An Investigation: Cybercrime Impact on Businesses Worldwide

This report provides a comprehensive investigation into the multi-level impact of cybercrime on businesses globally. It begins by defining cybercrime and its various forms, including financial fraud, identity theft, and data breaches. The report then delves into the causes behind the increasing prevalence of cybercrime, such as economic motivations and the structural vulnerabilities of online systems. It examines the significant effects of cybercrime on business growth and development, including damage to reputation, intellectual property theft, and financial losses. Furthermore, the report outlines measures that businesses can implement to reduce cybercrime activities, such as enhancing security protocols, improving data storage practices, and fostering a culture of cybersecurity awareness. The research utilizes literature review to explore the topic. Overall, this report serves as a valuable resource for understanding the threats and vulnerabilities associated with cybercrime and provides practical guidance for businesses seeking to protect themselves in the digital age. The report also includes research objectives, research questions, and limitations.

A multi-level approach
to understanding the
impact of cybercrime on
the businesses around
the world.

Table of Contents
TITLE – ..........................................................................................................................................1
“An investigation about a multi-level approach to understanding the impact of cybercrime on the
businesses around the world.”..........................................................................................................1
1.0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................1
1.1 Identify specific researchable topic area...............................................................................1
1.2 Importance of problem..........................................................................................................2
1.3 Research aim ........................................................................................................................3
2.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS.....................................................................3
2.1 Research Objectives:.............................................................................................................3
2.2 Research questions................................................................................................................3
3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................3
3.1 The concept of cyber crime..................................................................................................3
3.2 Cause behind increasing cyber crime that influence the business throughout world...........4
3.3 Cyber crime affect the growth and development of business..............................................5
3.4 The measures to be consider fro reducing cyber crime activities within business
transaction...................................................................................................................................6
4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...............................................................................................6
4.1 Research Design, Research approach and Research Type....................................................6
4.2 Rationale...............................................................................................................................8
5.0 ACCESS TO DATA AND RESEARCH ETHICS...................................................................8
6.0 LIMITATIONS..........................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

TITLE –
“An investigation about a multi-level approach to understanding the impact
of cybercrime on the businesses around the world.”
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Cyber crime is refers to as any kind of criminal activity that is performed using computer,
network or some sort of networking device. The cyber crimes are basically performed in order to
generate profit by conducting some activities against computer or device with an aim to damage
or disable those devices with the help of internet or network to spread illegal information,
malware or other viruses (Shin and Jin Park, 2017). These are basically done in order to destroy
some data, affect a particular system or hacking of information in order to misuse it. The cyber
crimes has a huge influence over the businesses that operates at internet and uses a cyber channel
to offer its services or perform certain kind of business transactions.
Cyber crime is increasing day by day with the enhancement of technology as well as
knowledge regarding IT among people which directly influence the businesses that uses e-
commerce for performing their operations. This attracted the cyber crime as in this techno world
businesses prefer to save their confidential information digitally using cloud computing in order
to keep them for longer period of time. But this has increase cyber crimes as competitors and
other rivals try to damage and hack them for affecting their market position. These misconduct
with information have several negative impact over businesses that directly affect its growth and
success at marketplace (Bossong and Wagner, 2017). These negative impacts includes damage of
reputation, damage to intellectual property which results into loss of competitive edge,
misrepresentation of information without the consent of company, loss of sensitive data etc.
1.1 Identify specific researchable topic area
By performing investigation over the topic “a multi-level approach to understanding the
impact of cybercrime on the businesses around the world”, the researcher would be able to learn
about the several type of crimes that happen throughout the world and influence its impact over
the businesses that are present around the world (Alotaibi and et. al., 2016). This investigation
also have academical significance as when this investigation get published it help students in
enhancing their knowledge regarding the manner in which cyber crime happens and how much it
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has influence over businesses. In addition to this they also become able to learn about the
consequences of cyber crime so that in future they avoid such kind of activities.
The businesses are becoming more victim to such kind of cyber issues due to lack of
authenticity where organisations are not putting much efforts toward the cyber security which
invites several peoples to hack or misrepresent the information about company (Kopnina and
Blewitt, 2018). In addition to this confidentiality of information is also become a major concern
to businesses as the private access help in avoiding the chances of miss conduct but on other
hand when there is more access over the network of company the chances of data damage or
hack get enhanced. The number of issues which businesses around the world is facing which
increases the risk of cyber crime are proper cyber access, lack of security protocols, information
storage errors and many more.
1.2 Importance of problem
The current topic considered for performing investigation holds greater importance today
as there is a increase in cyber crime which is affecting the organisations throughout the world.
The data presented through this investigation will support in representing the information
regarding the number of crimes that are performed to affect business operations and influence it
have over the market performance (Slangen, 2016). The networking website i.e. LinkedIn was
breached where around the encrypted password of around 6.5 million users got stolen by the
cyber criminals and then posted over a public password forum. In addition to this Yahoo also get
a victim of cyber crime where the first breach occurs in 2014 where around 500 million yahoo
users get affected due to cyber crime (The biggest cybercrimes in history, 2019). On the other
side the second breach which happens in year 2016 affected more than 1 billion user accounts.
These are considered as the biggest cyber crime in the history of internet which includes hacking
of specific details of account users such as email address, phone numbers, names, encrypted
security questions and answers, birth dates, and encrypted passwords. In order to deal with such
criminal activities the governments has formed several committees or institutions that take off
such activities and help the victims to overcome from these (What is the government doing to
counter cybercrime, 2016). This includes institutions like FBI which is a federal agency that
work toward investigating cyber attacks by criminals or terrorism activities. In addition to this
the National Security Agency is another institute formulated by US government that work
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toward foreign intelligence and protect US government system against the intrusion (Cyber
Crime, 2019).
1.3 Research aim
The aim of this research is “To investigate about a multi-level approach to understanding
the impact of cybercrime on the businesses around the world.”
2.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS
2.1 Research Objectives:
 To develop an understanding regarding the concept of cyber crime.
 To identify the causes behind increasing cyber crime that influence the business
throughout world
 To identify the impact of cyber crime on business growth and development.
 To determine the measures for reducing the cyber crime activities within business
transactions
2.2 Research questions
 What do you understand about the concept of cyber crime?
 Describe about the cause behind increasing cyber crime that influence the business
throughout world ?
 How cyber crime affect the growth and development of business?
 What are the measures to be consider fro reducing cyber crime activities within business
transaction?
3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is refers to a critical evaluation of view point of several authors in order
to understand the nature of a particular topic of concern (Lagazio, 2016). It help in creating a
base for a research over which further investigation can be performed. The literature review for
impact of cyber crime over businesses are mentioned below:
3.1 The concept of cyber crime
As per the view point of Margaret Rouse, 2019, Cybercrime is considered as a any kind
of criminal activity which is being performed with the help of computer or other networking
devices. The primary impact of cyber crime is financial and many sort of profit-driven criminal
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activities such as email, internet fraud, ransomware attack, identity fraud and attempt to hack the
financial account, credit cards and other payment card information. The US department of
Justice divides cybercrime into three categories such as crime through computer devices that
includes gain network access, hacking accounts etc., using computer as a weapon for instance, to
launch a denial of service(DoS) attack and crime in which using computer as a accessory to
perform some misconduct such as computer to store some illegally obtained data.
On the other side, according to the view point of Sullins, 2017, Cybercrime is a sort of
criminal activities that are done with the help of computer and internet which includes anything
i.e. from downloading some illegal music files to stealing the finance from online banking. But
cyber crime is not only perform for monetary purpose, it also includes non-monetary offense
which includes creating and distributing the viruses on other computer systems for damaging
them or to posting confidential information of businesses over internet to affect its image among
customers. But the most prominent form of cyber crime is identity theft which is basically
performed with the help of internet in order to steal personal information of other users using
two most common ways i.e. pharming and phishing.
3.2 Cause behind increasing cyber crime that influence the business throughout world
According to the view point of Edward Mercer, 2019, the online identity theft has
increased by 30 percent between the year 2010 and 2012. The cyber crime includes everything
i.e. from identity theft and hacking to spreading virus around a broader network which is a very
complex area of criminology and one that receives more attention as computers are prevalent in
our lives and handle more personal information. These all are the risk factor for services industry
as when the personal information of customers get hacked it leads to spread of negative brand
image and broken down the trust of customers toward the company. The main cause behind
increasing Cyber crime is :
 Economical motivation:- The money is a major motivator for cyber criminals because
the danger of criminality basically less when the criminal is hidden behind a network
such activities involve low risk and high financial benefit that promote cyber criminals by
getting them engaged within malware, identity theft and money request attack by
fraudulent. Cyber criminals mainly target online banking account in order to steal higher
amount of fund either by hacking information or by making customers fool to collect
fund from them.
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 Structural cause:- As now a days businesses focuses toward storing more and more
personal as well as sensitive information stores online which increases the potential
reward for the criminals as neither a computer security nor any kind of application like
email filter can work toward covering it. This is because the data get hacked by the cyber
criminals and miss used to perform some illegal activities either to affect the business
image in market or in front of customer with an aim to earn money or to achieve
competitive edge in market by getting confidential information of one business to rise up
another company.
3.3 Cyber crime affect the growth and development of business
According to the view point of Emily Pribanic, 2018, It is very essential for a company to
have an understanding regarding the impact of cyber attack which may happens to a business this
can be as sever from damaging the business reputation to costing the business with lots of
money. These criminal attacks have huge impact over the growth as well as development of a
company in marketplace and the ways in which cyber crime affect the business includes:
 Damage reputation:- The cyber crime is a major way to affect the reputation of
company as in today's techno driven world companies mainly prefer to keep the
information of customers at web which stays there forever and can be hacked by the
cyber criminals. This results into private information displayed publicly to all the people
that affect the trust of customers and also leads to negative publicity of brand. In addition
to this some victims may also take legal action which damage the company name in
marketplace.
 Intellectual property damage:- The cyber crime may also leads to damaging of
company's intellectual property such as with the help of cyber criminals can stole the
company's idea, business expansion plan or marketing campaign details which results
into company's loss to competitive edge. As the criminals can present this information in
front of competitors that can make your idea useless and affect its performance also.
3.4 The measures to be consider fro reducing cyber crime activities within business transaction
According to the view point of Terry Brown, 2019, cybercrime involve several
significant challenges that can threaten the business operations, expansion of new product or
services, innovation of growth that a company can get. So it is very essential for a company to
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consider measures to avoid the cyber crime in order to maintain its market position as well as
growth. Following are the measures that businesses must consider to avoid cyber crime,
 Get basic rights and regularly update system:- Getting protection from cyber crime
doesn't require the sophisticated defence it just need good practices which adhered to
stringently. Hence to keep the network secure it is crucial for a company to keep its
operating systems, programs and software updated all the time which may create
financial burden but keep it free from getting hacked by criminals. This is because the
password of old and outdated system become easier to crack as by keeping an eye over it
criminals get the pattern which is not possible with regular up-gradation.
 Separate, Encrypt and Backup your data :- The data is required to be hide, out of sight or
access to unauthorised person. For this layers are required between the system the more
layer of security present in form of encryption the more data is harder to damage or hack.
In addition to this for keeping data secure from the viruses or threads a company must
focuses toward keeping the backup of information so that it can be recovered in case of
any damage or lose of data.
4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology is consider to be most crucial part of an investigation which helps
the researcher to analyse data and ways with the help of which researcher can collect the required
data for the completion of research (Taplin, 2016). This includes a detailed description regarding
the type of tools and techniques which can be used to gather, interpret and evaluate the data for
represent findings effectively. The tools and technique used for performing investigation are
mentioned below:
4.1 Research Design, Research approach and Research Type
 Research design: It refers to as a specific design under which the a research is being
conducted in more effective and systematic manner that ensures accomplishment of
objectives in effective manner. The research designs are basically of three type such as
experimental, exploratory and descriptive (Silic and Back, 2016). The exploratory design
is one in which researcher's ideas and thoughts are main as it depends on personal
inclination in order to provide explanation over unexplored aspects. The experimental
design is basically used to establish relationship between effect and cause of particular
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situation. On other side descriptive design is one in which researcher have solely
interested for describing about the situation or case which is under his investigation. For
performing this investigation related with cyber crime the descriptive research design will
be used as it support a researcher in getting an insight of research topic regarding why
and how a particular thing happens.
 Research approach:- It is refers to as a framework with which an investigation is
performed in an appropriate manner. The research approaches are basically of two type
such as deductive and inductive. The deductive approach is one which contribute toward
developing hypothesis over pre-existing theory which then tested after gathering
information to prove it right or wrong (Shackelford and Bradner, 2018). On the other side
inductive approach is one which is concerned toward generation of new theory from the
data gathered for aiding the investigation. In order to perform this investigation the
inductive approach will be used, as no theories and hypothesis are required to be applied
and researcher remains free in altering the direction once the research process had
commenced. In addition to this inductive approach associated with qualitative data on
which this investigation is based on.
 Data collection:- It refers to the several methods or sources which are used to gather data
for performing investigation in effective manner. The data collection are of two type such
as primary and secondary. The primary data is one which is gathered fro the first time by
the investigator and not yet been researched by any another person previously. It is also
known as first hand data and is basically collected using sources like questionnaire,
interview, survey, group discussion, focused group etc. On the other side secondary data
collection refers to the process in which information is gathered from already collected
and published data in order to represent authenticated information to the readers
regarding particular topic of concern (Rogers, 2016). The secondary information is
basically gathered from the sources like books, journals, newspapers, articles, webpages,
blogs etc. In order to perform this investigation the secondary data collection method
will be consider in which data is gathered with the help of literature review. This will
support in gathering information from several sources that has published data regarding
cyber crime which support in developing understanding among the reader regarding this
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topic. In addition to this it also help in ensuring the authenticity of information as data is
already appreciated and published previously.
 Research method:- This is consider to be the most essential part of an investigation that
support in gathering and representing information in more significant manner. There are
usually two type of research methods such as qualitative and quantitative (Clevenger and
et. al., 2018). Among which the qualitative investigation is one which relays over detailed
investigation and representation of data for making it more meaningful and understood to
the reader. On the other side, quantitative investigation is one within which the data is
gathered by the mean of numerical facts or figures to represent the probability of
occurrence of particular things or event. For performing this investigation qualitative
method will be used as it support the researcher to perform an in-depth investigation
about particular topic of concern so that appropriate findings can be represent and
explained effectively.
4.2 Rationale
The main reason behind conducting this investigation is to determine the impact of cyber
crime over the businesses which utilise cyber channels for performing their transaction or other
activities. For accomplishing this research objective effectively the investigator will perform
investigation over secondary data using inductive approach under qualitative method which
ensures in-depth evaluation of data available (Austin, 2018). This would be helpful in
achievement of research aim as it uses theoretical framework for gathering and representing the
information in more appropriate manner that make it easier for reader to get meaning behind data
presented. In order to represent this investigation effectively descriptive research design will be
used that ensure appropriate presentation of data by representing in detailed manner to make it
understood for the reader.
5.0 ACCESS TO DATA AND RESEARCH ETHICS
It is the responsibility of a researcher to perform investigation in more ethical and reliable
manner which ensures the right delivery of information among readers without any sort of miss-
interpretation that lead the reader in wrong manner. For performing this investigation effectively
ethics considered are informed consent, authenticity etc. For implementing informed concern
ethics in investigation effectively the researcher has informed about the aim behind current
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investigation and take permission from the researcher whose data will be used in research which
is related with the topic of previous investigation (Berki and et. al., 2018). In addition to this for
representing more accurate and reliable information, researcher has ensure the authenticity of
particular source from which data is going to be collected.
6.0 LIMITATIONS
While conducting this investigation there are number of issues that researcher can face
which includes the data within investigation is gathered using qualitative mean of investigation
where the information gathered in detailed manner that make it difficult to sort out the
meaningful data. This is because the amount of data is relatively higher which requires more
efforts to sort it out and wrong selection of data may divert the pathway from the goals of
investigation which make it less meaningful and unattractive to readers. On the other hand
another limitation is that the research is based on descriptive design that require investigator to
deeply evaluate each and every aspect of information that is gathered which is very time
consuming.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Alotaibi, F. and et. al., 2016, December. A survey of cyber-security awareness in Saudi Arabia.
In 2016 11th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured
Transactions (ICITST) (pp. 154-158). IEEE.
Austin, G., 2018. Corporate Cybersecurity. In Cybersecurity in China (pp. 65-79). Springer,
Cham.
Berki, E. and et. al., 2018. The Need for Multi-Disciplinary Approaches and Multi-Level
Knowledge for Cybersecurity Professionals. In Multidisciplinary Perspectives on
Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals (pp. 72-94). IGI Global.
Bossong, R. and Wagner, B., 2017. A typology of cybersecurity and public-private partnerships
in the context of the EU. Crime, Law and Social Change, 67(3), pp.265-288.
Clevenger, S. and et. al., 2018. Understanding Victimology: An Active-learning Approach.
Routledge.
Kopnina, H. and Blewitt, J., 2018. Sustainable business: Key issues. Routledge.
Lagazio, M., 2016. A taxonomy of cyber crime in the financial sector: A comprehensive
approach to countermeasures. In Managing Cyber Risk in the Financial Sector (pp. 36-
78). Routledge.
Rogers, C., 2016. Intelligence Gathering and Police Systems. Policing Cyber Hate, Cyber
Threats and Cyber Terrorism, p.129.
Shackelford, S. and Bradner, S. O., 2018. Have You Updated Your Toaster? Transatlantic
Approaches to Governing the Internet of Everything.
Shin, D. H. and Jin Park, Y., 2017. Understanding the Internet of Things ecosystem: multi-level
analysis of users, society, and ecology. Digital Policy, Regulation and
Governance, 19(1), pp.77-100.
Silic, M. and Back, A., 2016. The dark side of social networking sites: Understanding phishing
risks. Computers in Human Behavior, 60, pp.35-43.
Slangen, R., 2016. Understanding Cyber-risk by Investigating the Behaviour of Defender and
Threat Agent Organisations: Why a Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective Contributes
to Further Understanding Cyber-risk.
Sullins, L. L., 2017. “Phishing” for a solution: domestic and international approaches to
decreasing online identity theft. In Computer Crime (pp. 73-110). Routledge.
Taplin, R. ed., 2016. Managing cyber risk in the financial sector: Lessons from Asia, Europe and
the USA. Routledge.
Online
Cyber Crime. 2019. [Online] Available through:<https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber>
Edward Mercer. 2019. Causes of Cyber Crime. [Online] Available
through:<https://itstillworks.com/causes-cyber-crime-1846.html>
Emily Pribanic. 2018. Impact of Cybercrime on Business. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.techfunnel.com/information-technology/impact-of-cybercrime-on-
business/>
Rouse. M. 2019. Cybercrime. [Online] Available
through:<https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/cybercrime>
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Terry Brown. 2019. 5 Ways to Protect Your Business Against Cybercrime. [Online] Available
through: <https://www.itchronicles.com/security/5-ways-to-protect-your-business-
against-cybercrime/>
The biggest cybercrimes in history. 2019. [Online] Available
through:<https://www.clickatell.com/articles/information-security/cybercrime-effect-
businesses/>
What is the government doing to counter cybercrime. 2016. [Online] Available
through:<https://enterpriseiotinsights.com/20180924/channels/fundamentals/what-is-
the-government-doing-to-counter-cybercrime>
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