Cyber Crime

Cyber crime refers to criminal activities or offences carried out in a digital environment. In such crimes, either the computer itself is the target, or the computer is used as a tool to commit a crime. The intent behind cyber crimes is to cause physical harm, financial loss, or mental harassment — directly or indirectly — to an individual, a group, an organisation, or even a country.

A cyber criminal attacks a computer or a network to reach other computers, with the aim of disabling or damaging data or services. Beyond this, a cyber criminal may spread viruses and other malware to steal private and confidential data for blackmailing and extortion.

Computer virus — a set of malicious lines of code that can copy itself and have a detrimental effect on computers by destroying data or corrupting the system.

Malware — software designed specifically to gain unauthorised access to computer systems. …