Cyber Power

Chapter 4

Cybercrimes Against Assets

4.1 Understanding the context

The Internet enables economic crime

As we have seen, cybercrime is the natural extension of ordinary criminal

activity. Today, criminal acts are committed across cyberspace, separately

from or alongside crimes.

Because of the networking of resources and individuals, cybercrime is

highly effective. Not only companies, but also their information technologies

and assets, can become attractive targets for criminal organizations in search

of prot. This is a strategic threat to businesses, considering the fact that a

business’s assets can take the form of information rather then merely being

physical items to be secured.

By opening the corporate gates to the Internet through web servers and com-

munication services, enterprises expose themselves to the risks of attracting

the attention of criminals and of giving criminals a potential foothold. While

the Internet is a powerful communication tool, it is also a chaotic, dynamic,

and hostile environment, which can be used to undermine an organization and

serve as a vehicle for crime. The Internet can be seen as a high-crime zone.

Given the importance that organizations attach to their online presence, and

the growth of e-commerce activities, they are, in all likelihood, contributing

to the expansion of criminality on the Internet.

92 Cyberpower

Moreover, the Internet makes it easy to nd and exploit new means of

making money. This empowering feature is not, of course, lost on the crimi-

nal world. By embracing information technologies, criminals hope to increase

their earnings while minimizing their exposure to risk. As it has done for many

legitimate business activities, the Internet has empowered criminal ones. It

offers performance, speed and a layer of isolation for carrying out criminal

actions. These can be committed by individuals or small groups (the notion

of disorganized crime) as well as by organized crime syndicates or maas

(Figure 4.1).

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Figure 4.1 The convergence of criminal actors in cyberspace.

Economic crime not only affects large organizations. Individuals, organi-

zations, and states can be hit by cyber economic crime activities with vary-

ing levels of nuisance and loss. Information and communication technologies

allow isolated individuals to carry out economic crime activities at a distance

and hidden behind a screen. They can either work alone or in concert with oth-

ers, as organized virtual crime gangs of various sizes formed for a particular

purpose or target. The information and software available on the Internet can

bring together individuals, expertise, and tools and thereby facilitate cyber-

crime.

Furthermore, given the high degree of economic expertise and skills that

economic crime sometimes requires, the Internet can facilitate preparations