'Crackers', cyberattacks and cybersecurity vulnerabilities : the difficulties in combatting the 'new' cybercriminals
Anthony Minnaar · Acta criminologica · 2014
Given modern societies' increased reliance on borderless and decentralised information technologies, cyberspace has been identified as an easy target for organised criminals, criminal hackers (crackers), 'hacktivists', governments themselves or even terrorist networks for the perpetration of a number of wide-ranging illegal activities - not all purely criminal. Gone are the days when encryption was fool proof, e-commerce was safe, gaming was just for fun, war was fought by actual people, and the Internet was safely in the hands of responsible entities. Control over the Internet has become a free-for-all, and nothing is 'hackproof' with old cybersecurity models collapsing. This article examines cybercrime basics, the anatomy of cyberattacks as launched against networks by professional hackers/crackers and then turns to looking at the enormous problems of implementing cybersecurity in an ordinary organisation, and finally the current threats and vulnerabilities of mobile devices and the growing practice of 'bring-your-own-device' (BYOD) to work.