eCrime/ Cybercrime

[LouiseB]

Hi, I am a researcher working for Mark Johnson, helping with his next book, 'eCrime'. This follows on from his previous titles, 'Demystifying Communications Risk' (2012) and 'Cybercrime, Security & Digital Intelligence', due out this August.

I have been asked to find out how practitioners define "eCrime" and how you normally distinguish between it and "Cybercrime". Mark has his own definitions, but your views would be very helpful as they will help us to refine or modify ours.

 

[OhSnapWord]

I'm not sure if there really is a difference between "eCrime" and "Cybercrime". I think the terms could be used interchangeably.

 

[jmacavali]

My first thought is that I've never heard of eCrime. My second thought is that it sounds exactly the same as Cybercrime.

 

[Branjo]

eCrime I would assume is financial, i.e theft of bank details or identities. Cybercrime I would again assume its the writing of malicious code or viruses, the kind of thing that messes with various kinds of infrastructure.

 

[_michaelm]

Firstly there is no industry agreed definition, or even convention, for these terms since it is still in its infancy (relatively speaking). That said, the term cybercrime is starting to supercede eCrime for a couple of reasons.

1) eCrime implies entirely electronic, whereas cybercrime covers the 'whole' problem space. i.e. social engineering and individuals writing malware are also included (this is not a complete list).

2) The term cybercriminal then makes more sense in this context, as it will characterise people using an element of cyberspace to conduct their activities. Under this definition people who physically steal credit card information, in a shop or via atm skimmers, and sell in the 'underworld' would also be included, even though the original crime was not committed electronically.

Ultimately this also means that you dont have to be on the internet to be a victim of cybercrime, but identity theft is arguably only of use in that environment where authentication is by data instead of any physiological information e.g. fingerprint or someone recognising your face.

Hope that helps, or at least demonstrates that defining internet terms is never easy!