Lagal and Illegal Access to Personal Information Online Essay

Lagal and Illegal Access to Personal Information Online - Essay Example Where the computer era has devised numerous ways to work more quickly, efficiently, professionally and resourcefully, it has brought with it what we call cyber-crime -- misusing other people’s information without their permission and knowledge. The topic to be discussed here is about the risks and hazards of information being misused over the internet. The worst part about cyber-crime is that it is much easier to escape from it without revealing identity or improvising a false identity. The reason for it is, of course, the resourcefulness of the internet and the fact that it is away from any kind of physical presence. Moreover, it is very easy to replicate data on the internet to get involved in different kinds of crimes. With the increasing technological trends and movement towards cyber space so rapidly, it is inevitable that soon the cyber world will be dealt with a separate set of rules and regulation, laws and globalization. It is not long before divisions within the cybe r space will be dealt like a separate state just like physically existing country (Wall, 2007, p.10). What is needed here is that we deal with the dark side of moving towards technology in a way that we are safe from its harmful effects in the long run, that most people fail to realize at the moment. Thesis Statement An analysis of the reasons of internet crime along with its consequence leads to a technological challenge -- whether the harmful consequences outweigh the benefits of internet and what should be done to reduce crime involving unethical practices of hacking, identity theft, crime in e-commerce and social networking. Categories of Cyber Crime Cyber Crime is divided into many categories. These include spam, availability of obscene content, threats, misinformation, cyber terrorism and fraud. With such a huge variety of crime going on the internet, it becomes very easy to exploit the users (Brenner, 2010, p.8). The users also come into several categories, from amateurs to p rofessionals and naive people who do not realize the harmful implications that the usage of internet might cause. The greatest misuse of internet is taking place in the following domains: †¢ E-commerce   †¢ Social networking   †¢ Identity theft   †¢ Hacking   From amongst the above given domains, E-Commerce and Social Networking will be discussed in greater depth. E-Commerce is defines as exchange of goods and services over the internet involving Business transactions, buying and selling as well as the World Wide Web (Bushry, 2005, p.3). Social Networking refers to online networks that allow people to communicate over the internet and build social relations and broad networks ( Stenzel & Nesdahl, 2012 p.19). Identity Theft is the stealing of someone else’s identity and pretending to be someone else, impersonating to be another person or using their identity such as their name or credentials (Boyer, 2008, p.7). Hacking means to identify weaknesses i n other networks and take over their networks and later on, misuse them (Brenner, 2010, p.11). E-Commerce Electronic Commerce as defined above is a rapidly growing concept that allows exchange of good