Cyberspace, and the challenges of cybercrime

While cybercrime is a relatively recent phenomenon that has evolved and will continue to evolve with changing technologies, and therefore defies a precise definition, it refers to ‘… any activity occurring online which has intended negative consequences for others …’ (Kirwan and Power, 2012, p 2). Hence, cybercrime refers to a range of offences, and as defined by US Department of Justice, cybercrime broadly encompasses three categories of offences:

• 1. Crimes in which the computer or computer network is the target of the criminal activity (for example, hacking, malware and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks)

• 2. Existing offences where the computer is a tool used to commit the crime (for example, child pornography, harassment, cyberfraud, criminal copyright violations, etc.)

• 3. Crimes in which the use of the computer is an incidental aspect of the commission of the crime but may afford evidence of it (for example, SMS messages relating to a crime).

The ransomware attack in 2017 across different countries is an example of such cybercrime (CNN, 13 May).

Drawing on the discussion of boundaries and differences between online and offline environments (see Chapter 2), below we highlight some of the differences that facilitate cybercrime, hinder its detection and augment its effects:

Networked society: the nature of the networked society and increasing use of social media, cloud computing and other similar services means that data and communication may be routed through different time zones and jurisdictions before reaching their destination. This makes tracing of data and communications difficult, time-sensitive and subject to different legal frameworks.

Scale: From a criminological perspective, the sheer number of people using digital and social media technologies represents a pool of potential offenders and victims, and the shareability and replicability of online data exacerbates and amplifies the audience effect and the potential impact of online events and behaviours, and crimes.

Accessibility and online community: Digital devices and 24-hour access to the internet are widespread and readily available to both offenders and victims. For activities that are beyond a person's knowledge or skill level, cyberspace offers ready access to individuals who can either offer those skills and do the job or teach you how to do it.