Many people are worried about cyber crime and identity theft. What kinds of problems is it causing? What can be done to solve this problem?

Nowadays,

cyber

hacking and

identity

theft are causing a large population to worry about their online security.

This

is happening when more people are using online banking and electronic payment systems for both personal and

business

purposes.

Although

this

can post a big problem for individuals and businesses alike, there are steps that can be taken to safeguard their personal

identity

and minimize the threats of becoming a

victim

of

cybercrime

. I will mention some of the common problems are being caused by

this

type

of criminal activities. I will

also

examine several precautions that people can take to make their online activities safer.

Cybercrime

can happen in many ways,

such

as scam emails or scam phone calls tricking people to believe that their

bank

accounts have been compromised and try to get respondents to disclose their personal

information

, including but not limited to, their date of birth and online passwords. If people fall for

this

type

of

cyber

crime, they can stand to lose a lot of

money

because the criminals will use the

information

gained to withdraw

money

from the

victim

's

bank

account. Another

type

of

cyber

crime is through the use of various methods to gain access to

business

databases where sensitive and confidential

business

and customer's

information

are being stored. There have been many cases that big corporations have their database system hacked into and millions of customer

information

have been stolen. With

this

confidential personal

information

, criminals can inflict a lot of financial damage to people, like getting credit cards with the

victim

's

information

, getting

bank

loan under the

victim

's

identity

. All these types of criminal activities are causing people to lose confidence in online banking and

business

activities meanwhile both governments and businesses are trying to convince people to rely on their online systems more than ever before. Many multi-national corporations had been fined for big amount of

money

for failing to protect their customers'

information

from

cyber

hackers.

This

type

of

cybercrime

has been causing

business

a lot of

money

, not only in the fines that they need pay, but

also

the huge amount of

money

that they have to invest in

cyber

-security to protect their electronic

information

. Undoubtedly,

this

kind of

cybercrime

is very damaging and wide spreading, there are many steps that can be taken to make it more difficult for these

cyber

criminals to success. One of the easiest steps is to make your online passwords more difficult for other people to guess,

for example

, never use your own names or birthdays as your passwords. Alternatively, people should make it as a habit to change their online passwords on a regular basis. Most importantly, people should always verify that the emails and/or phone calls that are demanding the disclosure of their personal

information

are legit.

Furthermore

, It is always a better idea to either call back to your

bank

's or

business

's published phone number to make sure that you talk to the right officials before giving away any

information

. Ultimately, businesses should

also

do a better job in building a stronger and more robust online security system to protect their customers' personal

information

. In conclusion,

cybercrime

hacking and

identity

theft may be happening more often than people would like, but it can certainly be prevented with proper public education and people treating their personal

information

more carefully.