Cyber Crime

What is Cyber Crime?

Did you log in Facebook today? If your answer is yes, then you are one of the 1.66 billion people who do the same on a day-to-day basis.

Did you open your email account or paid the bills via the online banking system? Or maybe you have purchased an item from the many online shopping sites? You are not alone.

Cyber crime is defined as any crime directed at computer or internet technologies, and any time where ICT is an integral part of an offence such as cyber identity fraud. These cyber crimes can happen across borders, and can simultaneously take data from multiple victims at a large scale.

Think about how long it has been since you last changed your password, and perhaps you even use the same one for multiple accounts. In today’s world of living life and running businesses on the Internet, the security of your business websites, personal accounts, bank accounts can all be at risk.

The question is: Is it enough to change the password regularly and install an antivirus program? Cyber crime is among one of the top legal issues in society, with many growing cases of hacking, fraud and identity theft via online channels.

How does Cyber Crime Affect You?

In April 2018, one of the most famous people in the world, Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Facebook admitted that “malicious actors” used “Search” from the Facebook platform and managed to reveal the identities and collect information on the majority of its 2 billion users worldwide.  This is unauthorized access to the data of 87 million users, most of them in the United States. This is just one high scale case of cyber crime that has affected many.

In Australia 2019, during the period between July and September, there were around 13,672 reported cases of cyber fraud. This means that one cyber crime happens every 10 minutes. Whether you are a victim or have been accused of committing these types of offences, cyber crime undoubtedly has a widespread effect.

But what does this mean in numbers?

Recent statistics outline that the damages resulting from cyber crime and Internet fraud have rapidly increased from $1 Billion USD in 2015 to 3.5 billion USD in 2019 on an annual level.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre reported the individuals and small businesses have become victim to online scams such as identity thefts and reported a total loss of $328 million AUD on an annual level. This amounts to a financial loss of $6000 AUD per report or over $890000 AUD each day.

Understanding the Types of Cyber Crimes

With the development of Internet technology and the increased number of digital files and data used by most companies, cybersecurity became one of the most important issues in protection. Due to the increasing number of cyber frauds, it is one of the top priorities to be taken care of. Understanding the many types of cyber crimes is therefore essential if you could be a victim, you know what to look out for. Alternatively, if you have been accused, you understand exactly what type of cyber crime you have been accused of.

Phishing and related online frauds

In 2019, the statistics compiled by the Internet Crime Complaint Centre show that Phishing fraud had the highest number of related complaints reaching up to 114,702 cases. In many cases, It takes one second to create four malware samples, and the phishing sites stay online only four to five hours.

Phishing, In simple terms, it is a fraudulent practice where cybercriminals send fake emails claiming to be reputable enterprises, such as banks, with the purpose of inducing people to disclose their personal information. This may be in the form of credit card numbers and passwords, where the fake enterprise asked the user to confirm their details. This is the case with identity theft which commonly affects many Australians due to the fake enterprise looking extremely similar to the real site.

Thus, next time when you receive a phishing email claiming that you are a winner of a competition, or a bank claiming you need to confirm your details, you should be suspicious.  Tips include calling your bank to check the request is real, seeing if the email was sent to many recipients’, and checking if the website is secure with the padlock symbol next to the web address.

Phishing is still a rising trend due to the development of tools and kits from the dark web, thus, these cyberattacks will present even bigger danger in the upcoming years.

Non-payment/ Non-Delivery

With 61832 reported cases, Non-payment/Non-delivery is a large cybercrime. As the name suggests, this is when you do not receive a payment for a product you have sold, or you have paid for a product but you have not received it.

This cyber crime is the second most popular in Australia, under the category of shopping scams and online fraud. More cybercriminals obtain financial advantage by tricking individuals to pay for goods which are never delivered, or by creating a website that is an imitation of a popular brand to scam. This results in credit card details being handed over in the process.

Extortion

By using social engineering, cybercriminals can “pressure” the victim to hand over money. They usually create a situation where they manipulate users to give money, personal data, and related information that they can later use to commit credit card fraud, or use the data to take advantage.

Remember that Australian government agencies never use the authority to call you and request remote access to your computer or request immediate payment of the debt by phone in the form of gift cards. Thus, if this is happening to you, it will be a cyber crime scam.

It is also worth knowing that you should also limit the personal information you share on social media as many of them can be used as a data breach. Other cyber frauds under the category of extortion that are common in Australia are online romance scams (through popular dating apps), wire-frauds and business email compromise and ransomware.

Accused of Cyber Crime or Cyber Fraud? How Can LY Lawyers Pty Ltd Help You?

We are dedicated to our clients and offer legal advice if you are accused of committing a cyber crime such as phishing, extortion and cyber identity theft. It is important to seek professional support, so get in contact with LY Lawyers Ltd Ptd today and find out what we can do for you.

Call Now on 1300 595 299 for a free consultation with a specialist lawyer.