The latter stages of the 20 th Century have brought about a surge in the innovation in the technology industry. The 21 st century would experience the best of this advancement with the age of the Web 2.0 bringing about the improved internet connectivity. Despite the separating distances across seas, oceans, and continents, the internet has created a seamless communication medium where that was quicker that previously used channels. However, this innovative practice has increased the risks and threats posed on individuals, businesses, and countries alike. Cybercrime is a sophisticated attack on the hardware and software of computers that can be performed remotely. The digital crimes have become the fastest growing type of crime as malicious individuals exploit their anonymity, speed, and convenience the internet provides to implement criminal activities. Through the continued development of the internet and the advancements made in the ICT industry, cybercrimes are also improving and becoming even more sophisticated prompting the need to establish mitigation efforts to prevent huge losses.
Impact of Utilizing Information Technologies in Combating Digital Crime and Terrorism
Following the drastic increase in digital crime and terrorism, information technologies have become the only source of means to combat their effects and impact on society. As a result, there have been significant impacts in economic, social, and political aspects. According to a 2013 article on the Wall Street Journal, fighting cybercrime using information technology has brought about increased spending for organizations and government authorities alike. The South Carolina Department of Revenue has to spend $20 million after attackers stole 3.6 million social security numbers and more than 400,000 credit card numbers (Bissell, 2013). The same has affected financial services firms that have had to increase annual average expenditure on cybersecurity 13-fold in an attempt to eradicate nearly 95% of malicious attacks (Bissell, 2013). However, the corporations accept that cyber breaches are inevitable.
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The utilization of information technologies in developing measures of fighting digital crime has created social issues in the modern society. Before the advent of the internet and social media, communication was primarily face-to-face with the only measure of sophistication including use of telephones. However, the advancements of communication technology have brought about high-speed interaction over far distances. One of the major problems of this practice is the increased individual exposure to greater threat. Research shows that as personal activities migrate to the digital realm, the people are at a higher risk of attacks from malicious individuals as their information is public and available for anyone to see (Bissell, 2013). The use of information technologies does not seem like a comforting idea that will put an end to the digital crime and digital terrorism activities.
Majority of the developed nations ensure that the federal government is at the forefront of the fight against cybercrimes. In the United States, the FBI, the NSA, and Homeland Security incorporate information technology as an effective measure of combating digital crimes (Bissell, 2013). Despite high levels of technological capability, the US is currently a victim of its own making with speculations that the recently concluded elections were hacked by Russian operatives. Additionally, the citizens and residents in the US are unable to achieve complete democratic rights as the various security agencies looking into their online activity without individual consent.
Existing Challenges and Mitigation Strategy
The US law enforcement agencies employ an independent nature in their quest to fight digital crimes and terrorism. However, these agencies encounter numerous challenges to achieve effective mitigation of the threats. For instance, majority of the malicious internet attacks involve private corporations as the victims with the law enforcement agencies having little authority to monitor such events without consent of the organizations. Another major challenge for law enforcement agencies is the fact that attackers have nearly unlimited funding and usually have taken time to master their craft before deploying it (Mayer, & Erickson, 2011). The US law enforcement agencies are unable to match this level of sophistication due to the drastic changes that usually occur in cybercrimes. The malicious individuals develop novel ways of conducting an attack faster than the US officers can create methods of blocking such attacks. As a result, it seems that their actions are primarily a reaction to the computer terrorists and criminals.
The estimated costs of cybercrimes to the global business sector could reach $6 trillion mark annually through to 2021 (Eubanks, 2017). In this case, the catastrophic loss to the business does not only refer to the immediate costs incurred but also to the damaged shareholder and investor perception, loss of data, reputation, and brand identity. Law enforcement agencies may curb the effects of these malicious attacks through an equivalent increase in cybersecurity spending (Eubanks, 2017). The attackers do not refrain from making high investments in developing intelligent software to surpass the security measures that corporations have created (Mayer, & Erickson, 2011). In light of this, the agencies should also increase their spending while establishing close partnerships with leading information technology companies including Cisco, IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Apple. The practice attempts to develop mitigation strategies that will capture the malicious hackers and cyber-criminals (Mayer, & Erickson, 2011). The partnership with these organizations is crucial in sharing knowledge on the latest trends in cybercrime activity.
Align the Efforts of Federal Agencies
The US could align the efforts of federal agencies towards protection of the nation from digital crimes to establishing stronger relationships with the state and local law enforcement departments. Matters of national security, particularly regarding cyber breaches are critical as they could affect all aspects of the country. The economy could greatly suffer a drastic drop resulting in a financial crisis (Peritz, & Sechrist, 2010). Through the practice of establishing stronger partnerships, these agencies significantly decentralize the monitoring of online activity. It is evident that the US alone provides nearly 300 million people who are connected to the internet amounting to 88.5% of the total population by 2016. The Asian countries of China, India, and Japan together provide more than 1.2 billion connected users with global tallies nearly 4 billion (Eubanks, 2017). The numbers increase the burden on the federal agencies in guaranteeing national security. Therefore, the partnership with local agencies minimizes the workload and significantly increases effectiveness of capturing malicious threats.
With the global population migrating to the digital realm, it is important that federal agencies undertake effective measures of promoting best practices and enforcing adoption of uniform standards for enforcing the law. In this case, it is evident that every federal agent undergoes significant training before engaging in fieldwork. It is at this point that the law enforcement departments may incorporate their best practices training programs. Due to the continuous changes of the cybersecurity threats, the best practices are those that are flexible to these changes (Mayer, & Erickson, 2011). However, this does not mean that improvements should not be made in the organization. The agencies could also dedicate a greater amount of resources to training on mitigating terrorism threats made via the internet. The training may be provided to all new recruits to ensure high level of capability in response when they actually take place.
Future Trends and Mitigation Strategies
The digital crime and terrorism is one of the most transformative criminal activities in the modern society. Malicious parties began with sophisticated intrusions to the individual, corporate, and governmental secrets. However, the attackers are retrieving to the simplistic crimes. In this case, the future of data terrorism will involve some form of espionage, manipulation of networks, destruction of data, theft of intellectual property, and intrusion of monetary benefits (Peritz, & Sechrist, 2010). Through these practices, it is evident that the practice of ransomware, which is a common practice in the present time, will grow significantly. Information or intellectual property will be held for ransom requiring the owner to pay up an exaggerated amount of money. Spying on enemy countries will no longer use highly trained personnel rather the use of computers. The planting of software to the main servers will provide data remotely (Peritz, & Sechrist, 2010). Cloud-based botnets could occur threatening the security of corporations. Digital terrorism could also remotely attempt to destroy enemy countries by attacking the transportation system to crash planes, manipulate traffic lights, and trains. Such an occurrence would create a disaster that could be more tragic than the 9/11 attacks.
The fundamental measure that the US could use to cope with the numerous challenges of the future in digital crime and terrorism include appropriate response to criminal activity. The federal government, through the military and law enforcement agencies will enforce practices that address the issues of digital crime (Peritz, & Sechrist, 2010). The methods are intended to learn more on the changing techniques of the attackers and ways to improve the safety of the US citizens. The federal government should also be able to identify between the legitimate and illegal activities of people online. Corporations in the national economy may incorporate the use of cyber crimes as a measure of eliminating the threat of competitors. The law enforcement agencies should recognize legitimate marketing from activities of reputation manipulation. In this way, the government will be able to protect the integrity and financial security of law-abiding citizens. The US should avoid any activities that will look to exploit their power and influence to further its interest without regard for other countries.
References
Bissell, K. (2013) Fighting Cybercrime with Collective Intelligence and Technology . The Wall Street Journal, Retrieved from http://deloitte.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2013/08/13/fighting-cyber-crime-with-collective-intelligence-and-technology/
Eubanks, N. (2017) The True Cost Of Cybercrime For Businesses . Forbes, Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2017/07/13/the-true-cost-of-cybercrime-for-businesses/#2730976f4947
Mayer, M. & Erickson, S. (2011) Changing Today’s Law Enforcement Culture to Face 21st-Century Threats . The Heritage Foundation, Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/homeland-security/report/changing-todays-law-enforcement-culture-face-21st-century-threats
Peritz, A. J., & Sechrist, M. (2010) P rotecting cyberspace and the US national interest . Harvard Kennedy School, retrieved from https://projects.csail.mit.edu/ecir/wiki/images/c/c5/Cyber-vital-national-interest.pdf
