Topic > Effects of Social Media on Cybercrime

Social media is a platform used to exchange information in the form of ideas, thoughts, videos, photos and much more. The following activities take place; photo sharing, blogging, social gaming, social networking, video sharing, business networking, virtual worlds, reviews and even online trading. In most cases, people don't meet unless they studied together, worked in the same place or are neighbors. Most of the known social media sites are Whatsapp, Snap Chat, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, among others. Users usually use gadgets like computers, tablets, smartphones connected to the Internet. The Internet ensures that the user sends and receives information. Users are generally in the position to choose what to post. Many business people have taken advantage of the popularity of social media to reach potential customers. They publish everything about their work for potential buyers to get the information. Most young people also engage in social media relationships. Furthermore, most parents leave their children with housekeepers who resort to giving them phones to avoid disturbances. What will happen next, no one will say. Governments and politicians are also not left behind, as they can communicate with their constituents and constituents. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Social media has become a powerful tool and has reduced the world to a global village. A lot of information is shared and the intentions of the person receiving it are never known. People with bad intentions (damaging the victim's reputation or causing physical or mental harm or loss) take advantage of this and can access this information from social sites through their computers via hacking, spam or phishing. Crimes such as child phonography and hate crimes can also be committed in social media by evil people, and this is called cybercrime. Cybercrime threatens the security and financial health of a person or a nation. Cybercrimes include computer hacking, copyright infringement, unwarranted mass surveillance, extortion, child pornography, and child solicitation. In detail, we have them as below; Hacking, as one of the computer crimes, is the most common of all and refers to the unauthorized intrusion into a computer or network. The person engaged in hacking activities is known as a hacker and is responsible for altering the system or security features to achieve an unintended goal. Hackers use a variety of techniques for hacking. The first is the vulnerability scanner that checks computers on networks for known weaknesses. The second is password cracking, which allows passwords to be recovered from data stored or transmitted by computer systems. The third is Packet sniffer and captures data packets to view data and passwords in transit on networks. The fourth is the Spoofing attack, which involves websites that spoof data by imitating legitimate sites and then treated as trusted sites by users or other programs. Fifth, we have a rootkit, which represents a set of applications that work to subvert the control of an operating system by legitimate operators. The sixth is the Trojan horse, which acts as a backdoor into a computer system and allows an intruder to access the system at a later time. The seventh is viruses, self-replicating programs that spread by inserting copies of themselves into other executable files.Finally, we have keyloggers designed to record every keystroke on the affected machine for later recovery. Therefore, hacking is very dangerous because important and confidential information can get to the wrong people and cause security problems, death and serious theft. Another problem related to cybercrime is copyright infringement. It is where a particular product or business model is copied and replicated elsewhere. The original owner of the idea is not recognized and, if the product did not have a patent, the original owner could disappear and lose it. Therefore, theft is real in social media. Sextortion, on the other hand, is a threat to display sexual images to get a person to do something. It's real blackmail. These threats come from both strangers met online and once-intimate romantic partners. It is also becoming common, as people use it, especially people who are lazy and unwilling to work hard, to extort money from victims. People also use sextortion to obtain information, which in most cases is confidential and can be accessed by the victim. Most victims end up in prison, especially if they are blackmailed into committing a crime. Some will even end up dead and the affected person will be the person who blackmailed them. Child pornography is also another form of cybercrime. It is created by taking photos, videos or audio recordings of children wearing less or no clothes at all or having sex. It is usually a form of child sexual abuse as it is created by taking photographs and videos of a sexually abused child. Others do this by creating images of children in the act of sexual abuse, on a computer, and it is called simulated child pornography. Child pornography is ultimately not good and affects victims. For example, a child may have difficulty sleeping and concentrating or coping with schoolwork. Additionally, they may become withdrawn, uncommunicative, angry, or upset. Additionally, those affected may live with anxiety and depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress, difficulty coping with stress, self-harm and suicidal thoughts, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, feelings of shame and guilt, drug and alcohol problems , relationship problems with family, friends and partner. Furthermore, the grooming of children and young people is considered a form of cybercrime. Grooming is where the offender befriends and establishes a good relationship with the child or young person with the ultimate aim of sexually abusing them. Sometimes the person who develops this bond with a child also does it with a family member to avoid any form of suspicion about his real intentions. Other people can then trust them, especially when they physically go out with the child or when they are online. Children and young people subjected to grooming may suffer sexual abuse, exploitation or trafficking. Anyone can be a groomer, regardless of age, gender or race. Grooming can happen over a short or long period of time, online, in person, or both, by a stranger or someone you know. When a child is subjected to online grooming, groomers can hide who they are by sending photos or videos of other people. Sometimes it will be someone younger than them who earns their trust. The effects of grooming are the same as child pornography; Anxiety, depression, stress, suicidal thoughts, among others. Next on the list is mass surveillance. Mass surveillance is sophisticated monitoring of all or part of the population by a country and targeting a particular one.