The Differences between Cybercrime and Traditional Crime

The Differences between Cybercrime and Traditional Crime
One of the differences between cybercrime and traditional crime is the evidence of the offenses. Traditional criminals usually leave traces of a сrime, through either fingerprints or other physical evidences. On the other hand, cybercriminals rely on the Internet via which they commit their crimes, and it leaves very little evidence about the cybercrime. Forensic investigators usually experience great difficulty in gathering evidence that could lead to the conviction of cybercriminals since these criminals can freely change their identities. The Internet also allows the anonymity of its users, and this implies that cybercriminals can use any pseudonyms for their identification. On the other hand, it is difficult for traditional criminals to fake their gender, race, or age.
Consequently, this leads to the second difference between traditional and cybercrimes, length of investigations. Since cybercrime involves perpetrators using falsified names and working from remote locations, it usually takes longer to identify the real cybercriminals and apprehend them. In most cases, cybercriminals (such as hackers) escape from arrest because the investigators cannot locate them. Traditional crimes take shorter time period to investigate because the criminals usually leave evidence that can be used to spot them. For instance, traditional criminals can leave evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, photographs and videos captured on surveillance cameras, or personal belongings such as identity cards, and this makes it easy for investigators to identify and capture the culprits. In addition, such evidence makes it easy for the judiciary to convict the offenders.
Cybercriminals can use the Constitution to protect themselves from prosecution. The Fifth Amendment points out that nobody can be forced to become a witness against himself in any criminal case. Consequently, cybercriminals can use this legal provision to deny the investigators any incriminating evidence that could lead to the prosecution of the cybercriminals. This implies that even in situations where cybercriminals are apprehended, the trial process may take long unless the investigators gathered irrefutable evidence about the crimes.
Lastly, the difference between traditional crimes and cybercrimes is the force involved. Most of the traditional crimes (such as rape, murder, arson, and burglary among others) involve the use of excessive force that results in physical injury and trauma on the victims. On the other hand, cybercrimes do not require the use of any force since the criminals merely use the identities of their victims to steal from them. For example, cybercriminals use spoofing and phishing to obtain personal information such as credit card numbers from their victims, or use encrypted emails to coordinate violence remotely.
The Purpose of Most Hackers
The main objective of many hackers is to find weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and bugs in computer systems. However, people may engage in hacking for different reasons such as hacking for fun, criminal gain, making statements (hacktivists), or improving security (blue hat hackers). People who hack for fun do so to prove their technical skills in breaching digital security systems. Such hackers are not interested in the information they access from hacking other computers. People who hack for criminal gain do so to defraud their victims by accessing and manipulating their personal data. Such hackers use financial information and passwords of the victims to transfer their funds into private accounts, and this may result in massive financial losses to the victims.
Individuals who hack to make a statement do so to make ideological or political points by stealing classified information from business and government databases. In most cases, the hackers attack these organizations to protest against inactivity by the government in addressing various issues or injustices perpetrated by private businesses. Finally, the last group of hackers are the individuals who engage in hacking to improve the digital security systems of various organizations. Such individuals are usually employed to identify any vulnerabilities and bugs in the digital security systems of companies. This helps the companies in improving the safety of their systems and prevent attacks by malicious hackers.
Examples of Cybercrime Cases
Vladimir Levin vs. Citibank (1995)
Levin’s case is among the first high-profile cases of hacking for criminal gain. Vladimir, a member of a Russian crime ring, succeeded in hacking into Citibank’s network and stealing confidential information of Citibank’s customers. Using the customer passwords and codes, Vladimir transferred approximately $3.7 million without the bank’s knowledge or consent (Goodchild, 2012). Vladimir transferred the stolen money to accounts affiliated to his criminal organization. Citibank grew suspicious that its system had been attacked after identifying two transfers of $304,000 and $26,000. The bank informed the FBI about the issue, and the FBI managed to track Vladimir in London. Vladimir was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport in 1995. After his capture, Citibank managed to recover most of the stolen money. In 1998, an American Court handed Vladimir a three-year sentence and ordered him to restitute $ 240,000 to Citibank.
Gary McKinnon vs. the US Military
McKinnon attacked the US military servers between 2001 and 2002 in an effort to obtain information about the government’s knowledge of UFOs. The attack resulted in the deletion of many files from the military’s computer systems and resulted in the shutdown of its network. The costs of repairing the damages was estimated to be more than $700,000 (Goodchild, 2012). However, McKinnon has not yet been charged with the crime since he is still in London. If extradited to America, McKinnon will face a lengthy jail term.
Albert Gonzalez vs. TJX and Others
Gonzalez was a member of a ring of cybercriminals known as “Shadowcrew.” The group stole and trafficked credit and debit card numbers of more than 90 million customers in various retailers. Some of the affected retailers include TJX, Dave & Busters, OfficeMax, Sports Authority, and DSW among others. In 2008, Gonzalez also organized the theft of confidential data from Heartland Payment Systems. Gonzalez obtained the confidential information through “wardriving” which involved seeking vulnerable networks and installing “sniffer programs” that saved card data as they were processed by the retailers’ computers (Lavoie, 2010). Gonzalez was found guilty of identity theft and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Impacts of Cybercrime on Society
Cybercrime usually has financial consequences since it results in loss of intellectual property, financial loss and degradation of consumer confidence in various organizations. Such losses have far-reaching impacts to the society. Cybercrimes cause trade distortions, job losses, loss of competitiveness of affected organizations, litigation costs in paying affected clients, and increased insurance costs. All these tend to take back the gains made in the society.
In conclusion, cybercrime is one of the modern challenges that authorities are faced with today. Its ever-evolving face makes it trickier to deal with. The wide scope brought about by the internet also makes investigations concerning cybercrime much more demanding. Effective cross-border cooperation is needed to conclusively determine most of the cases.

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