Understanding Cybercrime: Types, Perpetrators, and Mitigation Strategies

Running head: CYBERCRIME
CYBERCRIME
Name of the University
Name of the student
Author Note

1CYBERCRIME
After reviewing the Symantec Cybercrime Report, I was shocked to find out that
Australia is present in the list of top ten countries that are severely affected by cyber-attacks.
After researching a bit further, I realized that the number of cyber-attacks in Australia has
doubled since last year. In 2016, more than 60% of the businesses in Australia has faced a
cyber-vulnerability on a monthly basis (Holt, Bossler & Seigfried-Spellar, 2015).
I already had a vague idea about cybercrime that it was usually conducted through
computers for illicit purposes such as child pornography, trafficking, stealing of intellectual
property and banking fraud. To understand about the cybercrimes, I had to understand why
the attacks were so prevalent nowadays. The first reason I found out was that the increasing
complexity of the computer systems was the main reason for the increasing vulnerability.
Recently, researchers found a vulnerability which utilized a complex system of processors
named speculative execution to extract user data. The second reason was related to higher
consumer expectations.
Next, I studied some research articles to understand the types of exploits. A code
which is programmable and forces a computer to behave in an unexpected way is known as
Virus. A Worm is a malicious program that attaches itself in a computer’s memory to
duplicate itself. A Trojan horse is a hidden malicious code inside a harmless program that
activates itself during a specific event. DDoS attacks causes a computer or a server to flood
the targeted system with continuous requests for data and tasks (Yar, 2013). Other lesser
known cyber threats are spams, rootkits and phishing. One particular threat called botnets
caught my attention. Botnets are used to control a number of computers by the attacker from
a remote location without the knowledge of the user. The affected computers are used to
distribute malicious codes.