Solutions to Prevent Cybercrime

Cybercrime is an industry which different persons use to exploit an individual or an organization for financial purposes or political or social favors. Before considering the detailed meaning of cybercrime and the solutions to prevent cybercrimes, it is important to know the first notorious act of cybercrime.

The first act of cybercrime which is regarded to date is identified as Guerrilla Terrorists in Sri Lanka, in the year 1998. The terrorist behind this crime is known as the Tamil Tigers.

What they did for simple. Complex actually. They exploited the email form of cybercrime and texted the Sri Lankan embassies 800 times a day perpetually for 2 weeks. That’s in total, 11,200 mail which reads: “We are the Internet Black Tigers, and we’re doing this to disrupt your communications.”

Not alone will this keep the embassy guys busy, it will delay progress in their channel of work.

The solutions to prevent cybercrime are quite numerous but there are a few preventive measures that will proof-primarily to personal security. However, before establishing the solutions to cybercrime, the meaning of cybercrime must be known.

Cybercrime is a means of exploiting the internet for executing violent acts that could either threaten, cause mental harm or eventually lead to the loss of the life of a target. Further, this form of crime is used to achieve political gains via intimidation or to gain financial favors through the payment of ransoms.

It should be added that cybercrime and terrorism is a wild threat to both organizations and individuals in the United States at the moment. At this, since the world has gone digital, every form of the everyday internet has been compromised in such that people need to protect themselves consciously while accessing (even) social media profiles.

Cybercrimes consist of the following but are not limited to:

Phishing: this is a form of attack which includes the spiting and malicious act of creating a false web address in order to send mails to different persons with the intention of acquiring personal sensitive information. This could be done to both private and public organizations and individuals.

Ransomware: This is probably the most common. This form of cybercrime involves infecting a system maliciously usually to get hold of the data saved on software with the aim of requesting financial favor as ransom before restoration of access to such organization or individual. In the virtual world, it’s like kidnapping someones and asking for a ransom before releasing such a victim.

Scanning: This is mostly done for high tech companies. It evolves around searching and testing the vulnerable parts of a system or internet network with the aim of attack such a system, thereby corrupting the files.

Through these different means, cybercrime terrorists primarily use the internet for crimes such as security breaches or theft, identity theft, revenge, blackmail, harassment or bullying. It could even be done for child sexual exploitation purposes.

Terrorists also collaborate through the use of the internet. They form a church. They practically move their terrorist act to the cybersphere for illegal purposes.

At this stage, clarity must be given to the fact that the internet is built on national as well as international communication structures. This involves landlines of public phones, wireless systems, satellite communications and different other mechanisms the cybersphere explores for both communication and internet services.

With this new development in the world, especially in America, this cybercrime industry is now as big as illegal drug trafficking for personal financial gains. And with the world which has become a global village due to digitalization, people need to consciously protect themselves at the risk of being cyber terrorists which involve hackers, organized hacker syndicates, criminal goons, individual and public actors.

Solutions to prevent cybercrimes

One of the main solutions to preventing cybercrime is to create a strong password for media accounts. It should be known that through social media, important information may be exploited for any terrorist use in either blackmail or identity theft.

Hence, creating strong passwords with at least, 10 symbols: letters or figures could protect your account and keep you safe. The creation and use of such unique passwords will be a hard nut to crack for hackers who want to bring you down through the internet.

Activate multi-factor authentication to your accounts. In some cases, websites request for multifactor authentication to guarantee that the owner of the address is trying a login.

For some websites like email most especially, multi-factor authentication is often requested. Factors like strong and unique characters for the password, face recognition of fingerprint recognition. These could prove very useful and safe for your accounts which include your bank, credit cards or mobile phone.

Ensure you back up your important files and encrypt them. In an attempt to prepare for a worst-case scenario, it is advised that both individuals and companies back up their important files.

It is also advised that data stored on phones and computers can best be encrypted. This is because a hacker will not be able to apply the same software as it is on your phone with the one on the hacker’s mobile. At this, crucial data are advised to be protected should a security breach is noticed.

Update your software. Updating one’s software on both mobile phones and computers is also essential. This will ensure that security measures to protect your walls from external aggression is curbed by the updates made to some software applications.

Cybercriminals often exploit weaknesses in the protection of software.

Other important ensures to preventing cybercrime or a cybercriminal’s invasion is by using strong networks; be wary, also, of public WiFi, manage your social media preference and the personal data you give out or save on social media boxes.

An important measure is also to create a firewall. This is a security system that monitors to and fro network traffic based on predetermined security rules or threats.

More so, the use of cryptography in intrusion detection is also encouraged and advised by corporate companies and organizations. This will ensure the compartmentalization of a system to allow a limitation of possible damage hence protecting valued assets before irreparable damage occurs to both data and a system.

As cybercrime has remained a notorious threat to both individual, national and State security, the knowledge and the know-how of the internet must be taught in both homes and schools. Everyone is prone to be attacked through the cyberspace. Hence, it is safe for a level of protection from individual and corporate organizations to be employed for primary safety.