The Battle Between Internet Law and Cyber Crime

The internet is basically a virtual world that is every expanding and growing. Like any world, it needs laws and like any world, the biggest adversary is crime. Cyber crime can take many forms and internet law is hard-pressed to keep up with it.

Internet law is still not universal. This slows it down in respect to fighting internet crime, which knows no boundaries and can attack various countries at once. Both touch the real world in various manners, but particularly when a cyber criminal is caught and brought to real world justice.

You might be asking yourself what cyber crime is. Well, it is any illegal act performed on the Internet. This could be as simple as plagiarizing someone else's website or downloading free music that was never meant to be free. Or it could involve more serious crimes such as child pornography, hacking, identity theft and other such serious offenses.

Internet law has some powerful backup. For example, if you are involved in hacking, otherwise known as computer invasion, you could be investigated by the FBI. Or even the U.S. Secret Service! Immigration usually deals with imported crimes, such as child pornography which might not be produced in the States, but can be downloaded from Thailand, for example.

Here are a few of the internet crimes that are investigated by agencies like the FBI and SS:

- SPAM and online fraud

- Online bomb threats

- Trafficking of bombs and other explosive weapons and firearms online

- Child exploitation and porn

- Currency counterfeiting and laundering

- Trafficking in passwords

As you can see, the majority of these crimes are still real-world based, and can have serious repercussions. They could even result in death in some cases where a bomb is sold over the internet.

The way internet law is enforced depends on the country, since some things are not illegal in some countries. For example, in many third world countries, it is completely acceptable to buy and sell firearms online, something that is strictly prohibited in the U.S.

When someone is the victim of an online crime, or comes across a criminal act, they can report the issue to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, who will then pass the information on to the appropriate authorities to investigate. Their website is an excellent place to find more information on internet law and how to use it to protect yourself. They also have definitions and information on all known types of cyber crime.

You can also report high crimes directly to the FBI or the SS, although it is recommended that you go through the Internet Crime Complaint Center as they are set up to filter complaints.

However, the internet law still is based on countries, which can cause problems. While we are still figuring out how to deal with international problems, cyber criminals are rampant. They can easily access computers anywhere in the world and cause major problems, and unless the countries come together to form a universal internet law, chances are that cyber crime will never be fully resolved.