. Overlapping areas that are of interest include criminology or the study of criminal activity. Criminologists work to understand the actions and motivations of criminals. They examine patterns of behavior in hopes to learn the underlying causes of various forms of crime. This will allow them to create formal profiles and standardized literature for law enforcement to apply in their work. This occurs in cybercrime as well. As an evolving field, cybercrime experts must constantly update their understanding of the methodology and motivations of cybercriminals. This is necessary for cybersecurity professionals to adequately guard against and prepare for cyberattacks.
Law is an interesting discipline that is entangled with the interaction between cybercrime and criminal justice. Traditional legal frameworks often create perplexing scenarios when applied to the evolving world of cybercrime. One such dilemma is the way we apply our warrant process to cases involving encryption. In the digital world, it is now possible for law enforcement to obtain a warrant to search an electronic device but have no means to decrypt the evidence in a timely manner. High level federal law enforcement officials wish to create methods to bypass this, such as universal keys that a government entity can use. However, privacy advocates accurately note that this would make law abiding citizens vulnerable to hacking, both by cyber criminals and governments abusing their authority. There are good points on both sides of this argument, making it a divisive and important topic for our society to grapple with.
Reference: