Cyber Security

A valid and universal policy solution to the problem of cyber security is required if the world must realize the intended use of technology in world business and communication.

With the wide spread of technology, the current internet communication is turning the entire world into a village. Through e-business, numerous business transactions formerly done on the ordinary methods are now online. However, this technological development is highly compromised by hackers and hence, declining cyber security. For instance, Valuable data, especially for economic and military use must be transmitted in a confidential system. In the case of militia, any information accessed by hackers could be used to fight them back posing a serious security problem to the country concerned. Likewise, if the national innovations are hacked before the actual implementation, companies will experience a high economic loss.

The problem of cybercrime affects a wide range of stakeholders in the economy especially the military, central, and local governments, business people, banks, and learning institutions. According to recent research, banks in the United States lose 100 million USD every year. 80% of this loss is attributable to cyber criminals (Walden, 2007). The criminals hack the bank system online and transfer money to different accounts. The United States military as well receives more than 40,000 attacks to their database every year. The cost of repairing the damage amounts to more than 100 million USD (Walden, 2007). In relation to e-business, research has revealed that more than 10,000 people sent money to ghost business people claiming to sell various assets online. The transaction is conducted on dummy websites and thereafter, when the potential customer sends, money via the available online payment methods, the website becomes inactive (Walden, 2007).

Human trafficking is another common cybercrime. With the advent of online dating sites and online recruiting agencies, the vice has moved to a higher level. A substantial level of communication is conducted online, and thereafter, physical meeting is arranged. The traffickers take the advantage of strangers who are either desperate of employment or life partners. Notably, half of human trafficking cases in the world originate from online communication (Moore, 2005). In learning institutions, students hack the college database and award themselves different and better grades.

The search for secure internet communication and business is still in its initial stages. Several alternatives advanced by individuals and government are not sufficient to curb the menace. For instance, there are no outstanding legislations enacted by world governments to fight the crime. The individual measures taken by internet service providers are never sufficient to track the hackers. In addition, the IP address do not offer an option of deleting the accessed data before it reaches the perceived destination (Moore, 2005).

Operators of cyber cafes do not have proper identification procedures and therefore, most hackers perform their business from these cyber cafes making their identity difficult to detect. It is unfortunate that cyber café operators end up to be the major suspects of these cybercrimes. The tracking system provided by the current IP address cannot offer individual identification and therefore limited to the computer used by the hacker. Therefore, it is worth noting that not all these alternative measures taken to curb internet crimes are effective owing to the recent rise of the vice. In the United States, the 113^th congress both at the house and at the senate passed several legislations like the cyber warrior act of 2013, to protect the armed forces and the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) to protect government and business people (Moore, 2005).

However, none of these legislations has been signed into law and hence, they remain inactive. Therefore, it is important to put in place valid measures that will ensure complete prevention of these increasing internet crimes.

The first step towards the realization secure internet communication is to compel all the internet service providers to provide encrypted data only. Though the system would be quite expensive, data transmitted across different networks will be secure. On a similar score, a comprehensive tracking system to the existing IP addresses should be installed at the national level. This tracking system should provide all the relevant personal information leading to the arrest of the hackers (Moore, 2005). The system should as well be able to delete the hacked data before it becomes visible to the hacker. At the individual level, cyber operators should install strict identification procedures before their customers use the service. This is because most of these hackers contact their business at different cyber cafes to confuse the source of the act.

The various legislations should be made comprehensive and subsequently signed into law. In relation to the crime, the penalties must be tough enough to discourage more practice after the punishment. It is essential for the law to cover all the stakeholders, not only the military and the business people.

In conclusion, a substantial loss awaits all the economy stakeholders if the vice grows at its current rate. The economy will continue losing money; customers will buy from dummy websites, and many banks will collapse due to the enormous losses. With the current measures being ineffective, the world ought to advance with the technology to counter the increasing internet attacks. Since cybercrime is not as other crimes committed physically, the victims should develop a more advanced solution like developing counter programs to hack back the information. To make all these measures more effective, the government must put all of them into a policy and subsequently convert the policy into law. Converting the various measures into law will attract the involvement of the entire stakeholders. Cybercafé operators will have to meet certain predetermined standards before getting the license to operate. On the other hand, if the suspects face tough punishments, other people intending to commit the crime will scare away. Therefore, the best plan of action is to make a policy that will formalize the various alternatives and hence fight internet crime.