Introduction to Cybercrime

Explore how policing intersects with cybercrime, addressing underreporting, jurisdictional challenges, and public perception, while outlining local, state, and federal agencies and their cyber capabilities.

Civil investigations complement law enforcement in cybercrime, with varying certifications and organizations guiding practice. International cases raise damage, political, and extradition hurdles, while privacy and encryption debates shape law enforcement.

explore how computer hardware works, from the case, power supply, motherboard, BIOS, and processor to RAM and video card, all tied together to run software and manage heat.

Learn how computers store data in binary as bits and bytes, compare platter and solid-state drives, and explain partitioning, file systems, and raid. Understand boot sequences and cybercrime risks.

Explore how computers talk across the internet and intranets, including downloads and uploads, ISPs and the backbone, plus packets, routing, headers, IP addresses, DNS, and VPNs.

Explore how latency and bandwidth shape network speed, test connections with ping and traceroute, and learn home router security and the net neutrality debate.

Trace the history of cybercrime from phone phreaking to the internet, highlighting 2600 Hz tones, ARPANET, early hackers, Morris worm, and the rise of home computers.

Examine two legendary hackers, Kevin Mitnick and Max Butler, contrasting the information-driven, social-engineering era with a money-driven, credit-card fraud era, including their arrests and later careers.

Discover how modern hackers use social engineering, phishing, and pretexting, and how internal and external actors, black/white/grey hats, and nation-state dynamics shape cybercrime.

Define malware as an umbrella for programs that harm devices, and examine viruses, worms, trojans, boot sector and macro viruses, keyloggers, botnets, and ransomware.

Explore how antivirus relies on hashing-based signatures and updates to detect malware, and learn five motivations for malware writers—creativity, revenge, pranks, fame, and income.

Explain digital piracy from music history to modern internet sharing, detailing copyrights, trademarks, and patents, MP3s, Napster, BitTorrent, digital rights management, and the creators, traders, and bleachers hierarchy.

Explore why people justify digital piracy through techniques of neutralization, including denial of injury and condemning the condemners, and how sampling affects piracy and subsequent purchases.

Examine how online financial crimes target buyers and sellers through email fraud, phishing, work-from-home scams, romance scams, pump-and-dump stock schemes, spam, and counterfeit products.

Explore how identity theft uses stolen PII, including social security numbers, credit cards, and licenses, to enable employment, tax, bank, and health care fraud, new accounts, and skimming.

Explore the history of pornography from ancient art to the internet, examine sexting, fetishes, revenge porn, prostitution, and the obscenity standard shaping cybercrime law.

Explore the legal and ethical issues of child pornography, including consent, abuse, and AI generated images, and explain Copine’s 1–10 scale of depictions.

Explore the rising threat of child abuse online, including live streaming, grooming, dark web markets, and cryptocurrency, and discuss OnlyFans-like platforms and guardian protection.

Examine the DSM-5 criteria and six subtypes of pedophilic disorder, then compare hands-on and hands-off offenders and outline Durkin and Crone typologies of offenders.