Cybercrime happens to be one of the major afflictions threatening our security as a society, yet trying to convict hackers and guilty parties in 2018 is an incredibly difficult exercise.
From financial institutions to the national security apparatus and sensitive details of individuals, the ability for us to be compromised through our smartphone devices and daily tech tools continues to be high, despite our best efforts to safeguard ourselves.
So how is the law positioned in all of this and what can our legal institutions do to protect us from this ongoing threat?
Unfortunately in the majority of cases there are regular barriers that affect prosecutors from doing their job properly. Here are some of the most common issues standing in their way.
Knowledge and Awareness From Victims
In many instances, an individual or organization won’t realize they have been hacked or compromised until it is too late. Those brands who have been the victim of a cyber attack often won’t want to make that information public to avoid the scrutiny, both from their shareholders and for other cyber criminals who see a vulnerable target.
Technology Sophistication
From VPN software tools to data encryption and all manner of applications in between, cyber criminals are usually one step ahead of the game. This means the capacity of a legal prosecutor to profile the culprit is incredibly difficult as they will already be in the process of covering their tracks to avoid being caught. The process of gathering data is therefore slowed down with IP addresses, date stamps and login details either wiped or overwritten, breaking the chain of evidence.
Individual Jurisdiction Issues
What constitutes as cybercrime in the United States is not necessarily that of laws in China, Russia, Brazil, Australia or anywhere else on the planet. There is no genuine uniformity when it comes to the domain of jurisdiction and because so much cybercrime happens to be from overseas parties, convicting a criminal based halfway across the world is almost impossible from a logistical point of view.
Ability To Negotiate and Cooperate
Due to their often unparalleled expertise in the filed of cyber hacking, many of the leading government bodies who recruit ideal counterintelligence operations need resources and intellectual property from these operators. In the event that they do pin down an individual or cohort in this line of work, there an instances where they can strike a deal with prosecutors to go after grander schemers in the world of cybercrime.