Different Types of Cybercrime in Cyber World

Last Updated on 2 years by Touhid

Cybercrime is a criminal activity which involves computer, mobile phone and network system of an organization. In modern day, cybercriminals are very smart in technology and they used different types of cybercrime technique to get unauthorized of a system. In this post, we will cover each types of cybercrime.

Different Types of Cybercrime

There are different types of cybercrime in cyber world such as hacking, phishing, spyware, malware, ransom ware, and social engineering attack. Nowadays, cybercrime is one of the most profitable ways to make money in the cyber world.

The main aim of cybercrime is to steal information, damage data, spread malware, committing fraud, trafficking in child pornography and generate profit for cybercriminals. The man who perform these illegal activities is called hackers.

All digital devices such as computers, notebook, and smartphones are connected to the internet. So, there has a chance to attack these devices by cybercriminals.

Now, we are going to explain each types of cybercrime.

1. Hacking Cybercrime

Hacking is types of cybercrime that identifying the weakness in computer system and control over security system in order to gain unauthorized access for illegal purpose.

This type of cybercrime can steal information, damage data or bring down servers and networks of an organization. And the person who perform these illegal activities is called hacker.

Typically, a hacker is a person who is skilled in computer programs and utilizes their technical knowledge to finds and exploits the weakness in computer systems to gain unauthorized access.

There are different types of hacker in the cyber world such as white hat, black hat, and grey hat hacker. A hacker can be an individual or group of members.

2. Fraud Cybercrime

Fraud is a type of cybercrime which intentionally intends to deceive a person in order to monetary or personal gain. This cybercrime always includes a false statement, misrepresentation or deceitful conduct and its main purpose is to gain something of value, usually money.

For Example: A person pays for something with a check and he knows that there is not enough money in the account to cover the cost.

There are different types of fraud and one of the most common types of fraud is check fraud. There are also some other types of fraud, which are as follows:

• Internet sales
• Website misdirection
• Charities fraud
• Mail Fraud
• Identity theft
• Credit card fraud
• Insurance fraud

3. Phishing

We know that, there are different types of cybercrime in the cyber security. And Phishing is one of the most common types of cybercrime which attempt to gain sensitive and confidential information such as usernames, passwords, credit card information, network credentials.

This type of cybercrime can happen via different ways such as email, text message, social media, websites or by phone.

The phishing email may have a vulnerable URL link or malicious attachment file. If you click on that link then it may redirect to you vulnerable website or may install malware on your computer to hack your sensitive information.

There are different ways that you may infected by phishing cybercrime, which are as follows:

• Lack of awareness about Phishing attack
• Widespread use of emails account
• Clicking on suspicious URL
• Provide sensitive information on internet
• Don’t have antivirus software

User awareness about phishing attack and technical education is the best ways to protect from this type of cybercrime.

4. Zero-Day-Attack

Zero-day attack is a type of cybercrime which is the application based computer security threats. It is unknown security vulnerability or security hole in a software or application, when the software development has completed by software engineers.

It is happening when the security patch has not been released or the developers were unaware of or did not have sufficient time to fix the vulnerability.

However, if the vulnerability is not solved by the developer then this type of cybercrime can impact on computer programs, data, or a network.

5. Denial-of-Service Attacks

In this post, we are discussing different types of cybercrime. Already, we have discussed some cybercrime. Now we will discuss Denial-of-Service or DoS attack.

A Denial-of-Service or DoS attack is types of cybercrime which shut down a system or network and making it inaccessible to the intended users.

In this cybercrime, an attacker attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing specific computer systems, devices or other resources.

Typically, DoS attack flood a web server, application or network of an organization by sending huge amounts of traffic to overwhelm the victim’s resources.

In addition, Denial-of-Service attack flooding an application with requests until normal traffic is unable to be processed, resulting in denial-of-service attack.

 6. Cybersquatting Cybercrime

Cybersquatting is a criminal offense related to website domains which registering, selling or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit. These types of cybercrime are also known as domain squatting.

When you want to register a domain name, you should first check out the domain name is available or not. If the website address is functional and related to the subject of the domain name then the domain is not for sell.

And if the website address is inaccessible or states the following message then you are victim of cybersquatting.

• The website is “under construction”
• Browser displays “cannot find server” error
• Information about how to buy this domain
• The website has no relation to the domain name

7. Spoofing Cybercrime

Spoofing is a cybercrime where an attacker attempts to gain unauthorized access to a user’s system or information by pretending to be the user.

In general, spoofing is a fraudulent attempt in which communication is sent from an unknown source and disguised as a known source to the receiver.

Its main purpose is to spread malware, stealing user’s sensitive information such as bank account details, personal information, login credentials, credit card details etc.

The most common forms of spoofing are IP Spoofing, email spoofing, and DNS spoofing and email spoofing is one of the best-known spoofing.

8. Social Engineering

Social engineering is another types of cybercrime in which cyber criminals make a direct contact with victim through phone calls, emails or victim clicking a deceptive link or visiting a malicious website.

It is a popular tactic of cyber-attack because it is often easier to exploit user’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities such as their emotions, easy mindless than it is to find a network or software vulnerability.

The most popular types of social engineering attacks are phishing, spear phishing, bating etc.

In this cybercrime, the attackers take benefit of user’s weakness, faith and influence to visiting a vulnerable website or clicking a malicious link to hack their information.

9. Ransomware

Ransomware is a cybercrime that is the most common type of cyber crime in the cyber world to hack your sensitive information. It is a type of malicious software or program that blocks to access computer system and demands for bitcoin in order to access the system.

There are different types of ransomware cybercrime attacks such as WannaCry, Petya, Cerber, Locky and CryptoLocker.

The ransomeware cybercrime can install on your device through the following ways:

• When download and open a malicious attachment
• Install free software’s or applications
• Visiting a malicious website
• Clicking on vulnerable website URL

10. Malware

Already, we have discussed some different types of cybercrime. Now we will discuss another common type of computer crime which is called malware.

Malware is a malicious program which is designed to extensive damage to data and systems or to gain unauthorized access to a computer system.

It is delivered in the form of a link or over email and it requires user to click on the link or open the file to execute the malware.

The malware is very risky to those company, who saves their information on computer or server. If their computer or server is attacked by a malware then their information will be hacked by attackers.

So, you may consider the following tips to protect from this type of cybercrime.

• Don’t download suspicious attachments
• Never click on suspicious URL
• Don’t use free software’s
• Up to date your operating system
• Use antivirus software on your device

11. SQL Injection

SQL injection is one of the most common types of cybercrime that allows cyber criminals to control an application’s database. In many cases, the cyber criminals can modify or delete this data including the malicious code in SQL statements, via web page input.

These types of cybercrime occur when an application fails to properly sanitize the SQL statements then attacker can include their own malicious SQL commands to access the database.

12. Cross Site Scripting (XSS)

Cross-site Scripting (XSS) is a web security vulnerability and client-side code injection attack, in which execute malicious scripts in a web browser of the victim. It includes malicious code in a legitimate web page or web application.

It occurs when a victim visits that type of web page or web application that executes the malicious code inside the victim’s browser then the attacker can fully compromise their interaction with the application.

13. Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is technological harassment in which the attacker harasses a victim using electronic communication, such as e-mail or messages posted to a website, social media and blog.

We have discussed different types of cybercrime but cyberstalking is a serious crime, and no one wants to become a victim of that crime. So, the best way of protect yourself is to keep your personal information private on the internet.

Conclusion

Finally, cybercrime is the most profitable but illegal ways to make money in the cyber world. The main purpose of cybercrime is to hack information, damage data, installing malware, committing fraud and generate profit for cybercriminals. We have discussed each types of cybercrime. Hope the article “different types of cybercrime” will helpful for you.