The problem of categorising cybercrime and cybercriminals |
With the continual increase in incidents of hacking and viruses, the issue of cybercrime is now recognised as a major international problem, which has been given increased scope and impact by the pervasion of the Internet. However, defining what is meant by the term can prove to be somewhat difficult and a range of alternative classifications have been devised different sources. This paper considers the problem of categorising cybercrime and identifies the fact that a harmonised nomenclature would be beneficial to both those individuals and organisations concerned with combating the problem, as well as for those concerned with reporting the issue to the general public. The discussion presents a variety of different top-level classifications of cybercrime, each of which has been utilised in practice by authoritative sources in the field. The need for further sub classification (and the difficulty associated with doing so) is then illustrated by examining the specific issue of hacking, which reveals that numerous types and motivations can be identified.
Furnell SM