Cybervictimization

Posted by kmars004 on Dec 1, 2019 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

In many ways, cyber technology has made some crimes or aspects of crime easier to commit than they would have been a number of years ago. Cyber criminals have much more access to personal data and sensitive information that gives them what they need to carry out their activities or the means to access even more than what a person might normally give access to in a typical physical, public setting. For instance, a person would not walk up to a complete stranger and give them their social security number and home address, yet people submit this kind of information online daily and for various reasons. Of course, this is done with the assumption that such personal information will be safe, secure and not misused, but considering it is the Internet, just about any type of information is fair game for hackers and other criminals.

“…time and space no longer matter like they used to. We can plan an attack that happens days or years later, and never need to meet our victim.” (Shaw, 2019). This essentially means that with just enough access and the right resources, offenders find it fairly easy to commit crimes such as theft, fraud, piracy, bullying and harassment. They never even have to be in a physical setting or know much more about a person than what is made available over the Internet. Interestingly, according to research and studies, some victims of cyber crimes shift from being the victim in a situation to becoming the offender. This is again attributed to the ease of committing crimes online, which can include retaliation for a criminal act that has been committed against someone. Or another example – when someone picks up a computer virus while attempting to download pirated files from a suspicious website.

The takeaway here is that the advancements in technology and the ease of access we so enjoy with just about everything we do comes at a bit of a cost. The concepts of privacy and security are a bit obscure at times and unfortunately, where something can be used for good there is also the potential to misuse it and cause harm.

References

Shaw, J. (2018, February 28). How the internet made it easier for all of us to be criminals, or victims. Retrieved from https://www.wired.co.uk/article/julia-shaw-making-evil-internet-crime

Weulen Kranenbarg, M., Holt, T. J., & Van Gelder, J. (2017). Offending and Victimization in the Digital Age: Comparing Correlates of Cybercrime and Traditional Offending-Only, Victimization-Only and the Victimization-Offending Overlap. Deviant Behavior, 40(1), 40-55. doi:10.1080/01639625.2017.1411030