Digital Crime Explained

Types of Computer Crimes: (Roch et al., 2022)

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

2. Identity Theft, Identity Fraud, Financial Fraud, Financial Theft and “Deepfakes”

a. Gaining access to personal and financial information to use it.

b. Uses photos and videos of individuals to create other photos, videos, and even audio to

impersonate someone - using AI (Merriam-Webster, 2026)

3. Ransom

a. Uses malware to encrypt data to use for money in order to get it back.

4. Phishing

a. Emails that look trusted and mimic genuine websites to gain access to log in information

and other personal data.

5. Hacking

a. Added Spyware, Sniffing, Spoofing, etc.

i. Gather personal data, network traffic, etc.

6. Espionage

a. Accessing data, often sensitive, for economic gain or advantages for political or military

reasons (Baker, 2025).

7. Malware

a. Viruses and Trojans, etc.

i. Codes replicating data.

8. Software Piracy

a. Use, copying and distributing software

9. Insider Crime

a. Individuals working within an organization or business committing a crime using access

to that organization or company’s data and information

References:

Roch, S., Fowler, J., Smith, B., & Bourgeois, D. (2022). Security. In Information systems for businesses

and beyond. eCapmusOntario. Retrieved from

Merriam-Webster. (2026) Deepfake. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved from

Baker, K. (2025). Cyber espionage explained. Crowd Strike. Retrieved from