Cybercrime Threats in the Digital Age: Identity Theft and Cyber Terrorism

Abstract

Module 5 Discussion: Crimes of the New Millennium Technology advancement exposes people into a variety of positive and negative effects. Computer technology is among the areas that has reported advanced developmental changes especially with the new millennium. However, as much as computer technology reports advancement, so does the level of computer-related crimes “cybercrimes” that continue to expose many into negative effects ranging from psychological to physical. There are a variety of cybercrime cases. However identity theft and cyber terrorism are among the worst-case scenarios one can think of while analyzing cybercrime. Identity theft is a type of cybercrime that involves the use of another person’s personal indentifying information to commit crime while impersonating them. Identity theft invades the victim’s privacy whereby the identity thief gains or try to gain access to their victim’s personals information including the victims name, address, and phone number, place of employment, credit card information, bank accounts and social security number among others without permission with the sole motive of engaging in crime (Gupta & Kumar, 2020). Most identity thieves take advantage of the data breaches that exposes victim passwords among other sensitive data through hacking. Unfortunately, such unpermitted access leads these thieves into accessing sensitive personal information that enhances their impersonation potentials while committing frauds among others crimes that may involve physical to psychological injuries of their targets. Any person or organisation affected by the stolen information becomes an active victim of identity theft. However, the elderly are at a high risk of identity theft targets as the identity thieves assumes these victims lacks technological sophistication that easier to nail down and get even the most sensitive information without any suspense of an illegal motive. There are profound consequences of identity theft ranging from wiping out of victims bank accounts, credit...