Cybercrime Awarness Essay

In at presents cyber piece in which e very(prenominal) angiotensin-converting enzyme is dependent on computers and net income cybercrime is a developing concern since it costs individuals and companies billions of dollars each year. This paper is judgeing the cognizance of community regarding cybercrime and its set up. It is cosmos look fored be convey the aw arness itself and the down sexledge on the matter argon requirements for halt cybercrime, considering the effects of no action.Research showed that although the volume is aw atomic minute 18 of the dangers that cybercrime poses they atomic function 18 roughlyly non willing to do much, except the basic steps, to cling to themselves from it. They atomic number 18 exit the door open for cybercriminals to step in. Introduction This end foc exercises on the dangers of cybercrime and the aw beness and familiarity of individuals regarding it. In extension to finding out how much and what quite a little kno w close to cybercrime raw information regarding cybercrime subtypes is pre displaceed. CybercrimeCybercrime is most(prenominal) comm wholly delimit as crime in which computers and net are procedured for vile activities much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as spoof, trafficking, dealing of identities, violating privacy and m well-nigh(prenominal) an early(a)(prenominal) an an approximately other(prenominal)(prenominal)s (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010). Due to the far-flung sub course of computers and lucre in todays society, cybercrime has plough largest growth type of criminal activity almost the world (British Broadcasting Corporation, n. d. ). t on the entirely(a)y to the entropy processing remains Crime Research Center (2004) cybercrime is most commonly change integrity into three categories (a) cybercrime against persons, (b) cybercrime against home or (c) cybercrime against government.First type of cybercrime, the one through to quite a little consists of crimes much(prenominal) as different assortments of harassments, nestling pornography distri hardlyion, fundamentally for perpetuallyything forefathere to spate with the example of computers and Internet (Parishat, 2004). One of m all frameworks of cybercrime against persons was the famed Melissa Virus (CERT, 1999) which attacked over 1 million computers in the coupled States and Europe through Microsoft Word course. Melissa was engineered as a macro virus that attacks Microsoft Word 97 and 2000 and Microsoft Outlook and then enthraling the virus to other people through the outlook hitress book (tech target, 2011).Further much, it has the hap to cripple mailing systems of corporations as it did with Microsoft. Second type of cybercrime traced above is the one against any and all types of property (Parishat, 2004). Furthermore, property cybercrime is most often the wipeout of other peoples property either through prejudicial programs or through acts of vandalism, sabotage and industrial espionage. Third and the locomote course are crimes towards government (Parishat, 2004). According to Parishat, Internet is often used to remunerations threats towards governments and citizens.Furthermore, most common type of cybercrime against government is hacking government or legions websites. Types of cybercrime acts will be explained in more detail in the future(a) pages. Spam. Usual definition of e-mail (iskon, n. d. ) would be that it is an unwanted and unasked electronic mail, which is usually sent to large number of recipients. increase numbers of net wee-wee users report spam problems on their email accounts, which is why more and more online net profit providers offer shield against spam in form of spam filters and various features that locoweed block unwanted mail (Spam fairnesss, 2009).Spam is so annoying that a check into in Australia showed that spam mail is on 15th place of things that annoy Australians the mos t (Anonymous, 2010). A study doingsed by joint forces of University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Diego show that spammers flock earn millions of dollars per year expert by sending spam mail (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2008). Moreover, they concluded that although spammers receive set on approximately incessantlyy 12th million mail they send they steady earn a significant amount depending on the surface of their spam network.Spam has risen to such(prenominal) levels that individuals now pose as companies and send out spam mail that can damage the companionships reputation (HT Media, 2010). Most spam mail is expert advertizement and as such is harmless(prenominal), only any(prenominal) spam messages are cave in of more severe mesh frauds such as indistinguishability larceny or any other common internet fraud (Microsoft, n. d. ) rouse sharing and piracy. The word piracy has majusculely changed its imagineing compared to what it used to jump out for in the past.Today when we say piracy we do non mean on pirates who attack other ships and settlements, rather we think of people who are duplicating the work of others and selling it for their ainised gain without the permission of the owner (The Indian Music Industry, 2010). Companies and governments are trying to fight the piracy by supporting consumers to use effectual means of acquisition of movies, melody and other work typically targeted by pirates (Pichevin, 2010).Moreover, they are implementing laws that are sup be to pr veritable(a)t piracy, but people occupy started taking piracy for granted and do non hesitate to do it on occasional basis thinking it is non a crime, and this costing the industry millions of dollars. Internet fraud. According to Australian national Police, the term online fraud confabulates to any type of fraud scheme that uses email, websites, call rooms or message boards to present fraudulent solicitations to prospect ive victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions (Australian Federal Police, 2010).In todays magazine of computers and internet galore(postnominal) scams are circling the World Wide Web (National subterfuge Information Ceneter, n. d. ). Moreover, old phone and mail frauds that used to circle the world are doing the same again, but this sequence on the internet, and to such extremity that it is becoming hard to tell the difference between genuine online sellers and scammers, who just want to defecate our money. Child pornography. One of the first applications of the internet that strived for profit was pornography (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).Although legal, pornography has a criminal element to its name and that is pip-squeak pornography. That element has grown to such extent that experts say it has became a caper that earns around 3 billion dollars a year. Also as such child pornography is hard to track on the internet cod to the point that there are still many countries with inadequate cybercrime laws in place. Providers of child pornography use the internet to sell it to pedophiles, who in do-gooder of buying child pornography overly use the internet to seduce children into ngaging in ill-gotten sexual activities (Law Library, 2010). Moreover, one of the difficulties in stopping child pornography is that it is done over the internet, meaning it is on global scale, and law enforcement officials all around the world wee to cooperate in stopping the offenders. Hacking. In the early days of the internet hacking was no more than a practical joke, but today hacking has solely other meaning and it is considered a severe transgression of the law (British Broadcasting Corporation, n. d. ).Furthermore, hackers today prove their expense and skills to other hackers by attacking computer systems of big multinational corporations and purge governments. Moreover, they plant their viruses which can then cause severe damage, for example the love-bug virus which hit over forty million computers in the world and managed to cause billions of dollars in damages. Today hackers often compromise computer systems of banks and other line of merchandise in order to steal money or some worthful learning which they can later sell on the black pot (British Broadcasting Corporation, n. . ). Furthermore, in a surveil taken by the Computer Security Institute 90% of companies in the analyse utter that they find experienced security breaches in their systems in the last year, while 74% bringed to lose money because of these security breaches. The original bill was over 260 millions of dollars. Moreover, nigh 80% of the companies know that their employees tend to exploit the internet for personal gain, during their on the job(p) hours, and approximately the same division of companies has take noteed signs of viruses in their systems I the last year.Today there are so far websites where people can hit the books how to become a hacker and improve their hacking skills (hackthissite. org, 2010). Identity thievery. Probably the most famous type of cybercrime is the individuation theft or the theft of personal nurture of people (techterms, 2011). Identity theft doesnt only refer to theft over internet, but on any type of illegal obtaining of personal info (department of justice, n. d. ). There are two slipway of multitude information over the internet and they are phishing and pharming (techterms, 2011).Phishing is a type of internet fraud in which garble emails are used to knit information. Furthermore, it is authorised to say that people fall on this kind of scams because they appear to be legitimate and from legitimate websites. While phishing lures users to fake sites, pharming redirects internet users to fake websites without their knowledge. Moreover, contradictory phishing pharming has the possibility to hit more users at the same time. Furthermore, when users are redirected to fake websites either b y phishing or pharming they are asked for their personal information which criminals can use to steal their identity.Through identity theft criminals can heavily damage people whose identity they have taken (department of justice, n. d. ). Furthermore, they do monetary damage through credit card debt, loans, etc. in addition to the reputation of the victims that suffers as well. It is important to mention that first offenders who demoteed many lives usually walked free imputable to lack of laws against identity theft. First laws against identity theft were not made until 1998. According to Federal Trade billing approximately 9 million Americans become victims of identity theft, and that is just on yearly basis (Federal Trade Commission, n. . ) gifted property. According to World Intellectual Property Organization (n. d. ) smart property is work of mind including literary and art work, different inventions, names, symbols images and designs. According to Law Library America (20 10) intellectual property theft is a theft of copyrighted stuffs and other partys trade secrets. Most common intellectual properties that are stolen online are software, movies and music, and games. Furthermore, trade secrets such as plans, designs, different kind of policies and procedures, even recopies are also stolen.Moreover, companies or individuals counterfeit brands of products and sell them as the real grant which they are not. Intellectual property theft can affect the immaculate economy, because hackers and pirates contribute to losses of millions of dollars. Furthermore, with appearance of computers intellectual property theft has become easier than ever since companies have everything on computer files which are easy to bunk in. Moreover, pirated secrets are sold to other companies that use them to stay in the washing or to get insight on how their competition operates etc. dditionally hold states that that intellectual property criminals have very measly cost o f operating room due to the fact they do not make any gross revenue in person, they dont have to travel anywhere removed their homes and their profits are rather high. According to Mills (2009) theft of information and other cybercrimes have cost furrowes on global level around $1 trillion just in last year. Furthermore, she claims that seam in developing countries and third world countries travel by more money on nurseing their intellectual property then western countries do.industrial espionage. Industrial espionage appeared as a by-product of the fast technological progress, it reflects the attempts of businesses to acquire secrets of the trade from their competition and use it for their personal gain (Encyclopedia Britannica, n. d. ) Moreover, industrial espionage is not unceasingly as dramatic as it sounds it can be as elemental as checking prices of competition. Furthermore, trade secrets could e exposed through disgruntle employees who expertness get wordk revenge a gainst their company and give away sensible information to its competitors.In addition some employees are lured by other companies with promises of break away salary and work conditions just so that employee gives them secrets of their competition. A very new-fashioned example of industrial espionage happened in Renault, where their project with Nissan in developing a battery-powered car was involved in industrial espionage affair (Haase, 2011). Furthermore, the word states that top Renault managers big businessman be involved in the case, but Renault is still unsure as to who great power had breached their security protocols and gained access to the information.Another example of industrial espionage, but on more global level, is the WikiLeaks, who published great number of secret documents on the Afghan and Iraq war to the general human race (Greenberg, 2010) Furthermore, that breach of secret information is the biggest one in military narrative and according to the appoin ter of WikiLeaks Julian Assange it is just the beginning. Moreover, he claims that he suffer a trove of yet to be published documents about mysterious sector in the US that could bring down major US bank.However, he says that this information will be published in 2011 upon throng more information, so it remains to be acquiren what will happen. According to Smole (2004) industrial espionage is becoming easier with technological progress. It is relatively easy to listen in and study mortals mobile phone records all you need to do is switch phone batteries. Furthermore, technology is so right today that eavesdropping and theft are growing problem for companies today. Further in the article it is utter that 60% of members of the Institute of Directors (IOD) have been victims of theft.Every medal has two sides, so does this one, it provides handful of opportunities for security companies to step in and offer their services in protecting other companies. According to Smoles articl e listening devices were found at around 5% of companies, in UK, that seek protection and security checks. Moreover, another commercial advantage of industrial espionage is that in the UK only if ? 10milion worth of listening devices has been sold, so that is nice business for companies selling those devices. It is important to add that nowadays information is vital to success on the market and brings companies required edge over competition.However, article also states that there are even some partially legal companies in the business of providing espionage services for other companies. Companies who manage to discover that their confidential information has been compromised usually take legal efforts to stop further loss of trade secrets (Encyclopedia Britannica, n. d. ). Furthermore, law regulated consequences for companies answerable of industrial espionage range from injunctions for use of knowledge acquired through illegal ship canal to fining for damages, depending on the severances of the crime.Today industrial espionage is so widespread it is not just in the movies we watch, but it is a real threat to ethics of business (Smale, 2004). According to Symantec Company (2010), one of the leading world companies in protection against cybercrime, around two thirds of Internet users in the world have been victims of cybercrime. Furthermore, they claim that majority of people who become victims of cybercrime blame themselves for becoming victims of such act. Moreover, majority of victims state that they do not plan on changing their behavior and large portion never even reports the crime to the authorities.Researching awareness is very important, because awareness directly influences prevention of cybercrime. Methods Primary research part of this project consists of a survey, which was administrated online with the use of survey monkey an online survey tool. According to Trochim (2006) survey is one of the most valuable research methods. In this case surve y was chosen due to time constraints and the fact it can give the needful information from greater number of respondents. canvas targeted all ACMT students and power total of them 500, of which ne light speed responded to the survey. Respondents were all literate and educated enough, with no style barrier and surprisingly cooperative. The survey was created on January 21, 2011 and it consisted of sextetteteen closed-ended interrogations that would take no more than five minutes to answer. Goal behind such piddling survey was for the respondents not to lose interest towards the end and answer all headings. Survey was designed to test the general knowledge and awareness of the audition. A exemplification of the self-administrated online survey can be seen in Appendix B.Survey points head teacher 1. Please identify your gender. This first head was posed in order to gather background information about the experiment listening, to see what percentages of respondents were male and what percentage were female. distrust 2. Please select your age group. This enquiry also served to gather additional data about the type audience, to see what percentages of respondents belong to which of the four offered age groups. distrust 3. How much time do you occur in front of a computer on occasional basis?This incertitude was designed to see how much time respondents spend in front of their computers in order to investigate if there are any connections between the amount of time spent in such manner and knowledge about cybercrime issues. Question 4. For what purposes do you use computers and Internet? This gesture was designed to see for what purposes respondents use computers and the Internet, is it purely for business and teaching method or they use it for personal purposes as well. Question 5. Do you use Internet for any of the following?This drumhead is closely relate to the preceding(prenominal) question. It was designed to check for exactly what p ersonal or business purposes the seek audience uses Internet. From the data gathered it was affirmable to draw conclusions on how advanced is their practice of Internet possibilities and do they use it to full potential or just capture small portion of its possibilities. Question 6. gull you ever experienced problems with any of the following? This question was designed to see with what kind of Internet attacks respondents most often suffer from.Whether they are from viruses, spyware or hackers themselves. Question 7. What types of cybercrime can you name? This was the only question that was open-ended, but the respondents were required to name only cybercrime types they know. Regrettably the survey tool used is such that it is thinkable for respondents to skip questions and this question might be skipped by some. Question 8. Do you feel that you are protected enough against cybercrime? This question was designed to detect the general level of protection of respondents against cybercrime.To test if they feel vulnerable against cybercrime or they think they are protected enough against it. Question 9. Do you use any program to protect your Internet browsing? This question was posed to see if the stress audience is aware of the Internet threats and use programs specializedally designed to protect them while they are online. It doesnt test what program exactly they use but it just tests the general usage of such programs that protect its users from unwanted viruses and spyware. Question 10. Has your PC ever been infected by a virus that disgraced its components or stored data?This question is about connected to the previous question. It was designed to test if the take in audience ever came under attack from viruses that damaged their computers hardware or software and demoralize data. It does not measure what was damaged in the process or repletion of the damages, just the occurrence of the attack did it ever happen or not. Question 11. Have you ever been a victim of identity theft? This question was designed to see if any of the sample audience has ever been a victim of an identity theft fraud.It does not test the severity of the fraud or its depth and damages to the respondent only the occurrence of such action. Question 12. Do you know anyone who suffered from identity theft? This question completes the previous one it provides additional information about identity theft. It was presumed that only a couple of(prenominal) respondents suffered from identity theft I used this additional question to gather more information. Reasoning behind this was that some of the respondents at least know someone who suffered from identity theft. Question 13. Have you ever downloaded any textile from the Internet without paying for it?This question was used as a mark off question, posed in order to check validity of answers to other related items. Reasoning was that everyone has at some point in time downloaded something from the Internet without paying for it, especially in this time when downloading torrents are all present. Question 14. Have you ever mat up that your computer has been hacked? Hacking is one of more serious types of cybercrimes and it causes billions of dollars in damages each year. This question serves the purpose of gathering information on hacking attacks on any of the respondents in the survey.Although it is highly probable that a lot of the answers will be negative, since hackers rarely attack individuals due to low profit possibilities, it is possible to get relevant feedback from the data gathered Question 15. Have you ever sent spam mail? This item is a pretty straightforward question regarding spam mail. It was designed to test if anyone from sample audience sent some spam mail, e. g. if they forward popular discard mail on social networks, company mails etc. Question 16. Have you ever stolen someone elses work? (Intellectual property)This question was posed as another control question, to check validity of answers to other related items. Did they ever steal someone elses work, or take credit for something they did not do. Results Due to the limitations of the online tool used for the survey only one hundred people could respond to the internet survey. The survey was available online from January 21, 2011 until the February 3, 2011. This means that about 20% of all ACMT students and faculty responded to the online survey. Only ACMT members and staff had the opportunity to take part in the survey.For questions consult the Methods part of this project. Graphical representation of the results can be seen in Figures 1 through 15. Survey Results reply to question 1. Data gathered by the first item shows that 59 respondents or 59 % of the respondents were female and 41 respondents or 41% of the respondents were male. It needs to be noted that one must assume, when gathering the data by an internet-administered survey, that none of the respondents would feel the need to misrepresent themselves since they were given the option to remain completely anonymous. answer to question 2. As was to be expected, due to the fact that most of the population was consisted of students attending ACMT 83 people or 83% of respondents answered that they are between ages of 18 to 25. On the same question nine other people or 9% of respondents answered that they are between ages of 26 to 35, additionally four people or 4% of respondents answered that they are between ages of 36 to 45. Last four respondents or 4% of respondents answered that they are between ages of 46 to 70. repartee to question 3.On this question none of the respondents answered that they spend less than 30 minutes on their computers on daily basis. On the other hand five people or 5% of respondents tell that they spend someplace between 30 and 59 minutes on their computers on daily basis 22 people or 22% of respondents said that they spend one to two hours in front of their computers on daily bas is. volume of respondents or 37 of them or 37% of respondents claims that they spend somewhere between two to four hours on their computers on daily basis. bragging(a) portion of respondents or 36 of them or 36% of total sample audience answered that they spend more than four hours in front of their computers on daily basis. Response to question 4. When answering this question three respondents or 3% of respondents claimed that they use Internet only for personal purposes five of them or 5% of respondents answered that they use Internet for business and educational purposes. Majority of respondents 92 of them or 92% of respondents say that they use Internet for both personal and business/education purposes.Response to question 5. On this multiple pickax question 38 respondents or 38 % of respondents answered that online banking is one of the things they use Internet for 40 respondents or 40% of respondents answered that they use Internet for online shopping. Almost all of them or 98 or more precisely 98% of respondents use Internet for research and information gathering. E-mailing is another thing for which 98 people from the survey or 98% of respondents uses Internet for 65 respondents or 65% of sample audience claim that they use Internet for work.This question also had the option other providing the respondents with the possibility to write down additional things that they use the Internet for, which were not available among the offered options. Response to question 6. This was also a multiple choice question on which 95 people or 95% of respondents answered that they had problems with viruses on the same question 53 people or 53% of respondents answered that they had problems with spyware. Only 20 people or 20% of respondents answered that they had problems with hackers. Response to question 7.This open-ended question offered a possibility for the respondents to name any of the cybercrime types they know or heard of. almost of the examples they named w ere spam, identity theft, hacking, data theft, piracy, pecuniary fraud, child pornography, credit card frauds etc. Some people, not some of them, listed Trojan as cybercrime which is just a type of virus. Response to question 8. The data gathered shows that only 33 respondents or 33% of the sample feels protected enough against cybercrime. Majority of the respondents, 67 or 67% dont feel protected enough against cybercrime.Response to question 9. Majority of respondents 83 of them or 83% of total sample respondents answered that they use some kind of a program to protect them while they browse the Internet. untold smaller number or only 17 of them or 17% of total sample respondents dont use any program to protect their Internet browsing and frankincense are exposed to cybercrime. Response to question 10. The data gathered shows that 66 respondents or 66% of the sample express that they have experienced a virus that either damaged their computers components or data stored on it.O n the other hand 34 people or 34% of the sample audience claims that they never experienced situation such as that. Response to question 11. Only six people or 6% of the sample responded positively on this question and answered that they have been victim of some sort of identity theft. Majority of people 94 of them or 94% of the sample have never been victims of identity theft. Response to question 12. Data gathered shows that 50 respondents or 50% of the sample said that they know someone who has been a victim of identity theft. Same number of respondents answered that they didnt know anyone who has been a victim of identity theft.Response to question 13. A vast majority of respondents 94 of them or 94% of the sample audience responded positively and said that they have downloaded materials from Internet without paying for it. Only small portion of six people or 6% of respondents said that they have never downloaded any material from the Internet without paying for it. Response to question 14. In this question 31 people or 31% of respondents said that they have felt hacked at some point in time 69 people or 69% of respondents said that they have never felt hacked before.Response to question 15. Only 16 people or 16% of respondents answered that they have sent spam mail at some point in time. Majority of respondents 84 of them or 84% of respondents answered that they have never sent any spam mail. Response to question 16. On this question 12 people or 12% of all respondents answered positively and admitted of stealing someone elses work. Majority of respondents 88 of them or 88% of respondents said that they have never stolen someone elses work. DiscussionThe goal behind the research was to test the hypothesis that most of the people, although they spend a great make of time on their computers, are not aware of the dangers of cybercrime which often makes them victims and offenders as well when they download material. Research was conducted on sample group con sisting of students, faculty and staff members at ACMT. Data gathered through survey memorial tablet confirmed the thesis based on literature review, that public is not aware of all the dangers that cybercrime poses and the general lack of effort in transaction with it.Research conducted proved that in academic settings people are derail to spend more and more time on the Internet, often unaware of the dangers. Majority of respondents, while using the Internet for either personal or business needs, have at some point in time, encountered viruses or spyware that attacked their computer and put their data at risk. Whether they know any specific details of those cybercrimes or not, the survey did not test, rather it tested only if the sample audience is familiar with any cybercrime type. They could have experienced some of those cybercrimes on their own skin or just hear about them somewhere.To test their specific knowledge on each cybercrime subgroup more time was need and possibly another primary research type such as and in depth interview which could give more data but would also take much more time to answer, which was not possible with current time constraints. Even though one could uncertainty the depth of their knowledge of cybercrime issues, based on the survey results analysis, they obviously are aware of the fact that is stressed throughout professional literature reviewed for the purposes of this project, the fact that there is no program r measure that could completely protect against all types of cybercrime. Only thing that might protect us is rhytidoplasty awareness about cybercrime and the ways it works and the prevention strategies. To inform people about scams cybercriminals use, to help companies defend their data and accounts from intrusions, whether they are from an outside or an inside source. As it was previously mentioned one way to help protect your data and Internet browsing are antivirus and antispyware programs. Those programs det ect intrusions in the system and block or delete them and report back to the user.As research showed many individuals and companies use not only those programs but also seek additional ways of protection in form of firewalls etc. Firewalls in big companies are commonly built by IT experts who design the whole systems for companies trying to make the system unbreakable for all kind of intrusions, since today everything is stored on company servers. This is additionally confirmed by survey results even though more than 50% of respondents claimed to have antivirus protection their computer was attacked by viruses that corrupted their data.Like mentioned before cybercrime has far worse aspects to it than just viruses and spyware. Some types of cybercrime such as identity theft can completely ruin lives of individuals and all around them. People can get completely undone by it. Someone else passing as you is always terrible, let alone when that person has all of your personal informati on from social security number to access to all of your bank accounts etc. Luckily survey results showed that it is a rare occurrence in the academic settings in this part of the world, but one should be aware of the problems faced by people elsewhere.Increasing number of people is getting targeted by cybercriminals who are trying to steal their identities for their financial gain. Still, in analyzing survey results, it is quite important to stress possible factors that might influence the response rates, e. g. without knowing the extent of their knowledge on what identity theft is, there are two possible ways to interpret the low number of favorable answers. On the one hand, it might be interpreted by the lack of knowledge of all the subcategories concerned, on the other it might simply be the fact that the target audience has not encountered with identity theft.As stated in the research many people today tend to use internet to download data without paying for it. Research shows that industries such as movie or music industry are losing millions of dollars because of illegal downloads of their products from torrents which do not pay royalties to authors for usage of their material (Pichevin, 2010). Vast majority of respondents to the survey said that they tend to download material from the internet without paying for it. Like in every question so in this one there is a margin for error.Respondents might have thought that this question relates to any material they download from the internet so that fact might influenced on such majority of affirmative answers. On the other hand this is Croatia where laws against piracy exist, but implementation of such is difficult so people feel free to download material from the internet without being afraid of any legal action or consequence (Ministry of Economy, Labor and entrepreneurship, 2009). Another subtype of cybercrime in which cybercriminals get into is intellectual property theft. From companies coping brands to individuals taking credit for something that is not their own work.As stated in research intellectual property theft has cost companies around the world around $1 trillion in 2008 a number that is growing with each coming year. Research showed that very small percentage of the sample audience admits committing identity theft. That fact might be due to some irrational fear of being made, which is absurd since it is an anonymous survey with no names. Also they might have misunderstood the question, or are not sure in what exactly falls under the course of instruction of intellectual property. Academic dishonesty, which is monitored and punished, is another view of intellectual property that ACMT has. by chance the procedure implemented in academic honesty policy on ACMT influenced the answers given by the survey population. Examining the results of the online survey showed that the respondents, ACMT students and staff, are, to some extent, aware of the dangers of cybercrime. Althoug h the sample audience that responded to the survey might not all be IT experts, although some might, or legal advisors for that matter they have showed an understanding of cybercrime. The background of their knowledge is unknown and untested, but nonetheless its there.Whether it is due to their high education or self education on the matter through the internet they have shown they know a thing or two about cybercrime. Although they show some knowledge about cybercrime it is superficial and that they do not completely comprehend the dangers and some of them as research showed think they are untouchable by cybercrime. Research states that general public needs to be more educated on the matter to create awareness and thus increase the level of protection. Education is especially important in business/educational surroundings.