BotNet News

As a concept, Cybercrime is often defined using broad terms such as ‘Internet crime’, ‘cyberdelinquency’ and ‘Internet related criminality’. This can lead to a wide range of definitions and classifications in the literature, as well as differing understandings between law enforcement agencies and private sector organisations, especially when dealing with large scale data breaches or other high-profile crimes that have serious consequences for both individuals and companies.

Defining what constitutes a cybercrime is further complicated by the fact that many of these offences are committed online and can be difficult to track and prosecute. Criminals can hide behind the relative anonymity provided by the Internet, allowing them to commit a wide range of crimes from terrorism and other political objectives to financial fraud, child pornography and intellectual property theft. These crimes can also have a significant impact on business, for example, if they damage investor perception and result in a loss of customers or fines from legal proceedings.

Furthermore, the ubiquity of the Internet means that cybercriminals can operate across borders, making it hard for police forces and other authorities to catch them. The lack of a common definition and classification system impedes cooperation between different entities that deal with the prevention or prosecution of cybercrime. This includes governments and international police forces, as well as private sector companies, which may be reluctant to collaborate with their competitors in order to avoid the negative publicity that might accompany an investigation of a major data breach or other cybercrime-related incident.