10.7 Cybercrime
Brandon Hamann
iPhone.
TikTok.
Spotify.
Smartwatch.
Wi-Fi.
Google.
Shein.
Hospitals.
Subway Rewards.
Chick-Fil-A App.
This class.
What do they all have in common? They all have your personal information in some form or fashion stored somewhere digitally in a “secure” location. Oh sure, they say it’s “safe,” but is it? At any given moment, someone is trying to get into the sensitive areas of every one of those places to attempt to take the personal information that you have entered and steal your identity for the purposes of an illegal act. They will then sell it to whoever will buy it, and that individual will create a persona using your information to open credit cards and bank accounts, make purchases, and ruin your good credit and reputation that you have worked so hard for. Welcome to the Age of Cybercrime.
Cybercrimes are any illegal acts committed using a communication device. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, but the crimes are not. They are the same crimes, just repackaged using new methods. Identity Theft is still theft. Crypto and Digital Currency Robbery is still Robbery. Technological advancements, the Internet, and our willingness to be open and free with the sharing of our personal information makes it that much easier for criminals to take advantage of the large amount of data that is out there, ripe for the taking. But criminals aren’t the only ones using our information for nefarious things. Corporations, advertising and marketing firms, and even governments use the same information we provide to tailor experiences and goods and services based on our everyday activities.
But how did it all start? Watch the trailer below to begin that journey.
The movie was “War Games.” It was released in 1983. Aside from it being old and one of my favorites growing up, it was important for its time because of who it influenced. President Ronald Reagan watched this movie while on vacation at Camp David, and he was so intrigued by the movie’s thematic presence that he immediately called a meeting of his top military advisors and asked the question, “Is this possible?” (Kaplan, 2016). The movie involves a high school youth who just wants to play some video games, so he uses the Internet at the time to “hack into” what he thinks is a new gaming company. What he doesn’t realize is that what he unintentionally does is begin communicating with a Top-Secret military computer that simulates Global Nuclear scenarios deep inside a military installation. Ultimately, the computer must learn the difference between what is real and what is just a game as the fate of the world is in the balance.
It sounds extremely far-fetched, but the reality is that it really isn’t. The Internet, for example, started out as a U.S. government communications project used to share sensitive information between research teams across great distances. It was easier to transmit data through phone lines and print them out on the other end than to mail them and risk ex