Canadian policies addressing cybercrime and identity theft

Canadian Policies to Thwart Terrorist and Criminal Activities

Canadian Policies to Combat Crime and Terrorism

Problems being faced due to Cyber-Crime in Today's World

What is Identity Theft?

How and Why Cyber-Crime Occurs?

Why Cyber-Crime has become an Important Issue?

How Release of Personal Information makes an Individual vulnerable to Identity Theft?

Future Implications

Since time immemorial, crime and criminal activities have been found at an accelerated pace, however, with the penetration of the world into the twenty first century with numerous technological advancements and innovations, these acts have taken a new form. This evidently signifies that crime through cyberspace has become one of the widespread and prevailing activities of the today's fast paced world, where the entire human race is moving towards the industrial and hi-tech progressions at a constant speed. Moreover, the criminal and terrorist activities in a more sophisticated version have become a common aspect of mundane life (Brenner, 2010).

The criminal activities is not confined to any one country, rather, the entire globe and its people are confronting this grave issue on a universal basis, which even includes the developing nations as well-developed countries. Cyber-crime has become one of the insidious, subtle, dangerous and artful activities that have affected a number of people in the contemporary world (Brenner, 2010).

Perhaps cyber-crime may give the impression to be less dangerous because it does not harm or damage the individual (who is being targeted) physically. However, this is more insidious because the cyber criminals directly play with the person's goodwill, name, credibility and reputation in association with their credit details in order to get hold of their identity in obtaining employment and other aspects of life by gaining access to a person's private information that is strictly confidential (Brenner, 2010).

Since the world is advancing, newer issues and concerns are emerging where the older issues are being corrected with time. In fact, cyber crime has become one of the significant attributes of the technological change and innovation that is constantly updating, and hence giving rise to numerous new challenges with respect to the information access and privacy of the individuals as well as the governments, military, and even the nation's economic information. The records and studies have comprehensively identified that cyber attacks have not only become sophisticated, instead the number of attacks has elevated dramatically in the last few years, which is also expected to grow (Brenner, 2010).

While taking into account the cyber crime, one can extensively determine that Canada is one of the nations that are persistently experiencing increasing number of cyber crimes in the modern world of today. This is particularly due to the reason that the widespread platform internet has become an effectual, invaluable and productive utensil for not only the Canadian individuals but also for the Canadian businesses and their governments on a broad spectrum. Nevertheless, with the evolution, progression and development of the cyberspace, the cyber threats are also being escalated at an unprecedented rate that is causing risk to the overall security, wealth and quality of life (Clough, 2010).

Considering the severe and constantly growing issue of cyber crime, the government of Canada is very much committed in providing security and protection to the inhabitants from the threat and risk of cyber crime and cyber criminals. In this regard, the research thesis would provide a deep analysis on cyber crime that has become a prominent issue and what are the policies of the Canadian government to thwart and combat the severe issue (Clough, 2010).

Problems being faced due to Cyber-Crime in Today's World

Since the globe has transformed into the technological era, the primary means of communication, interaction, transfer and sharing of information is becoming confined to technological mediums such as internet. The technological advancements on one hand has created easy ways and means of data sharing, while on the other hand, it has created more opportunities for the criminals to commit crimes over the internet. This undoubtedly indicates that an individual is likely to be expected to release their personal information on daily basis in order to receive benefits, perks and services. However, this communication and transfer of information over the internet is making more vulnerable to 'identity' theft and cyber crimes (Westby, 2003).

What is Identity Theft?

Identity theft is gaining access to someone else's identity with the prime motivation to using his or her personal and confidential information (that include credit details) in order to damage the person's name and reputation. The victim is usually the person whose information has been used by the identity theft. As an outcome of identity theft, the victim is highly prone to suffer from adverse and difficult outcomes in conditions when they are held accountable or guilty for performer's actions. These types of crimes are usually committed when an individual steals the personal information (without their consent) like name, social security number, credit card number and any other private information in order to commit fraud or related crimes (Hanel, 2010).

It is rather more challenging to determine the identity threat because the victims are usually unaware of the fact that how their personal information was stole by the identity theft. In fact, it has been observed that identity thefts are not always discovered or detected. Furthermore, the evidences have elucidated the fact that cyber attacks and crimes are more frequently being committed in the current era, and Canada is amongst one of those countries where the cyber crimes are committed more often in comparison to other parts of the world (Hanel, 2010).

Canada is one of the nations where businesses in association with individuals come under the drastic impact of the cyber crimes. This denotes that cyber criminals and identity theft are targeting huge businesses that possess huge database of their customers with large amounts of personal data. Even though businesses have better and enhanced security, yet this is an immense channel for the cyber criminals because businesses provide an easy path to enter into the database through which they can hack or obtain a much large amount of information (Balkin, 2007).

How and Why Cyber-Crime Occurs?

Cyberspace is the vast arena of the electronic world that is based on the interrelated and organized networks of information technology as well as the information that is present on those networks. The cyber space is a widespread stage that connects millions and billions of people together that can exchange ideas, services and share or transmit information. Cyber crimes are occurring, indeed rising at an unprecedented rate due to the reason that technology is changing and innovating at a constant speed, which is making easier and simpler for the criminals to get hold of private information through hacking (Balkin, 2007).

Having a deep look at the Canadian trends of internet consumption, records noticeably proclaims that the economy of the country is profoundly dependent upon the internet. This means that the general population frequently and habitually uses online stores for making purchases and businesses commonly use the arena of internet for their business related activities. Moreover, the businesses in Canada are rapidly switching over to the most modern digital applications and mobile technologies (Burgess, Regehr & Roberts, 2011).

While looking at the aspect of Canada, the governmental bodies and agencies are also gradually becoming more dependent upon the huge world of internet. This is demonstrated from the fact that the federal Government is also increasingly making use of internet to offer the common services to the general public that include now offers tax returns, employment insurance forms, student loan applications and so forth (Balkin, 2007).

Even though these facts presents the idea that the cyberspace has become one of the leading national assets for the country, however, at the same time, the protection of the cyberspace with malicious misuse and destructive crimes has become one of the daunting and overwhelming challenges. In fact, these presented facts clearly explicate that the extensive and common utilization of internet and the World Wide Web is creating a huge opportunity for the criminals to perform cyber crime more often. This is predominantly because the detecting, locating and catching the cyber criminals is not a simple process, as they do not leave any physical evidence behind them and cannot be trailed down through complex web of sophisticated computers (Balkin, 2007).

The cyber criminals have the power to partially as well as completely cause potential harm to the individuals such that the complicated attackers usually interrupt and disturb the electronic controls of the power grids, water treatment plants as well as telecommunications networks. The production and delivery of goods and services are intruded by the cyber attackers that the governments or private sector provides to the citizens (Burgess, Regehr & Roberts, 2011).

Why Cyber-Crime has become an Important Issue?

The fact cannot be ignored that the lives of almost every human being have become digital, which implies that they live, work and play in cyberspace. Canada is also one of those countries where the people on personal as well as professional basis have transformed on to digital space. The resident of the country are living in the world of internet, World Wide Web, computers and mobile devices where they communicate, interact, email, text, share and transmit information with families, friends and even colleagues. Besides, one cannot also overlook the truth that businesses have also shifted to the universe of internet, where business transactions are being performed online on daily basis such as online bank transactions, online shopping, online accessing to governmental services and various others (FitzGerald & Dennis, 2009).

From one angle, it is visibly portraying that the cyberspace is benefitting the entire human race with its innovated offerings in such a way that the economy and the quality of life are being improved and enhanced. While on the other hand, the reliance and dependence on cyber technologies to a great extent is increasing the risk of being attacked by a cyber criminal, who are constantly attacking the digital infrastructure to damage, weaken and destabilize the national security, economic affluence, and the enhanced quality of life (FitzGerald & Dennis, 2009).

Cyber crime is becoming an increasingly significant issue because the terrorist networks are progressing on cyber operations as their strategic principles and policies at an accelerated pace. Moreover, the terrorist groups are gaining insight on the fact that the well-developed nations have their vast and comprehensive information over the internet, which can be easily exploited. Therefore, the transnational criminal groups have similarly shifted and expanded their operations over cyberspace, where they sell information such as credit card details, computer login passwords and so forth that are stolen over the internet. This makes the common man very much at risk to the personal information that he or she is providing by having the perception that their information is securely stored by the company (FitzGerald & Dennis, 2009).

Cyber crime in the current epoch is becoming increasingly imperative and substantial because the cyber criminals have not only been observed to steal the personal information (such as credit card information or bank account details) for fun, rather they have more big motives that include commitment of crimes under different names from which the real criminal cannot be identified. In this regard, the protection of the privacy of individuals as well as businesses has become an integral aspect to the security on an overall basis (for the individual as well as the nation). This is really essential because people have been monitored to struggle for long in order to create a goodwill and reputation (FitzGerald & Dennis, 2009).

How Release of Personal Information makes an Individual vulnerable to Identity Theft?

Providing a lot of personal information has become a prerequisite to nearly everything that exist in the cyberspace infrastructure. This brings the fact to the forefront that in order to perform any kind of activity over the cyberspace, it is essential for the individual to provide ample of information, specifically their personal and private information. This has become a vital condition in order to verify the identity of the individual that is provided, which is on one hand for the enhanced protection of causing cyber crimes. The cyber criminals are likely to breach the information of the people when they fail to follow the fundamental practices of cyber security, as the personal information is readily available (Greenwood, 2007).

While on the other hand, it also indicates that people are increasingly being vulnerable to cyber criminals as the personal information becomes available to large number of other people (Balkin, 2007). The information available to a larger number of people puts the individual on more risk because they are not aware of how much their information would be protected by the company or the person to which the information is being provided. This availability of the personalized information creates a huge opportunity for the cyber criminals to easily access the information (Balkin, 2007).

The digital cyberspace and the systems have become an attractive target for the organized crime groups that penetrates into the systems by means of cyber criminals. These groups are breaching into the local computer systems of the country on the governmental, military financial and economic levels, exploring the private information deep down from the files, and hence, creating damage (crashing) to the systems. Through this penetration into the local system of the nation, the cyber criminals are typically stealing the national as well as industrial security secrets with the personal identifications (Greenwood, 2007).

The evidences and facts have obviously declared that the release of personal information makes an individual highly vulnerable to identity threat. However, in this regard, it is also prudent to note that huge proportion of enterprises and businesses ensure that nefarious kind of individuals do not breach into their systems and obtain the information that can be misused (Greenwood, 2007).

Perhaps one cannot guarantee the complete safety to the information because the huge amount of stored information is not present at only once location, rather it is available on many places. Unfortunately, the technological innovations have also some of the loopholes with it and cyber crime is one of the grave concerns that make the people vulnerable to identity theft with the release of their personal information (Greenwood, 2007).

Future Implications

The fact cannot be overlooked that numerous options for privacy are available and implemented at many levels, however, with the change in technology to a much greater and faster extent, privacy can still be breached and harm the individuals' private information. In this regard, considering the rapidly changing technology, the experts ought to develop much stronger and better ways to use technology that can provide the people with enhanced security to their personal information from the cyber criminals.

Cyber security for Canada has become a serious and critical theme that ought to be considered with gravity on everyday basis on a broad spectrum. The less exposure to risk from cyber security would convert Canada into safer and more prosperous place. This also denotes that cyber security is not a responsibility of one agency; instead, it is a shared responsibility where every institution and individual should contribute. The collaboration of all the institutions is essential in order to augment the productivity and prosperity of the country, as well as make it less vulnerable to cyber crime.

The Canadian citizens are also obliged to play a major and crucial role in securing the country's cyber future. The Government is constantly struggling to develop strategies that can support cyber security initiatives; nevertheless, it cannot protect each individual from all the threats while being online and releasing personal information. The citizens of the country must become aware of the increasing cyber threats, and ought to have the tools that can help in recognizing such threats so that it can be avoided.

Conclusion

Cyber crime has largely taken over the other crimes and illicit activities in the age of technological boom. Canada is amongst the nations that have become highly exposed to the danger of cyber crimes like various other countries of the world. Although the cyber crime cannot be eliminated hundred percent, yet government of Canada has developed strategies with primary objective to build such a nation which is strong and resilient, in order to keep its citizens feeling safe and protected from harm (Wall, 2007).

These strategies against cyber crime has been developed so that the government of Canada can lower down its cyber crime rates and make the people less vulnerable to be a victim of cyber attacks. This is typically because the more advanced and sophisticated technological progression is becoming mammoth hindrance for the common people to keep their information protected. However, with strict rules, policies and strategies the denizens of Canada would become more secure and safe from the cyber criminals and have their personal and private information secured.

The businesses as well as the populace of Canada on an overall basis ought to implement higher levels of internet security and protection that can make them more secure with their private information and less likely to be a victim of cyber crime.