The Rise and Increase in Scope of Computer Crime

The Rise of Computer Crime
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The Rise of Computer Crime
In the wake of increased cyber crime activities, I resolved to conduct research that would evaluate the situation and provide prospective solutions hence my thesis statement ‘The Rise of Cyber Crime’. The project is meant to assess levels of contemporary cyber crime and contemplate ways in which the surging cyber-crime can be curbed. This comes with the aim to mitigate the detriment it is incurring on organizations and individuals as the world evolves into a ubiquitous one. The findings of this report could offer insights into the extent of cyber crime culminating in radical shifts in perceptions and cyber regulation and security. Therefore, the choice for this research topic is, in my perspective, timely.
Having read numerous books such as ‘Cyber Crime’ by Brenner and articles on the same, I was capable of having a general background on the same. This enabled me to draft several questions for my interviews and questionnaire in my endeavor to gather information for my report. Some of my respondents in interviews included the Cabinet Secretary for ICT, C.E.O of Vodacom Shameel Aziz Joosub, C.E.O yahoo Marissa Mayer, president of Interpol Mireille Ballestrazzi and cyber crime experts form Harvard and MIT Universities. My hypothesis was that there is a significant rise in cyber crime from the last decade and that most organizations are not well prepared for the emerging threat.
The scope of the cyber-crime research covers areas in e-commerce, cyber bullying, cyber terrorism, money e-transfer and cyber-hacking. However, the report may not offer incisive details due to limitations in funds to expand my research scope.
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The study revealed that currently, e-commerce has a turn-over of at least $500 billion annually (Brenner, 2010). With increased development in the world, the purchasing power of individuals is increasing and computers are becoming increasingly affordable. This increases the interconnectivity of persons in the world. This also increases accessibility of these gadgets to cyber criminals and exposes more individuals and groups to cyber-crime. Statistics shows that the world has surpassed 1 billion Smartphone users. This is a 47% increase compared to the last one year and it is expected to reach 2 million in the coming year. This has resulted in increased e-commerce with money transfer services even in Africa such as M-PESA in Kenya (Brenner, 2010).
However, this has offered opportunities to cyber criminals just as with conventional crime and Statistics in the UK Ponemon Institute indicate that orga...