technological crime

Technological crime

A crime where the offence is committed using the Internet or other technologies

Examples of technological crime

Financial crime (phishing emails)

Cyber trespass (hacking)

Identity theft

Hate crime crimes

Illegal illegally downloading music or films

Publishing or viewing child pornography

Typical offenders

Anyone with access to the Internet many are based over overseas with technical abilities

Young people commit committing this crime are on the increase

Typical victims

Anyone who uses the Internet – vulnerable groups like the elderly are more likely to be caught out

Owners of publishing rights (EG to music films books etc) Maybe victims of Internet privacy and breach of copyright

Level of public awareness

Dependent on the type of crime.

Trolling for example is obvious but cyber fraud and identity theft may not be discovered for sometime

The media will be interested in technological crimes such as child pornography but less interested in identity theft unless on a mass scale such as government data breach or if the victim is a celebrity

Technological crime (deviant/criminal?)

Some crimes are seen as deviant and criminal as they are against the law and go against norms.

Other crimes are criminal because they are against the law but are not seen as deviant because many people commit them e.g. illegal streaming of music or film

Real examples of technological crime

Data breaches experienced by Facebook and HMRC are examples of technological crime