The increasing cases of cybercrime identity around the world are causing significant financial losses to individuals and business. Businesses face possible lawsuits that can cause further loss of revenue. Studies show that firms in the United States are at the greatest risks of experiencing expensive attacks (Hill & Marion, 2016). Thus, most of the firms are taking precautionary measures to secure their systems through investment in complicated cyber security sections. Such considerations leave out the possible adverse psychological effects that these cyber crimes have on the victims. Therefore, the governments have set up investigative units in various law enforcement agencies to deal with the issue. Besides, the governments also have to ensure that these investigative units get the resources needed to carry out these investigations. These actions by the governments ensure that the units that can investigate crimes arising from the use of computer technology.
The federal bureau of investigation (FBI) in the United States is one of the leading agencies in investigating cyber crimes. The FBI has a cyber-division Cyber Initiative and Resource Fusion Unit (CIRFU) that is dedicated to dealing with cyber crimes. The division has a team that can reach any place in the world within 48 hours to carry out a necessary investigation in case of a threat. The division also continuously forms alliances with law enforcement agencies in the United States and internationally. This team requires resources to enable them effectively carry out their work. Therefore, the federal government sets aside large amounts of money for these investigations by the FBI. In 2015, President Obama issued an order that provided the cyber division with $14 billion for their expense (Morgan, 2016). Increase in such budget occurs due to rising cyber threats globally.
Most of the police departments in various cities in the United States have cybercrime units to investigate any criminal activities relating to identity theft. These departments have individuals dealing with computer forensics. Some of these units fighting cyber crimes like New Jersey State Police even have civilians that assist in the analysis (New Jersey State Police, 2017). The law enforcement department has to set aside resources necessary for enabling them to accomplish the missions. Therefore, these departments incur additional expenses in trying to deal with the problem. The situation has forced most of the leaders at the state levels to request additional revenue to fund the investigation of these cyber crime cases. These police units dealing with cybercrime often collaborate with the FBI to ensure handling of the cases receives proper investigations.
Therefore, the cost of investigating identity cybercrime is high in the United States due to high rates of attack. The costs of these investigations may rise further due to rising cases of cyber-attacks. Some of the gangs are realizing that making money through cyber crime is easier than selling drugs. Therefore, there is the likelihood of many of these criminals engaging cyber-attacks to earn money. Besides, developments require the law enforcement agencies to improve the technology they use in investigating these crimes continuously. Thus, all these factors lead to increased expenditure to protect citizens from possible exploitation by cyber criminals.
- Hill, J. B., & Marion, N. E. (2016). Introduction to cybercrime: Computer crimes, laws, and policing in the 21st century. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
- Morgan, S. (2016). Bank of America’s Unlimited Cybersecurity Budget Sums Up Spending Plans In A War Against Hackers. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemorgan/2016/01/27/bank-of-americas-unlimited-cybersecurity-budget-sums-up-spending-plans-in-a-war-against-hackers/2/#674fd5b43894
- New Jersey State Police. (2017). Cyber Crimes Unit. New Jersey State Police. Retrieved 9 from http://www.njsp.org/division/investigations/cyber-crimes.shtml