Cybercrime: Vandalizing the Information Society

Cybercrime has received significant coverage in recent years, with the media, law enforcers, and governments all working to bring the issue to our attention. This paper begins by presenting an overview of the problem, considering the scope and scale of reported incidents. From this, a series of common attack types are considered (focusing upon website defacement, denial of service and malware), with specific emphasis upon the potential for these to be automated and mounted by novices. Leading on from this, the problem of policing cybercrime is considered, with attention to the need for suitable legislation, and appropriate resourcing of law enforcers. It is concluded that that cybercrime is an inevitable downside of the information society, and that organizations and individuals consequently have a stake in ensuring their own protection.