In today’s cyber world in which everyone is dependent on computers and Internet cybercrime is a growing concern since it costs individuals and companies billions of dollars each year. This paper is researching the awareness of people regarding cybercrime and its effects. It is being researched because the awareness itself and the knowledge on the matter are requirements for stopping cybercrime, considering the effects of no action.
Research showed that although the majority is aware of the dangers that cybercrime poses they are mostly not willing to do much, except the basic steps, to protect themselves from it. They are leaving the door open for cybercriminals to step in. Introduction This project focuses on the dangers of cybercrime and the awareness and knowledge of individuals regarding it. In addition to finding out how much and what people know about cybercrime raw data regarding cybercrime subtypes is presented. Cybercrime
Cybercrime is most commonly defined as crime in which computers and Internet are used for illegal activities such as fraud, trafficking, stealing of identities, violating privacy and many others (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).
Due to the widespread use of computers and Internet in today’s society, cybercrime has become largest growing type of criminal activity around the world (British Broadcasting Corporation, n. d. ).
According to the Computer Crime Research Center (2004) cybercrime is most commonly divided into three categories (a) cybercrime against persons, (b) cybercrime against property or (c) cybercrime against government.
Research Paper Internet Students Easier
The internet is a great invention because it makes things a great deal easier for us nowadays. It is also helpful in many ways, especially, in the way of convenience. Rather than go somewhere to pay your bills, you can just do it online with a credit card. You can also check your bank statements and find out where you stand financially. These are example of good ways that the internet helps out in ...
First type of cybercrime, the one done to people consists of crimes such as different kinds of harassments, child pornography distribution, basically everything done to people with the use of computers and Internet (Parishat, 2004).
One of many examples of cybercrime against persons was the famous “Melissa Virus” (CERT, 1999) which attacked over 1 million computers in the United States and Europe through Microsoft Word program. Melissa was engineered as a macro virus that attacks Microsoft Word 97 and 2000 and Microsoft Outlook and then sending the virus to other people through the outlook address book (tech target, 2011).
Furthermore, it has the possibility to cripple mailing systems of corporations as it did with Microsoft. Second type of cybercrime named above is the one against any and all types of property (Parishat, 2004).
Furthermore, property cybercrime is most often the destruction of other people’s property either through damaging programs or through acts of vandalism, sabotage and industrial espionage. Third and the last category are crimes towards government (Parishat, 2004).
According to Parishat, Internet is often used to wage threats towards governments and citizens.
Furthermore, most common type of cybercrime against government is hacking government or military websites. Types of cybercrime acts will be explained in more detail in the following pages. Spam. Usual definition of spam (iskon, n. d. ) would be that it is an unwanted and unasked electronic mail, which is usually sent to large number of recipients. Increasing numbers of internet users report spam problems on their email accounts, which is why more and more online internet providers offer protection against spam in form of spam filters and various features that can block unwanted mail (Spamlaws, 2009).
Spam is so annoying that a survey in Australia showed that spam mail is on 15th place of things that annoy Australians the most (Anonymous, 2010).
A study conducted by joint forces of University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Diego show that spammers can earn millions of dollars per year just by sending spam mail (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2008).
The Term Paper on Anti Spam 2003 Mail Federal
SPAM: What Are The Costs To Businesses? What Legal Defenses Exist? spam (sp m) n. Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail. (web) The Cost To Businesses: Spam will cost U. S. organizations more than $10 billion this year, according to Ferris Research Inc. , a San Francisco consulting group (Krim, ...
Moreover, they concluded that although spammers receive answer on approximately every 12th million mail they send they still earn a significant amount depending on the size of their spam network.
Spam has risen to such levels that individuals now pose as companies and send out spam mail that can damage the company’s reputation (HT Media, 2010).
Most spam mail is just advertising and as such is harmless, but some spam messages are part of more severe internet frauds such as identity theft or any other common internet fraud (Microsoft, n. d. ) File sharing and piracy. The word piracy has greatly changed its meaning compared to what it used to stand for in the past.
Today when we say piracy we do not mean on pirates who attack other ships and settlements, rather we think of people who are duplicating the work of others and selling it for their personal gain without the permission of the owner (The Indian Music Industry, 2010).
Companies and governments are trying to fight the piracy by encouraging consumers to use legal means of acquisition of movies, music and other work typically targeted by pirates (Pichevin, 2010).
Moreover, they are implementing laws that are supposed to prevent piracy, but people have started taking piracy for granted and do not hesitate to do it on daily basis thinking it is not a crime, and this costing the industry millions of dollars. Internet fraud. According to Australian Federal Police, “the term ‘online fraud’ refers to any type of fraud scheme that uses email, websites, chat rooms or message boards to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions” (Australian Federal Police, 2010).
In today’s time of computers and internet many scams are circling the World Wide Web (National Fraud Information Ceneter, n. d. ).
Moreover, old phone and mail frauds that used to circle the world are doing the same again, but this time on the internet, and to such extent that it is becoming hard to tell the difference between genuine online sellers and scammers, who just want to take our money. Child pornography. One of the first applications of the internet that strived for profit was pornography (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).
The Term Paper on Identity Theft 2
Identity theft is a major crime that happens to millions of people every year. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months and years trying to clean up the mess the thieves have made of a good name and credit record. There are many different types of identity theft and ways to deal with it. Identity theft is very serious and stolen identities are used to commit many other crimes. ...
Although legal, pornography has a criminal element to its name and that is child pornography. That element has grown to such extent that experts say it has became a business that earns around 3 billion dollars a year. Also as such child pornography is hard to track on the internet due to the fact that there are still many countries with inadequate cybercrime laws in place. Providers of child pornography use the internet to sell it to pedophiles, who in addition of buying child pornography also use the internet to lure children into ngaging in illegal sexual activities (Law Library, 2010).
Moreover, one of the difficulties in stopping child pornography is that it is done over the internet, meaning it is on global scale, and law enforcement officials all around the world have to cooperate in stopping the offenders. Hacking. In the early days of the internet hacking was no more than a practical joke, but today hacking has completely other meaning and it is considered a severe transgression of the law (British Broadcasting Corporation, n. d. ).
Furthermore, hackers today prove their worth and skills to other hackers by attacking computer systems of big multinational corporations and even governments. Moreover, they plant their viruses which can then cause severe damage, for example the “love-bug” virus which hit over forty million computers in the world and managed to cause billions of dollars in damages. Today hackers often compromise computer systems of banks and other business in order to steal money or some valuable information which they can later sell on the black market (British Broadcasting Corporation, n. . ).
Furthermore, in a survey taken by the Computer Security Institute 90% of companies in the survey said that they have experienced security breaches in their systems in the last year, while 74% claimed to lose money because of these security breaches. The total bill was over 260 millions of dollars. Moreover, almost 80% of the companies know that their employees tend to exploit the internet for personal gain, during their working hours, and approximately the same percentage of companies has detected signs of viruses in their systems I the last year.
Today there are even websites where people can learn how to become a hacker and improve their hacking skills (hackthissite. org, 2010).
The Research paper on Identity Theft Information Security 2003
Introduction There is currently a huge growing number of criminals that now do greater and more widespread damage to their victims without ever meeting them. Identity theft surfaced in the early 1990 s and turned peoples everyday transactions into a data gathering game. Bits of personal information such as bankcards, credit card accounts, income, social security numbers or just someone name, ...
Identity theft. Probably the most famous type of cybercrime is the identity theft or the theft of personal information of people (techterms, 2011).
Identity theft doesn’t only refer to theft over internet, but on any type of illegal obtaining of personal data (department of justice, n. d. ).
There are two ways of gathering information over the internet and they are phishing and pharming (techterms, 2011).
Phishing is a type of internet fraud in which fake emails are used to gather information. Furthermore, it is important to say that people fall on this kind of scams because they appear to be legitimate and from legitimate websites. While phishing lures users to fake sites, pharming redirects internet users to fake websites without their knowledge. Moreover, unlike phishing pharming has the possibility to hit more users at the same time. Furthermore, when users are redirected to fake websites either by phishing or pharming they are asked for their personal information which criminals can use to steal their identity.
Through identity theft criminals can severely damage people whose identity they have taken (department of justice, n. d. ).
Furthermore, they do financial damage through credit card debt, loans, etc. in addition to the reputation of the victims that suffers as well. It is important to mention that first offenders who ruined many lives usually walked free due to lack of laws against identity theft. First laws against identity theft were not made until 1998. According to Federal Trade Commission approximately 9 million Americans become victims of identity theft, and that is just on yearly basis (Federal Trade Commission, n. . ) Intellectual property. According to World Intellectual Property Organization (n. d. ) intellectual property is work of mind including literary and art work, different inventions, names, symbols images and designs. According to Law Library America (2010) intellectual property theft is a theft of copyrighted materials and other company’s trade secrets. Most common intellectual properties that are stolen online are software, movies and music, and games. Furthermore, trade secrets such as plans, designs, different kind of policies and procedures, even recopies are also stolen.
The Essay on Von Storch Information Computer Internet
Is Your Information Safe? He doesn't wear a stocking mask over his face, and he doesn't break a window to get into your house. He doesn't hold a gun to your head, nor does he ransack your personal possessions. Just the same he's a thief. Although this thief is one you " ll not only never see, but you may not even realize right away that he's robbed you. The thief is a computer hacker and he ' ...
Moreover, companies or individuals counterfeit brands of products and sell them as the real deal which they are not. Intellectual property theft can affect the entire economy, because hackers and pirates contribute to losses of millions of dollars. Furthermore, with appearance of computers intellectual property theft has become easier than ever since companies have everything on computer files which are easy to break in. Moreover, pirated secrets are sold to other companies that use them to stay in the race or to get insight on how their competition operates etc. dditionally article states that that intellectual property criminals have very low cost of operation due to the fact they do not make any sales in person, they don’t have to travel anywhere outside their homes and their profits are rather high. According to Mills (2009) theft of information and other cybercrimes have cost businesses on global level around $1 trillion just in last year. Furthermore, she claims that business in developing countries and third world countries spend more money on protecting their intellectual property then western countries do.
Industrial espionage. Industrial espionage appeared as a by-product of the fast technological progress, it reflects the attempts of businesses to acquire secrets of the trade from their competition and use it for their personal gain (Encyclopedia Britannica, n. d. ) Moreover, industrial espionage is not always as dramatic as it sounds; it can be as simple as checking prices of competition. Furthermore, trade secrets could e exposed through disgruntle employees who might seek revenge against their company and give away sensible information to its competitors.
In addition some employees are lured by other companies with promises of better salary and work conditions just so that employee gives them secrets of their competition. A very recent example of industrial espionage happened in Renault, where their project with Nissan in developing a battery-powered car was involved in industrial espionage affair (Haase, 2011).
Furthermore, the article states that top Renault managers might be involved in the case, but Renault is still unsure as to who might had breached their security protocols and gained access to the information.
The Research paper on Internet marketing 7
Computers and the Internet are becoming faster and capable of new and exciting things every day. Through this evolution, businesses have begun to reach out to consumers in new, unprecedented ways. With the amazing growth of users of the Internet, and the enormous growth that is expected to continue, businesses are aware that there is tremendous potential to provide and promote products and ...
Another example of industrial espionage, but on more global level, is the WikiLeaks, who published great number of secret documents on the Afghan and Iraq war to the general public (Greenberg, 2010) Furthermore, that breach of secret information is the biggest one in military history and according to the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange it is just the beginning. Moreover, he claims that he possess a trove of yet to be published documents about private sector in the US that could bring down major US bank.
However, he says that this information will be published in 2011 upon gathering more information, so it remains to be seen what will happen. According to Smole (2004) industrial espionage is becoming easier with technological progress. It is relatively easy to listen in and record someone’s mobile phone records; all you need to do is switch phone batteries. Furthermore, technology is so advanced today that eavesdropping and theft are growing problem for companies today. Further in the article it is stated that 60% of members of the Institute of Directors (IOD) have been victims of theft.
Every medal has two sides, so does this one, it provides handful of opportunities for security companies to step in and offer their services in protecting other companies. According to Smole’s article listening devices were found at around 5% of companies, in UK, that seek protection and security checks. Moreover, another commercial advantage of industrial espionage is that in the UK alone ? 10milion worth of listening devices has been sold, so that is nice business for companies selling those devices. It is important to add that nowadays information is vital to success on the market and brings companies needed edge over competition.
However, article also states that there are even some partially legal companies in the business of providing espionage services for other companies. Companies who manage to discover that their confidential information has been compromised usually take legal efforts to stop further loss of trade secrets (Encyclopedia Britannica, n. d. ).
Furthermore, law regulated consequences for companies responsible of industrial espionage range from injunctions for use of knowledge acquired through illegal ways to fining for damages, depending on the severances of the crime.
Today industrial espionage is so widespread it is not just in the movies we watch, but it is a real threat to ethics of business (Smale, 2004).
According to Symantec Company (2010), one of the leading world companies in protection against cybercrime, around two thirds of Internet users in the world have been victims of cybercrime. Furthermore, they claim that majority of people who become victims of cybercrime blame themselves for becoming victims of such act. Moreover, majority of victims state that they do not plan on changing their behavior and large portion never even reports the crime to the authorities.
Researching awareness is very important, because awareness directly influences prevention of cybercrime. Methods Primary research part of this project consists of a survey, which was administrated online with the use of survey monkey an online survey tool. According to Trochim (2006) survey is one of the most valuable research methods. In this case survey was chosen due to time constraints and the fact it can give the needed information from greater number of respondents. Survey targeted all ACMT students and faculty total of them 500, of which ne hundred responded to the survey. Respondents were all literate and educated enough, with no language barrier and surprisingly cooperative. The survey was created on January 21, 2011 and it consisted of sixteen closed-ended questions that would take no more than five minutes to answer. Goal behind such short survey was for the respondents not to lose interest towards the end and answer all questions. Survey was designed to test the general knowledge and awareness of the audience. A sample of the self-administrated online survey can be seen in Appendix B.
Survey Questions Question 1. Please identify your gender. This first question was posed in order to gather background information about the sample audience, to see what percentages of respondents were male and what percentage were female. Question 2. Please select your age group. This question also served to gather additional data about the sample audience, to see what percentages of respondents belong to which of the four offered age groups. Question 3. How much time do you spend in front of a computer on daily basis?
This question was designed to see how much time respondents spend in front of their computers in order to investigate if there are any connections between the amount of time spent in such manner and knowledge about cybercrime issues. Question 4. For what purposes do you use computers and Internet? This question was designed to see for what purposes respondents use computers and the Internet, is it purely for business and education or they use it for personal purposes as well. Question 5. Do you use Internet for any of the following?
This question is closely related to the previous question. It was designed to check for exactly what personal or business purposes the sample audience uses Internet. From the data gathered it was possible to draw conclusions on how advanced is their usage of Internet possibilities and do they use it to full potential or just capture small portion of its possibilities. Question 6. Have you ever experienced problems with any of the following? This question was designed to see with what kind of Internet attacks respondents most often suffer from.
Whether they are from viruses, spyware or hackers themselves. Question 7. What types of cybercrime can you name? This was the only question that was open-ended, but the respondents were required to name only cybercrime types they know. Regrettably the survey tool used is such that it is possible for respondents to skip questions and this question might be skipped by some. Question 8. Do you feel that you are protected enough against cybercrime? This question was designed to detect the general level of protection of respondents against cybercrime.
To test if they feel vulnerable against cybercrime or they think they are protected enough against it. Question 9. Do you use any program to protect your Internet browsing? This question was posed to see if the sample audience is aware of the Internet threats and use programs specifically designed to protect them while they are online. It doesn’t test what program exactly they use but it just tests the general usage of such programs that protect its users from unwanted viruses and spyware. Question 10. Has your PC ever been infected by a virus that damaged its components or stored data?
This question is somewhat connected to the previous question. It was designed to test if the sample audience ever came under attack from viruses that damaged their computers hardware or software and corrupted data. It does not measure what was damaged in the process or excess of the damages, just the occurrence of the attack; did it ever happen or not. Question 11. Have you ever been a victim of identity theft? This question was designed to see if any of the sample audience has ever been a victim of an identity theft fraud.
It does not test the severity of the fraud or its depth and damages to the respondent only the occurrence of such action. Question 12. Do you know anyone who suffered from identity theft? This question completes the previous one; it provides additional information about identity theft. It was presumed that only few respondents suffered from identity theft I used this additional question to gather more information. Reasoning behind this was that some of the respondents at least know someone who suffered from identity theft. Question 13. Have you ever downloaded any material from the Internet without paying for it?
This question was used as a control question, posed in order to check validity of answers to other related items. Reasoning was that everyone has at some point in time downloaded something from the Internet without paying for it, especially in this time when downloading torrents are all present. Question 14. Have you ever felt that your computer has been hacked? Hacking is one of more serious types of cybercrimes and it causes billions of dollars in damages each year. This question serves the purpose of gathering information on hacking attacks on any of the respondents in the survey.
Although it is highly probable that a lot of the answers will be negative, since hackers rarely attack individuals due to low profit possibilities, it is possible to get relevant feedback from the data gathered Question 15. Have you ever sent spam mail? This item is a pretty straightforward question regarding spam mail. It was designed to test if anyone from sample audience sent some spam mail, e. g. if they forward popular junk mail on social networks, company mails etc. Question 16. Have you ever stolen someone else’s work? (Intellectual property)
This question was posed as another control question, to check validity of answers to other related items. Did they ever steal someone else’s work, or take credit for something they did not do. Results Due to the limitations of the online tool used for the survey only one hundred people could respond to the internet survey. The survey was available online from January 21, 2011 until the February 3, 2011. This means that about 20% of all ACMT students and faculty responded to the online survey. Only ACMT members and staff had the opportunity to take part in the survey.
For questions consult the Methods part of this project. Graphical representation of the results can be seen in Figures 1 through 15. Survey Results Response to question 1. Data gathered by the first item shows that 59 respondents or 59 % of the respondents were female and 41 respondents or 41% of the respondents were male. It needs to be noted that one must assume, when gathering the data by an internet-administered survey, that none of the respondents would feel the need to misrepresent themselves since they were given the option to remain completely anonymous.
Response to question 2. As was to be expected, due to the fact that most of the population was consisted of students attending ACMT 83 people or 83% of respondents answered that they are between ages of 18 to 25. On the same question nine other people or 9% of respondents answered that they are between ages of 26 to 35, additionally four people or 4% of respondents answered that they are between ages of 36 to 45. Last four respondents or 4% of respondents answered that they are between ages of 46 to 70. Response to question 3.
On this question none of the respondents answered that they spend less than 30 minutes on their computers on daily basis. On the other hand five people or 5% of respondents said that they spend somewhere between 30 and 59 minutes on their computers on daily basis; 22 people or 22% of respondents said that they spend one to two hours in front of their computers on daily basis. Majority of respondents or 37 of them or 37% of respondents claims that they spend somewhere between two to four hours on their computers on daily basis.
Large portion of respondents or 36 of them or 36% of total sample audience answered that they spend more than four hours in front of their computers on daily basis. Response to question 4. When answering this question three respondents or 3% of respondents claimed that they use Internet only for personal purposes; five of them or 5% of respondents answered that they use Internet for business and educational purposes. Majority of respondents 92 of them or 92% of respondents say that they use Internet for both personal and business/education purposes.
Response to question 5. On this multiple choice question 38 respondents or 38 % of respondents answered that online banking is one of the things they use Internet for; 40 respondents or 40% of respondents answered that they use Internet for online shopping. Almost all of them or 98 or more precisely 98% of respondents use Internet for research and information gathering. E-mailing is another thing for which 98 people from the survey or 98% of respondents uses Internet for; 65 respondents or 65% of sample audience claim that they use Internet for work.
This question also had the option “other” providing the respondents with the possibility to write down additional things that they use the Internet for, which were not available among the offered options. Response to question 6. This was also a multiple choice question on which 95 people or 95% of respondents answered that they had problems with viruses; on the same question 53 people or 53% of respondents answered that they had problems with spyware. Only 20 people or 20% of respondents answered that they had problems with hackers. Response to question 7.
This open-ended question offered a possibility for the respondents to name any of the cybercrime types they know or heard of. Some of the examples they named were spam, identity theft, hacking, data theft, piracy, financial fraud, child pornography, credit card frauds etc. Some people, not few of them, listed Trojan as cybercrime which is just a type of virus. Response to question 8. The data gathered shows that only 33 respondents or 33% of the sample feels protected enough against cybercrime. Majority of the respondents, 67 or 67% don’t feel protected enough against cybercrime.
Response to question 9. Majority of respondents 83 of them or 83% of total sample respondents answered that they use some kind of a program to protect them while they browse the Internet. Much smaller number or only 17 of them or 17% of total sample respondents don’t use any program to protect their Internet browsing and thus are exposed to cybercrime. Response to question 10. The data gathered shows that 66 respondents or 66% of the sample stated that they have experienced a virus that either damaged their computer’s components or data stored on it.
On the other hand 34 people or 34% of the sample audience claims that they never experienced situation such as that. Response to question 11. Only six people or 6% of the sample responded positively on this question and answered that they have been victim of some sort of identity theft. Majority of people 94 of them or 94% of the sample have never been victims of identity theft. Response to question 12. Data gathered shows that 50 respondents or 50% of the sample said that they know someone who has been a victim of identity theft. Same number of respondents answered that they didn’t know anyone who has been a victim of identity theft.
Response to question 13. A vast majority of respondents 94 of them or 94% of the sample audience responded positively and said that they have downloaded materials from Internet without paying for it. Only small portion of six people or 6% of respondents said that they have never downloaded any material from the Internet without paying for it. Response to question 14. In this question 31 people or 31% of respondents said that they have felt hacked at some point in time; 69 people or 69% of respondents said that they have never felt hacked before.
Response to question 15. Only 16 people or 16% of respondents answered that they have sent spam mail at some point in time. Majority of respondents 84 of them or 84% of respondents answered that they have never sent any spam mail. Response to question 16. On this question 12 people or 12% of all respondents answered positively and admitted of stealing someone else’s work. Majority of respondents 88 of them or 88% of respondents said that they have never stolen someone else’s work. Discussion
The goal behind the research was to test the hypothesis that most of the people, although they spend a great deal of time on their computers, are not aware of the dangers of cybercrime which often makes them victims and offenders as well when they download material. Research was conducted on sample group consisting of students, faculty and staff members at ACMT. Data gathered through survey administration confirmed the thesis based on literature review, that public is not aware of all the dangers that cybercrime poses and the general lack of effort in dealing with it.
Research conducted proved that in academic settings people are bound to spend more and more time on the Internet, often unaware of the dangers. Majority of respondents, while using the Internet for either personal or business needs, have at some point in time, encountered viruses or spyware that attacked their computer and put their data at risk. Whether they know any specific details of those cybercrimes or not, the survey did not test, rather it tested only if the sample audience is familiar with any cybercrime type. They could have experienced some of those cybercrimes on their own skin or just hear about them somewhere.
To test their specific knowledge on each cybercrime subgroup more time was need and possibly another primary research type such as and in depth interview which could give more data but would also take much more time to answer, which was not possible with current time constraints. Even though one could doubt the depth of their knowledge of cybercrime issues, based on the survey results analysis, they obviously are aware of the fact that is stressed throughout professional literature reviewed for the purposes of this project, the fact that there is no program r measure that could completely protect against all types of cybercrime. Only thing that might protect us is raising awareness about cybercrime and the ways it works and the prevention strategies. To inform people about scams cybercriminals use, to help companies defend their data and accounts from intrusions, whether they are from an outside or an inside source. As it was previously mentioned one way to help protect your data and Internet browsing are antivirus and antispyware programs. Those programs detect intrusions in the system and block or delete them and report back to the user.
As research showed many individuals and companies use not only those programs but also seek additional ways of protection in form of firewalls etc. Firewalls in big companies are commonly built by IT experts who design the whole systems for companies trying to make the system unbreakable for all kind of intrusions, since today everything is stored on company servers. This is additionally confirmed by survey results – even though more than 50% of respondents claimed to have antivirus protection their computer was attacked by viruses that corrupted their data.
Like mentioned before cybercrime has far worse aspects to it than just viruses and spyware. Some types of cybercrime such as identity theft can completely ruin lives of individuals and all around them. People can get completely ruined by it. Someone else passing as you is always terrible, let alone when that person has all of your personal information from social security number to access to all of your bank accounts etc. Luckily survey results showed that it is a rare occurrence in the academic settings in this part of the world, but one should be aware of the problems faced by people elsewhere.
Increasing number of people is getting targeted by cybercriminals who are trying to steal their identities for their financial gain. Still, in analyzing survey results, it is quite important to stress possible factors that might influence the response rates, e. g. without knowing the extent of their knowledge on what identity theft is, there are two possible ways to interpret the low number of affirmative answers. On the one hand, it might be interpreted by the lack of knowledge of all the subcategories concerned, on the other it might simply be the fact that the target audience has not encountered with identity theft.
As stated in the research many people today tend to use internet to download data without paying for it. Research shows that industries such as movie or music industry are losing millions of dollars because of illegal downloads of their products from torrents which do not pay royalties to authors for usage of their material (Pichevin, 2010).
Vast majority of respondents to the survey said that they tend to download material from the internet without paying for it. Like in every question so in this one there is a margin for error.
Respondents might have thought that this question relates to any material they download from the internet so that fact might influenced on such majority of affirmative answers. On the other hand this is Croatia where laws against piracy exist, but implementation of such is difficult so people feel free to download material from the internet without being afraid of any legal action or consequence (Ministry of Economy, Labor and entrepreneurship, 2009).
Another subtype of cybercrime in which cybercriminals get into is intellectual property theft. From companies coping brands to individuals taking credit for something that is not their own work.
As stated in research intellectual property theft has cost companies around the world around $1 trillion in 2008 a number that is growing with each coming year. Research showed that very small percentage of the sample audience admits committing identity theft. That fact might be due to some irrational fear of being made, which is absurd since it is an anonymous survey with no names. Also they might have misunderstood the question, or are not sure in what exactly falls under the category of intellectual property. Academic dishonesty, which is monitored and punished, is another view of intellectual property that ACMT has.
Maybe the procedure implemented in academic honesty policy on ACMT influenced the answers given by the survey population. Examining the results of the online survey showed that the respondents, ACMT students and staff, are, to some extent, aware of the dangers of cybercrime. Although the sample audience that responded to the survey might not all be IT experts, although some might, or legal advisors for that matter they have showed an understanding of cybercrime. The background of their knowledge is unknown and untested, but nonetheless it’s there.
Whether it is due to their high education or self education on the matter through the internet they have shown they know a thing or two about cybercrime. Although they show some knowledge about cybercrime it is superficial and that they do not completely comprehend the dangers and some of them as research showed think they are untouchable by cybercrime. Research states that general public needs to be more educated on the matter to create awareness and thus increase the level of protection. Education is especially important in business/educational surroundings.
