Anonymising software and cryptocurrency are the two technologies used by cryptomarkets. In the global illicit drug trade, cryptomarkets are becoming increasingly important. Online vendors reach more drug consumers through these platforms than any other country, with Australians over-represented. The dark web's cryptocurrency markets allow sellers or vendors location, and payment methods, and provide feedback ratings and comments on sellers while also hiding their identity and location on the dark web. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that has no identity attached to it. It is used because it is a 'non-identity carrying form' of cryptocurrency. 

 

During the digital black-market era, Silk Road was the first drug 'crypto-market' website in 2011. It was designed to revolutionise contemporary drug consumerism. One of the most brazen attempts to peddle drugs online was witnessed on Silk Road, a potent one-stop shop where you could buy and sell any illegal substance you wanted. In order to hide their products and send them undetected, vendors use techniques to send purchased drugs through the normal postal service. Consumers could acquire all manners of legal, controlled, and prohibited narcotics through anonymous digital transactions utilizing advanced digital encryption. 

 

The complicated nature of cybercrimes, such as the Silk Road, makes it difficult to classify them according to the previous classifications. A drug crypto-market's conceptualisation has evolved like everything else that evolves. 

Although this was known to be dangerous and illegal activity, there are some benefits to crypto markets. As reading from the slides on Session 5, it was found that there was less violence when purchasing through crypto markets as compared to those who would usually buy from friends or dealers they know. 

 

According to Grabosky, there is only one difference between 'traditional' and 'digital' crime, and it is how the crime has been mediated. Graboksy's famous phrase, 'old wine, new bottles', refers to how crimes are conducted in relation to their intended purpose, just the means differ.  

 

In spite of this, it may be difficult for law enforcement to regulate an increase in 'traditional' crime facilitated by the digital realm. There is yet to be a practice in which it is easy for police officers. Because enforcement operations targeting cryptomarkets are rare and since these illegal markets have recently emerged online, there is a shortage of enforcement operations targeting them.

Graboksy's conceptualisation may be accurate, but police have to be specialized in order to combat the new methods of crime facilitation. Due to the constant evolution of technology and the digital realm, illicit exchanges are constantly changing.

 

Ethical hacking has different types of names such as Penetration Hacking, Intrusion Testing, or Red Teaming. As a general rule, ethical hacking is defined as hacking without malicious intent. Weaknesses and vulnerabilities in a system are detected and remediated through this activity. As the term suggests, ethical hacking refers to hacking into a network with good intentions and in a legal way.

 

Hackers can be classified into different types. People view 'Black Hat Hackers' as criminals since they break into personal devices and networks to steal data and use it to make money. Black Hat Hackers used ransomware to compromise over 500 GB worth of sensitive financial documents, contracts, and non-disclosure agreements in the case of the Houston Rockets. These documents were threatened with blackmail by Black Hat Hackers. 

 

As 'Grey Hat Hackers', they identify security holes in computer systems and report them to the programmers and system administrators. They are the ones who have ethics. Providing this information, they patch holes or strengthen vulnerabilities. Basically, this allows them to protect against other cyberthreats. However, one thing to point is that they do hack or gain unauthorised entry in networks just for fun and not with an intention to harm any organisations. 

 

'White Hat Hackers' are those who have the same skills as black hat hackers, but their main difference is that they spot security flaws that ill-intentioned hackers could utilise to their advantage. As an example, let's consider a business that is experiencing network problems. Instead of upgrading the network, some companies hire white hats to spot possible security vulnerabilities. In this case, the hacker has the owner's permission and ensures their actions conform to the law.

 

A recent hacking case involves Anonymous, a 'notorious' hacker group that declared cyberwar against Putin's 'aggressive regime' over the past few days. As a part of their efforts to intimidate Putin to end the current regime in Ukraine, they attacked and accessed Russian digital infrastructure, including websites, news stations, and internet providers. 

 

The majority of people perceive hacking as a violation of their privacy, but with the advancement of education and awareness, more people will soon come to realize that most hackers are not in fact 'bad people', they simply want to help those that are in need without harming their own personal information. 

 

There is a part of the whale's life cycle in which it is linked to suicide, which gives the game its name. As a result of dehydration and their own weight, they usually die on a beach. Although Philipp Budeikin, a Russian psychologist who claims to have been the "mastermind" behind the game, was arrested in 2015, it is still active by other administrators. He intended to "clean" society from individuals that were considered burdens on society, as well as from biological wastes.

 

According to the theory, a group of administrators were assigning daily tasks that became increasingly difficult. The process begins with waking up at odd hours, watching a horror movie, and cutting a whale into their forearms. There is no application or web-based game for the Blue Whale Challenge. Instead, users receive a link through social media chat groups to participate in this "deadly" challenge. This probably is the only game where the participant has to end his/her life to complete the game. 

 

Once a child accepts the invitation, their device is infected with viruses, and they are stalked and targeted before they can play. This game is also known for its illegal activities, including harassment online, blackmail, and even inciting people to commit suicide and murder. Considering this was an online game, it was hard to establish how an individual from one country could be liable for a crime committed by someone in another. 

 

Players' psychology is based on their online searches. For example, a depressed teenager will search negatively and ask: why am I so disliked, how could I get rid of all my troubles? As a result, he might become entrapped by the suicidal groups in social networks, seeking ways to end his life without causing pain. Often, game challenges boost the self-esteem of an individual and encourage the depressed mind. In contrast, if a player doesn't follow the administrators' recommendations to self-harm, the administrators threaten and bully them by threatening their families. This makes them more likely to accept any challenge, no matter how challenging it may be. As a result, they are so engrossed in the game that they don't even realize that their real lives are at stake.

 

Police in multiple countries shared this game with the media, warning parents. Schools also sent letters and emails warning parents about the game, advising them to sit down and talk to their children about what they are doing online and to monitor what they are doing.

 

Despite its existence, this game still exists today, and no one has been able to take it down. To prevent becoming a victim, everyone should change their privacy settings to private, don't accept random friend requests, and avoid conversing with strangers.

Image-based sexual abuse encompasses an array of behaviours which include the following types: 

1) Relationship retribution, where revenge is a motivation within the context of a current or past intimate relationship.

2) Sextortion, where the perpetrator seeks to obtain further images, money, or unwanted sexual acts using existing images. 

3) Sexual voyeurism, where perpetrators are seeking to create or distribute images as a form of sexual gratification.

4) Sexploitation, where the primary goal is to obtain monetary benefits through the trade of non-consensual imagery

5) Sexual assault, where they record sexual assaults and rapes on mobile phones and distribute them via online. 

 

Victims may take 'selfies', use images taken by others, use stolen images, or use images manipulated to depict their body or face sexually. Initially, the victim may distribute the images, or another person may do so. It is possible that the victim is unaware that images of them are being created or shared. Individuals may feel threatened, exploited, humiliated, sexualized in addition to being discriminated against in this form of online sexual harassment.

 

'Revenge pornography' is a media-generated term that is utilised to describe the non-consensual distribution of nude or sexual images online or via mobile phones. A narrow definition focuses on the non-consensual sharing of nude or sexual images by ex-partners, for the purpose of revenge.

 

There has been an increase in online sexual harassment in recent years. According to a report from 2016, 'one in three Australians reported being victimized by image-based abuse'. Various international studies have shown that technology has made it easier for individuals to engage in harassing, stalking, and even controlling behaviour through various forms of harassment and stalking.

 

In addition to the social isolation, we have had to endure as a result of the current covid pandemic and the changes in our social and economic environments, it has also been shown that ‘technology-facilitated abuse’ has increased as well.

 

Our society and culture are changing rapidly, and we have a chance now to influence attitudes, so we can ensure that victim-survivors' rights and dignity are respected and valued rather than normalised. We live in a technologically advanced era when a new 'sexual ethics' is being formed. Therefore, image-based abuse must be understood, confronted, and appropriately regulated, since it has steadily and effectively reshaped gender relations and became part of the cultural landscape. Our aims can be achieved through legal recourse, as well as educational campaigns. The challenge is regulating image-based sexual abuse while enabling women (in particular) to express themselves sexually however they choose to do so. It is not self-restraint that the answer lies: everyone should be free to express themselves sexually as they choose. Consent, respect, and dignity are what shape and secure our sexual lives in a social and cultural context.

It is not a new offence to commit fraud. With the recent development and proliferation of technology (primarily the internet), fraudsters are increasingly targeting and defrauding victims worldwide using virtual environments. There has been a clear differentiation between terrestrial and cyber fraud in several studies. It is important to consider, however, whether categorizing fraud based on the type of environment it is perpetrated in has any advantages as we move towards a “digital society” and as technology becomes increasingly ingrained in all aspects of our lives.

 

In the case of phishing, sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and online passwords, is being stolen online. The purpose of phishing attacks is to trick users into revealing sensitive information that the attacker can use to make money. They combine social engineering and technology spoofing techniques to achieve this goal. A phishing attack can take many forms, such as a clone, spear, phone call, pharming, or man in the middle attack. 

Specifically, phishing attacks are becoming increasingly difficult to detect because they are based on social engineering. Social engineering techniques are used by phishers to lure their victims into fraudulently using a public or trustworthy organization in an automated method. As a result, by the time victims discover they have been scammed and notify law enforcement, the fraudulent website where their information was stored and sold has already disappeared.

Users without digital/cyber ethics or who are poorly trained as well as those who have technical vulnerabilities to accomplish their goals are most likely to be exploited. Because individuals' susceptibility to phishing varies depending on their attributes and awareness levels, phishers exploit human nature for hacking rather than utilizing sophisticated technology, according to Alkhalil, Hewage, Nawaf and Khan (2021). 

Collaboration between the government and the private sector to increase community awareness. In contrast to offline crime, phishing poses no barriers to determent. Unlike offline criminals, online criminals tend to remain anonymous, which makes it harder to catch them. 

The chances of a successful phishing attack can be reduced with consumer education and awareness dissuading recipients from taking any positive action (reply, click on a link, or provide information), according to Black (2005). Additionally,Black discusses that emails addressed to a generic name rather than a username, unsuspected requests for personal data, alarmist warnings, and mistakes are all indicators of phishing. 

As far as the private sector is concerned, involvement is key to preventing phishing at an infrastructure level. In 2017, one of the cases was how Facebook and Google were conned out of $100m in phishing scheme. Fraud and phishing attacks have become an increasingly serious issue, stealing large amounts of money from companies and individuals all over the world through phishing attacks. 

Phishing will always be an issue with the digital space, but we can reduce the chances of people falling victim to these phishing attacks by using both community awareness and collaboration between the government and private sector. The first step has been taken, which is great.