Connor Williams
Jaelyn Marshall
Marlowe Cosby
Our project is going to be based around helping people who have experienced cybercrime and those who want to prevent cybercrimes from happening towards their businesses, and themselves. Cybercrime is a criminal activity that is carried out by means of computers or the internet. Some common cybercrimes are phishing scams, website spoofing, ransomware and malware. Many people are victims of cybercrimes and don’t have the knowledge in order to prevent or respond to cybercrimes. Technology continues to develop and become more complicated. As technology gets better so do the security measures that many of our devices use. As security gets more complicated so do the attacks that cyber criminals use. Being safe on the internet can be complicated and hard for the average person. The problem that we are going to address with our project is hopefully going to reduce the amount of cybercrime by helping the people who are having issues with cybercrime related activity as well as give insight to those who want to prevent it from occurring.
Success in our venture would be seeing a decrease in cybercrime rates among our clients. Crime is an ongoing problem and there is never a solution that would completely solve this issue. For this project success wouldn’t be something that is concrete. Success would be to have people that come to us for help, and who would be less likely to be a victim of a cybercrime than people who did not seek the information to help them fight against these crimes. Our success will be to educate the businesses and individuals who aren’t in understanding what the differences are between unsafe and safe trending online. In the success of our project, we aren’t hoping to just sell. Our purpose is to help those in need of our information, and education, with the gain of a profit as they seek our help. We will know we are successful when we can promote our cyber awareness group around the world.
Cybercrime is a big problem in America as “59% of Americans report they have experienced cybercrime or in some way” (Vojinovic). A big factor in cybercrime is that not many people know what to do when it comes to a security breach, “56% of Americans have no idea who to contact or what to do if they become the victim of a security breach” (Lazic, 2022). Cybercrime is projected to cost $10.5 trillion USD globally by 2025, which would be a 28% increase from the $3 trillion USD it cost in 2015 (Morgan, 2021). Cybercrime has been growing exponentially for many years now. From 2010 to 2020 there was a 300% increase in cybercrime (How has a decade of cybercrime impacted the United States? 2021). This is a problem, businesses and individuals alone never know when they will be a victim of a cyber-attack. 791,790. That is the number of cyber related crimes the FBI received in the year 2020. Cybercrimes are real, and they affect not only businesses, but also individuals. What can be done to help slow down or prepare for these types of crimes. Our proposal is to create a cyber awareness program, which will host workshops, create a cyber response protocol handbook, share safety tips for preventing cyberthreats, as well as tips for what to do once it has happened.
Our innovation is hopefully going to turn into a solution for the cyber related crimes in our world today. The cyber awareness group that we are proposing would host workshops, create a standard cyber etiquette & cybercrime response protocol handbook, one for how to properly tread safely online, whereas the other would be specifically for how to properly respond to a number of cybercrimes. We would work with businesses, organizations, or groups of individuals who have been struggling with employee cyber etiquette or having issues with cybercrime activity. By conducting this project, we aim to help close not only the skill gap in the field of technology and of general citizens, but also greatly raise the awareness of cybercrime and how to deal with it.
The gain from this awareness group would not only benefit the companies, but also educate those who are blinded by the actual facts of cyber-attacks and how they happen. The workshops will be treated as a training course to inform businesses as well as individuals what to look out for, and the differences between unsafe treading, and safe treading online. As many successful ideas need options, we are also proposing a protocol handbook within our cyber awareness program that can be useful for the businesses who seek to have information at the hands of their feet. Which can not only give insight on how to prevent or know what is a cybercrime, but also to understand how to handle the crime after it has been committed. This proposal is not just a benefit for one particular group. With the growth of technology rapidly changing, and the new ways cybercrimes are being committed, this program can be helpful to everyone.
Some barriers that we expect to confront would be how we would profit from the business. What can we do to make a profit? Another barrier that we foresee is how we would be able to get our clients, what will spark an interest in those who aren’t involved? In thinking of ways we can handle these barriers some ideas come to mind. For example, we have to sell. By doing this we have ideas of using social media platforms as many people are connected and drawn to things that appear on those platforms. We also have ideas of networking events, displaying tables and factual information for those who may walk by to seek interest, as well as want to learn more. In theory we gain a few businesses, we can then use those businesses as a partner and gain more customers through “giveaways”. For example, if we partner with an insurance company then clients who invest in our cyber awareness group and are a part of that insurance company can then get a discount on taking a step to educate themselves on a subject that may cost the insurance more later, after this crime has been committed. Partnering with business can help us gain more clients, which will turn into more profit.
When thinking of the profit barrier and how we could overcome the worry of not profiting. The idea of a website comes to mind. A place for people to see what our group is about as well as purchase merchandise and educational videos and books. In theory if we can sell companies the protocol handbooks online, or sell factual information videos we can not only gain interest and potentially more sales, we can also give these companies more insight about what workshops are and how they can benefit the reduction of cybercrimes. Overall, cybercrimes are a big issue in our society today. In the approach that the Cyber Awareness Group is in fact for the help of reducing cyber-crimes against businesses and individuals, and the information given is factual and shows results in helping fight against these crimes this Awareness group can turn into a huge profit that can continue to change and benefit generations of businesses and individuals to come.