Economic and Social Impacts Of Identity and Intellectual Property Thefts
The term identity theft refers to all kinds of unlawful acts perpetrated by a given individual which involves the use of illegal means to obtain and use other people’s confidential particulars in fraudulent and deceptive ways for their own economic benefit (Hayward 2004). Hence, Hayward (2004) posits that with sufficient details about another human being, culprits could take charge of the said person’s individuality to either manage, run or control an extensive variety of illegalities. Among others, some of those crimes include acquiring specific goods and services, which would have been turned down to the wrong doers when using their own identities and the unlawful removal and transfer of money from bank accounts (Yar, 2013). Additionally, the said felonies also incorporate conducting fallacious loan and credit card requests and deceitful use of other people’s cell phone numbers or social accounts (Hayward 2004). On the other hand, intellectual property theft entails burglarizing plans, contrivances and artistic exhibitions from other people or organized institutions. Here, this kind of theft involves a wide array of items ranging from piracy of movies, music, computerized software, refined products and services, to private affairs of trade (Albanese 2009). Besides, it is a gradually progressive imminent threat mostly due to the shift from analogue to digital technologies and growth of networks permitting the transfer of internet files. This kind of misdemeanor involving either a computer or a network tends to be associated with cybercrimes, also commonly termed as computer related felonies (Townsend 2005). Hence, this paper primarily focuses on the economic and social impacts of cybercrime, implications of the technological age to criminal and deviant behavior, approaches and strategies of control and the various responses of criminal justice to cybercrimes.
According to Yar (2013), cybercrimes comprise a massive assortment of computer network based attacks or other hardware gadgets. Some of the said illegalities include stealing individual data, cyber tracking and tyranny, pornographic materials linked to children, embezzlement and patent or legal right contravention. As a result, the discussed malicious cyber activities leads to a number of both economic and social impacts in the society and entire nation at large (Yar, 2013). At this point, the economic impacts manifest from the diverse variety of prevailing approximations of losses globally. Ideally, the said losses tend to range from a small number of billion US dollars to hundreds of billions in many states per year (Center for strategic and international studies, 2013). Thus, in evaluating the huge deficits incurred by many companies and individuals due to cybercrimes per year, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (2013) categorized it into six main parts: The forfeiture of theoretical property, detrimental cyber activities, misplacement of crucial business documents, auxiliary expenses resulting from measures and recoveries from cyber-attacks, and prestige sabotage to the hacked institution.
Even though the quantification of malevolent cyber schemes tends to be relatively difficult, various researches suggest that at the higher end losses resulting from the said activities tend to cost about 1% of the gross domestic product. For instance, losses sustained in the United States due to cyber malpractices and cyber reconnaissance costs amount to approximately a hundred billion dollars per year (Center for Strategic and International Studies 2013). Moreover, cyber related attacks also result to increased cases of unemployment and loss of well- paying jobs in the affected country as depicted in the survey conducted by the unit in charge of trade in 2011. Here, losses from cyber-crimes accruing to around a hundred billion US dollars accounted for approximately 508,000 bygone jobs (Centre for strategic and international studies 2013). Even though this kind of career loss would not entirely affect the country, Yar (2013) posits that the actual concern would be if the lost occupations major in either production or other domains with high wages. Hence, if the employees moved out of their positions by computer based attacks in such companies and fields do not find equally well paying or even higher- waged vocations, then the affected nation would eventually crumble.
Similarly, cyber linked attacks also tend to possess intense repercussions to the business and social community. Yar (2013) notes that this is usually regardless of whether the said establishments end up being the major point of focus or the recipient of an attack somewhere else. For example, a recent study stipulated that both espionage activities and geopolitical requitals greatly affected major organizations in the entire world. In addition, a large number of individuals, latently millions, also categorize under those experiencing the adverse effects caused by theft and misuse of personal or sensitive data (Yar 2013). In turn, this evil- intentioned use of individual information ranging from computer passwords, records of health, to usernames, ultimately generates monetary distress and notable difficulties to the affected people.
Indeed, computer based attacks like cyber bullying and pornography leads to trauma and unpleasant psychological effects to the attacked people. To this effect, various victims of cyber bullying express the weight of their misfortunes given that their acquired torture emanates from faceless people (Yar 2013). Furthermore, from another survey, most people seemed to come to a conclusion that in future, most of the malicious cyber activities would eventually gradually progress to actual tangible acts of crime and terror attacks (Engdahl, 2010). At this point, people argued that rampant computer based attacks to individuals or other organization in the society would ultimately compel the perpetrators to administer physical attacks to their victims. Likewise, another social impact of cyber-attacks is that they retard societal growth and productivity due to the loss of vital data as well as misuse of other people’s crucial information (Townsend 2005).
Fundamentally, the said types of crimes tend to be rampant in the contemporary societies worldwide, given the wide array of inventions and innovations on technology. Various societal frameworks like education and health embed a number of technological forms such as the internet, cell applications, and overall conversancy technology. For instance, a study conducted in 2016 showed that approximately 3 billion individuals, which amounts to about 40% of the global statistics, accessed internet services during that year alone (Stalans and Finn, 2016). Stalans and Finn (2016) have it that most families, an estimated 80%, in France, Germany, Canada, America, and the UK use internet services from the comfort of their homes. Similarly, in a single day research carried out in the fall of 2015 on Middle East and Latin American, Asian and African populations postulated that more than half, 40% and almost a quarter of the said people respectively used the internet (Stalans and Finn, 2016). Therefore, this kind of easy accessibility, effectiveness, and proficiency of the internet as well as other technologies associated with attaining information ends up stimulating the growth and progression of criminal and deviant behaviors like cybercrimes. Besides, previous types of fraudulent behaviors like misappropriations, chicaneries, and tormenting others tend to take new forms and shapes in World Wide Web and information telecommunications (Engdahl, 2010; Yar, 2013). Hence, all the stated reasons tend to bring out the implications of the technological age on both criminal and deviant behavior.
However, various bodies like children supporters, political leaders, and agents in charge of regulating enforcements, parents and other governmental bodies use various approaches to police the internet in a bid to avert cybercrimes and organized and transnational felonies (Small & Taylor 2006). Some of the said methods include the introduction of restrictive strategies and schedules to manage social media sites, tracking all financial transactions in order to detect any embezzlement of funds, and inculcating public sanctions into establishments (Yar, 2013). In addition, the said approaches also include the introduction of policies advocating for taxations, use of exotic strategies to address crimes, involving the services of governmental intelligence bureaus. Besides, to enhance the said approaches, it is also equally important for the involved parties to join forces to meet the chief objective (Small & Taylor 2006). As such, multidisciplinary teams comprised of internal law enforcement firms, transnational bureaus in charge of enforcing laws, regular police, other enforcement organizations dealing with criminal surveillance help in policing the internet (Small & Taylor 2006).
The above methods and techniques used to control cybercrimes tend to be extremely important with the increasing usage of computer services such as emails and cell phones to transmit crucial data (Townsend 2005). This is because, the said approaches not only help in averting the dire consequences resulting from malicious cyber activities but also aid in the apprehension of the perpetrators of such wrong doings. As Engdahl (2010) explains, the responses made by the individuals and agencies in charge of criminal justice tends to be overwhelming. One of such cases is when Ahmedabad, a branch of cyber felonies, incarcerated an individual originating from Shirdi with the charges of attempted swindling of an amount of Rs.73, 41,000, from a given business entity (Cyber Crime Cases Registered in India 2011). Upon suspecting of a fraudulent activity, the company officials alerted the police who in turn followed up and finally took the criminal into custody. The government of India also issued a directive leading to the closure of around 857 pornographic sites as a control towards cyber pornography (Cyber Crime Cases Registered in India, 2011). Thus, the government’s point of view was to discontinue the viewing of pornographic materials in public areas.
Therefore, going by the various illustrations provided in the essay, it is indeed evident that identity thefts and intellectual property thefts are two key areas affecting nations both economically and socially. Likewise, the amelioration of computer networks and improved forms of technology as well as easy accessibility to the said sites also stimulates an array of crimes and deviant behaviors as clearly brought out in the essay. Nevertheless, as shown in the paper, there is an active control and response team to malevolent cyber activities which seek to serve justice to the affected individuals and companies. Even though some of the consequences of such crimes tend to be dire as depicted earlier, the stated teams in charge of criminal justice oversee the apprehension of cybercrime offenders. As such, as shown through the various statistics and case studies, it would be correct to stipulate that there is an increase of cybercrimes but with a vigilant response and control team, then it will be easier to curb the stated wrong doings.
Bibliography
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