ePortfolio entry #11 – What is the overlap between criminal justice and cybercrime? How does this overlap relate to the other disciplines discussed in this class?

The overlap between criminal justice and cybercrime is that technology (cyberspace) is simply another avenue for crime to be committed. Many of the same crimes that we see in the physical world like identity theft, buying/selling illegal drugs, stealing money, etc are being done in cyberspace. While many cybercrimes do have roots in the physical domain, there are those that are purely cybercrimes that create the need for the criminal justice system to adapt at a speed faster then it ever has before. This relates to every other domain that we’ve covered in this course. When the discussion surrounded around security frameworks, the reason we have these standards in place is to protect ourselves from those that commit any number of cybercrimes against our assets. Those standards were created as means to protect ourselves and fill in the gaps where the criminal justice system just can’t help us, because they aren’t equipped to handle every threat to us that the implementation of security frameworks are there to prevent. When we spoke about cyber threats, here again some of these crimes have their roots in the physical world but then again are purely cyber crimes. Denial of service if done in the physical world would be committed via a different means then a DDoS attack in cyberspace, both are crimes, but the later a pure cyber cirme and one that criminal justice system is unable to keep up with. The former would be something done using physically destructive means, intimidation, or threat. The former is also easier to prosecute. If your company gets DDoS’s from some threat actor overseas you have no recourse. If a group of people burns down your business, you have recourse under the law. There’s also the problem of cyber stalking and cyber harassment. Both have roots in the physical world but are much easier to perform in cyberspace and sometimes far more detrimental to the individual. It’s easier to get a hateful message out about someone to billions of people with the use of cyberspace then without, it’s also easier then ever to locate a person to commit them harm now with cyberspace then previously without. The problem is that because crime and the means by which they are being committed is rapidly evolving without a major evolution of the criminal justice system or a loss of liberty and freedom as we have come to know it, it’s not a problem that I see being solved anytime soon.

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