What Is Cybercrime?
Cybercrime refers to any illegal behavior that takes place via the Internet or other network-based information and communication technology (ICT) systems. It encompasses a wide range of activities, including hacking, computer viruses and malware, identity theft, extortion, online larceny, terrorism, cyberstalking and cyberbullying.
The Internet’s speed, convenience and anonymity make it easy for criminals to carry out a wide range of computer-based variations of traditional crimes such as fraud, stalking and robbery. Criminals are also able to operate across national borders, reducing the chance of being caught by local law enforcement agencies.
A lack of consistency in terminology and laws, as well as the difficulty of tracing crime back to its source, further complicate the task of understanding cybercrime. The Internet is also a very complex and ever-changing space, offering criminals multiple hiding places on a planet-spanning network.
While defining cybercrime is challenging, there are some commonalities in the various definitions that exist. The most widely accepted is the Council of Europe’s (COE) Convention on Cybercrime Taxonomy, which distinguishes between ‘cyber-dependent’ crimes and ‘cyber-enabled’ crimes.
However, even this classification scheme is not without its problems. For example, a person who accesses child pornography on a computer in a country that does not prohibit such material is committing a crime in another nation; this makes the jurisdictional issue more complex than it might seem at first glance. Other categories, such as those relating to content-based offences, are less controversial.