Cybercrime violates individuals’ privacy and the security of their data, particularly hacking, malware, identity theft, financial fraud, medical fraud, and certain offences against persons that involve the revealing of personal information, messages, images, and video and audio recordings without individuals’ consent or permission (e.g., cyberstalking, cyber harassment, and cyberbullying discussed in Module 12 on Interpersonal Cybercrime).

Data is considered a commodity online and offline by both legal and illegal actors (Maras, 2016). For this reason, data is a primary target of cybercriminals. Data also plays an integral role in the commission of many cybercrimes, primarily because it is not adequately protected and can be illicitly accessed and obtained. Data breaches have resulted from lost or stolen encrypted flash drives and other storage devices (mainly laptop and smartphones), poor system and data security, unauthorized access to the database or the exceeding of authorized access to a database, and accidental disclosure, release or publication of data.

Did you know?

Stolen passwords can cause harm beyond the compromised accounts as people often recycle passwords and use them (or parts of these passwords; for example, certain numbers) on more than one website, email account, app, and/or online platform.