4 Ridiculous Misconceptions About Cybercrime

 

1. Criminal Websites Can Be Seen By Anyone cybercrime10

The news regularly speaks about authorities shutting down certain criminal organisations on the Internet. It may appear quite simple — simply punch in a criminal search phrase into Google, click enter and arrest everyone who shows up. Unfortunately, most criminals (or at least the clever ones) can’t be located at all on Google. To find them, you need to take a journey into the Deep Web.

The Deep Web itself isn’t an entirely horrible thing. It basically refers to websites you can’t reach directly via a Google search for different reasons. It makes up 90 percent of the Internet, but a lot of it is, say, administrative back end sites. However, this degree of secrecy naturally lends itself to persons who wish to keep their internet activities hush-hush.

Criminal websites on the Deep Web require more than an account and a password. You need a special browser to handle the specialised connections required to view the website, as well as encryption to guarantee that your connection is untraceable. Users may then access online sites such as Silk Road, a website that offers narcotics, firearms and other illicit things. Like the Pirate Bay, police are having a hard time keeping Silk Road down, with replacements cropping up as soon as a previous version is stopped. Unless you absolutely feel the need to purchase meth online, we wouldn’t suggest checking it out.

2. All Contact From Friends Is Safe cybercrime9

Some old advice that passed around the early days of the Internet was simply not to trust any communications that originated from someone that you don’t know. Anyone you do know was 100 percent trustworthy, and it was acceptable to click whatever they gave you. But thieves have learned to utilise this bit of advice for their own advantage. Knowing that a random stranger sending a link would be instantly banned, many have moved to hijacking accounts and using them to contact their friends and relatives with a link or a file to download. Given that it’s from a friend, it has to be trustworthy — and that’s when the virus hijacks their account too.

One virus takes over a Facebook account and sends a message to the account’s friends with a link stating the buddy has been seen in a YouTube video. Once clicked, the target is informed they need to download a plugin to view it. If the user installs the plugin, it obtains their Facebook and Twitter credentials, enters their account and sends the message further. Always remember: if your ordinarily cautious buddy begins chatting in angry chat-speak and spams links at you, it’s probably not them anymore.

3. Criminals Need Server Access To Do Damage cybercrime8

We’ve seen a number of incidents of individuals acquiring unauthorised access to servers and websites, but there are methods someone might attack a website without compromising any security. One tactic that’s seen a lot of usage is the Direct Denial of Service (DDoS). A DDoS attack works by flooding a website with requests in an attempt to knock it down. It’s like sending 1000 people into a McDonalds to block up the line and make fake orders.

DDoS assaults are popular amongst individuals who wish to cause trouble or express a message. LulzSec and Lizard Squad are instances of gangs that desired nothing more than to briefly knock down some of the largest firms in the world for a fun. But if DDoS assaults are undertaken on a shop or other sales website, they may make a devastating impact in earnings by blocking consumers from completing purchases. The penalty for DDoS assaults are fairly harsh, with the aforementioned organisations already facing prison terms.

4. Only Criminals Are Hackers cybercrime7

We normally envisage hackers as a single or small group seeking to crack open the digital doors on important data. It may appear like all hackers are on the same level as virtual robbers, but it’s also an activity that governments indulge in. Take, for example, the current cyber battle between the United States and China. Relatively undisturbed by the news, both sides have been attempting to wipe out sections of each other’s digital infrastructures for years. In 2013, American agents hacked into China’s Tsinghua University. No one knows what they were searching for, but it probably wasn’t a course prospectus.

it’s just one example among many, and it’s just the conduct that we know about from individuals confessing to it. Many more operations could be going place just beneath our eyes. As long as they don’t target cat videos on YouTube, they’ll continue to go largely undetected.