Explain category of cyber crime.
Categories of Cyber Crime (With Simple Examples)
Cyber crime refers to illegal activities carried out using computers, networks, or the internet. For exam purposes, you can classify cyber crimes based on who or what is targeted and the attacker’s motive. Below are the most commonly accepted categories with clear examples.
1) Crimes Against Individuals (Person-centric)
- Identity Theft: Stealing personal details (name, Aadhaar, banking info) to open accounts or commit fraud.
- Phishing and Social Engineering: Tricking users via fake emails, messages, or calls to reveal passwords/OTPs.
- Cyberstalking and Online Harassment: Persistent threatening messages, tracking, or abusive posts.
- Financial Frauds: UPI/credit card frauds, fake shopping sites, lottery scams.
- Doxing and Privacy Invasion: Publishing personal information without consent.
- Non-consensual Content Sharing: Sharing private images or content to humiliate or blackmail.
2) Crimes Against Property and Data (Asset-centric)
- Unauthorized Access (Hacking): Breaking into systems to view or alter data.
- Malware Attacks: Viruses, worms, spyware, and ransomware that encrypts files and demands payment.
- Data Theft and Intellectual Property Theft: Stealing source code, research data, trade secrets, or designs.
- Software Piracy and Copyright Infringement: Distributing cracked software, movies, music, or e-books illegally.
- Website Defacement and Data Tampering: Altering webpages or manipulating databases to cause loss or damage.
3) Crimes Against Organizations and Society
- Denial of Service (DoS/DDoS): Flooding servers to take down company websites or services.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): Impersonating executives/vendors to divert payments.
- Corporate Espionage and Insider Threats: Employees or attackers stealing confidential business information.
- Supply Chain Attacks: Compromising a trusted vendor to infiltrate multiple organizations.
- Large-scale Data Breaches: Exploiting vulnerabilities to leak customer or employee records.
- Content-related Offenses: Spreading harmful, illegal, or disinformation content that impacts public order.
4) Crimes Against Government and Critical Infrastructure (State-centric)
- Cyber Espionage: Stealing sensitive government data, defense information, or diplomatic communications.
- Critical Infrastructure Attacks: Targeting power grids, transport, telecom, healthcare, or water systems.
- Cyber Terrorism: Disrupting essential services or causing fear to achieve ideological goals.
- Defacement of Government Portals: Altering official sites to spread propaganda or misinformation.
Emerging and Evolving Categories
- IoT/OT Attacks: Exploiting smart devices, CCTV, or industrial control systems.
- Mobile and SIM-swap Frauds: Hijacking mobile numbers to reset banking passwords and drain accounts.
- Cloud and API Abuse: Stealing tokens/keys, misusing APIs, or misconfigurations to access cloud data.
- Cryptocurrency Crimes: Crypto scams, rug pulls, cryptojacking (using your device to mine crypto), and wallet thefts.
- AI-enabled Threats: Deepfakes, voice cloning, and synthetic identities to commit fraud or blackmail.
How to Remember for Exams
- Group by target: individuals, property/data, organizations/society, government/critical infrastructure.
- Motive is usually financial, ideological, or personal (revenge/curiosity).
- Methods often overlap: phishing + malware + data theft can occur in a single incident.