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Kasey Kasper
Mary Murphy
CIS 267
04/08/20
Prevention of global cybercrime
Cybercrime denotes the use of a computer as a means to conduct illegal activities, such as
human trafficking, terrorism, child pornography, intellectual property and data theft, information
misuse, and identity theft, committing fraud, or violating privacy. Most of the crimes are
executed using various cyber-attack tactics such as DDoS, CEO fraud, phishing, man-in-the-
middle tactic, SQL injections, hacking, and malware attacks. Moore (4) notes that cybercrime
has developed into a booming industry constituting of hacktivists, organized hacker syndicate,
criminal enterprises, and nation-state actors. Over the years, the cost of cybercrime has
increased, leaving most individuals and organizations facing losses. An in-depth understanding
of cybercrime is vital for developing effective strategies to curb crime. The great task is how to
curb cybersecurity threats and to develop strategies to prevent cyber-attacks. However, the
number of cybercriminals keeps increasing, and they continuously change techniques, and
developing modern technologies makes it a challenge for the cybersecurity officers to fight
cybercrimes. A concerted effort is pivotal in preventing and fighting cybercrime.
There is a need for global cooperation in fighting cybercrime. The borderless nature of
cyberspace has enabled criminals to exploit jurisdictional loopholes and leverage on some
countries’ inability to appropriately respond due to legal constraints or because they lack
technical know-how or resources to address cybercrime efficiently. For that reason, cooperation,
coordination, and harmonization are needed. Cooperation may include the extradition of
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nationals involved in cybercrime and offering legal assistance with the focus being on cyber
specific investigation measures (Boes 185). Harmonization should be minimum enough and
backed up by procedural law to avoid failure of cooperation efforts. On a more practical note,
failure of such efforts might establish a global cyber identity, especially for internet users.
Concerted efforts among nations without infringing on the sovereignty of the land will bring an
end to one of the world’s prevalent and borderless crime.
Global prevention of cybercrime can be achieved via threat evaluations and strategic
analysis. Undeniably, strategic analysis and intelligence are critical in combating cybercrime. In
other words, countries should gather data, interpret it, and take note of speculative deliberations
on any future patterns, developments, trends, threats, as well as, opportunities (Paul 154).
Strategic intelligence attempts to answer the question: “What can be done about the current and
future cybercrime threats at a practical level?”. In the framework of its Serious and Organized
Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA), Europol adopted a strategic analysis methodology. The
methodology was developed to analyze any possible threats posed by cybercriminals or
organized groups to do a scrutiny of the cybercrime threats. The analysis puts into account global
access to the internet, world economy, transport, and logistics. Consequently, these indicators
will provide an overview of the current trends and predict any future cybercrime threats. Such
measures can primarily help combat cybercrime and bring sanity in the world.
There is a need for governments to train and educate its citizens on how to best use
technologies. Fighting cybercrime should not be left to local and international law enforcement
only, but it should be the responsibility of everyone. Governments can achieve this by rolling out
appropriate, well-structured awareness programs targeting internet users for conceptualization
(Al Amro 69). The world is suffering from a rising shortage of professional ICT skills deficiency
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and a literal digital deficit. As a result, citizens across the globe are being excluded from the
digital community, economy, and preventing ICT consumption and productivity. National
governments need to initiate or rather launch campaigns to enable its people to shield themselves
against online related crimes by holding constant media campaigns, television advertisements,
and the use of websites to prevent cybercrime. Youngsters should be taught of simple security
precautions that could protect them from being cybercrime victims.
Corporate Level
Developing technical and procedural measures: Investigations on cybercrime activities
usually have a key technical part. Furthermore, law enforcement authorities need to use precise
procedures to maintain evidence integrity during the investigation process. Moreover, developing
key procedures and capacities is essential in the fight against cybercrime. Another important
component is the creation of technical protection measures since it is difficult to attack
effectively protected computer systems (Rittle-Johnson, and Schneider 1119). Therefore, it is
important to improve technical protection by employing the use of effective security standards.
For instance, making some key changes in the online banking system has reduced the danger
posed by the increased phishing attacks. The development of technical protection measures
should incorporate the various individually connected computers and core network
infrastructure. The indirect approach of protection that involves identifying the target groups to
help protect organizations and internet users. It is easier to protect core internet structure as
compared to integrating a large number of internet users into an anti-cybercrime system.
Securing services consumed by end users helps in providing user protection.
Capacity building and user education: Capacity building and education are essential to
ensure equal standards for fighting cybercrimes and cybercrime knowledge in both the
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developing and developed countries (Homburger 224). Some cyber offenses, such as spoofing
and phishing, take advantage of the ignorance of victims, and not lack of technical protection.
Although organizations develop and implement technical measures of protection against
cybercrime, it is difficult for such measures to substitute other strategies such as user education.
For instance, individuals cannot fall victim to identity fraud or phishing attacks if they have the
knowledge that financial institutions cannot contact a person via e-mail to request bank account
details or passwords. Internet users can be educated through public-private partnerships, lessons
in schools, and public campaigns. Education creates awareness among a large population, which
reduces the number of potential cybercrime targets. Notably, businesses are more vulnerable to
cyber-attacks, and employees should be trained and educated. Organizations should conduct
