High-Tech Crimes - Essay Sample

List and explain the reasons why it is difficult to compare crime rates across different countries. Can we trust China and Russia to give accurate numbers?

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Since its inception, comparative criminology has suffered from inadequate valid international data on criminal justice and crimes. Over the years, different global bodies have made efforts to make sure the problems are alleviated and make sure there is an improvement in the comparison of international crime rates. Comparative analyses dating back to the 19th century involved naïve data collection and the disregard for the attempts to compare the data for testing criminology theories. The rejection hindered the international comparison to a great deal. Criminal justice policies vary and differ significantly all over the world, a situation that goes all the way to deprive the correlation between different countries a fair chance to establish the merits and the demerits of the various criminal justice systems in the world. Lawmakers are also at a loss as they lack were to benchmark to formulate better policies and improve their operations. There have been studies conducted in the past between two countries to compare their crime rates, but the results are insignificant when data for the whole world is required for significant comparisons (Aebi, 2008). Multinational data collections are considered to be more productive instead of two countries' similarities. It is, however, complicated whether to use surveys or data from the police departments.

Data from the United Nations database about reported crimes consists of crimes reported from different countries. Thus it has the same accuracy risks as the way it was reported from the actual sources in the individual states. The problems include deviations from the original report where the data is considered a crime or not because different countries use different definitions. Thus the actual events may not be recorded accurately. The recording of the crime is also subject to errors, which may happen during the process, which may in the form of entry errors, interpretation errors, and aggregation errors, among many others. During the victim's reporting, there may be errors that the victim might make, risking the credibility of the data reported. The above may occur in the events where the victim says the crime which is then recorded by the police; the police record a crime which was not reported by the victim; victim reports a crime, but the police do not record it; crimes happen, and they are not recorded because they were not reported; victims report crimes that did not occur or even the police recording crimes that never happened.

The above challenges make it harder for any attempt to compare the crime rates in different countries globally. The main challenge to the comparison of crime rates is that different countries have different definitions for specific crime types. The recording of crimes depends on how the country's criminal justice system defines that crime and which significantly varies from one country to the next. That makes comparisons difficult. The different reporting levels and the traditions involved in the police forces of different countries also make it difficult to compare the data. The levels are closely related to the stage of development in those countries. They include network connectivity, access to police station centers, and access to telephones. Lastly, the different social, political, and economic contexts of different countries make it harder for comparison. For instance, the cases of rape are reported differently depending on the country's rules, patriarchy, and civilization. Russia and China cannot be trusted to give accurate numbers because of their modes of governing. They are dictatorial regimes where the president has the ultimate power and dictates how things are run in the countries.

Describe the characteristics of hackers and explain the categories of basic typology based on psychological traits. Do they all wear fedoras and live in their mom’s basement like Hollywood portrays?

Highly intelligent, overwhelming curiosity, intellectual abstractions, “neophilic," and appreciative of novelty describe hackers' most common personality traits. They are also said to be anti-conformists and relatively individualistic. The intelligence, however, is not the sine qua non one that is expected of everyone. Another essential trait within the collection of hackers' personalities is the ability to ingest, retain and make references of a large amount of data, which appears to be meaningless at the beginning but later on give the data meaning and context based on their experience. It is a very significant skill in hackers, and lack thereof makes one outdistanced by the material that may be uploaded with in-depth reference materials to the cognitive process. Some people tend to think that hackers are intellectually narrow in which they are mistaken to think so. Hackers are usually interested in a wide range of topics that stimulate the brain. They can engage in different discourses knowledgeably because of having read a lot. Many hackers' ability to do their jobs effectively is also replicated in other outside interests, which they do correctly despite many people's views of a contrary opinion (Bachmann, 2010). Hackers are also controlling freaks and are rarely motivated by conventional rewarding systems like approval from people or monetary rewards and tend to attracted to challenges.

Three main traits mainly characterize hackers: the fact that they are always and most often for non-profit involves diverse fields and are specialized in complex labor division. The fact that they work with global network resources makes it difficult to thwart their cyber-attacks in individual countries. Psychologists say hackers are introverted and like to keep minimal or no social interactions with the outside world. This trait enables them to concentrate on their activities without having to worry about the outside world. They are also initiative driven and like to take matters into their own hands as they love the thrill that comes with new challenges. They are also highly skilled and knowledgeable of human nature, which makes them even more effective in what they do. With that knowledge, they can maintain a low profile and remain anonymous while doing their activities. Most of the hackers due to lack of social interactions because of their introverted tendencies are lonely and therefore have a lot of time in their hands to kill. They are also ambiguous, and one cannot understand them easily.

There are various typologies used to describe people's personality traits, and in this case, hackers. There are cosmologies whose every system of opinions are dependent on material and mental existence and include harmony, orderliness, laws of nature, and the mind. There are also formal typologies, which are singled out based on anatomo-physiological characteristics. Lastly, there are dynamic topologies that are connected to the transformation of people and the consequent change. Hollywood portrays hackers as people always in fedoras and that they live in their mom's basement, which is not the case at all. It is hard identifying hackers as most of them live a low profile life, and they may be the person next door, the quiet kid in class, or the person who serves you coffee at the office.

Do you believe that high-tech crimes will eventually surpass the abilities of enforcement agents to prevent or solve them?
Why? Does law enforcement have the same resources and technology as hackers and even foreign governments that continually attack America, our people, and our companies?

Crimes that are digitally executed with the use of electronic devices with superior technology to perform attacks on computers or a network of computers have been on the increase in the recent past. They range from the hacking of computer networks, use or distribution of data through unauthorized means, and or the spread of computer viruses. High tech criminals used several malware tools ranging from ransomware to phishing and banking Trojans. The malware infiltrates the computer system and may be used to steal data or destroy it in the computer networks. They include adware, which is used to track the user's activity on the computer through pop-ups or banners used for advertising; a backdoor that accesses the computer's system privately and can be used for monitoring actions, taking screenshots, sending files to the attacker and execution of commands. Others include a botnet, which is used to initiate communication between computers and the attacker controlling it from one place, a file infector that infects executable files, ransomware, which bars users from accessing their devices, scareware, spyware, rootkit, Trojan and a worm.

The technological advancements being witnessed in the world now continue to make high-tech crime more advanced daily. High-tech criminals continue to be equipped with modern trends of technology and become lethal in their activities. The activities become more advanced that the government cannot keep up with the pace. Marc Goodman opines that criminal activities are quickly going high-tech, and law enforcement agencies are already struggling to keep up with the same trends. There are increased crime rates, which have become more straightforward as just clicking a link sent to you and gives access to the hacker who then will have all the details to your computer or phone. The migration to computerized systems of everything makes it even easier to hack these devices. The chips installed in modern manufactured machines makes them susceptible to hacking by hackers. Law enforcement cannot keep up with the growing rate of high-tech crimes, as they are not prepared to handle hackers' diversity. The advancement in technology makes it harder, and in the future, it will be hard to control high tech crimes. The only solution is to ask people to stop sharing a lot of information about themselves on the internet and clicking insecure links.

Law enforcement lacks the resources and human resources to deal with hackers, so they will always be behind. In some instances, they end up catching the hackers and intercepting the hacking processes. Still, then thanks to technology, the hackers devise more sophisticated methods to hack their systems again and continue with their crimes. A flourishing cybercrime-as-a-service business model continues to provide criminals with access to several cybercrime methods and techniques. The country can try to protect its cyberspace by seeking ethical hacking services, which must be at the top of their game to make sure they keep up with the new high-tech crimes and always have mitigating processes in place for the attack.

What are the key differences between domestic and international terrorism? Which is more dangerous, and why? Is Antifa a legitimate terrorist organization?

Terrorism is a growing security threat in many parts of the world today. Many terrorist groups continue to use force unlawfully and bring violence and intimidation to mostly civilians to settle political scores. The definition of terrorism is not, however, universally accepted, and it is considered subjective. It is challenging to distinguish terrorism from other forms of violent crime and political violence such as homicide, hate crime, non-state conflict, and state-based armed conflict. The lines that identify the types of terrorism mentioned often appear blurry. Violent acts of crimes are usually categorized according to the perpetrator of the same, the people affected, the reason behind the terrorism, and the method of destruction used.