Journalism for Social Change Project: Cybercrime
Cybercrime is a growing problem - and it can affect any of us
This is the second in our series of student articles written as part of GO Justice’s Journalism for Social Change Project. The initiative was designed to support students interested in social justice to develop their journalistic writing skills and create a finished piece of writing for publication.
By Zara Lillie
Two years ago, my friend messaged me. He hadn’t been online the previous night and I was worried, but what can you do? People are busy, or not on their phones, so I assumed everything was okay. What I heard next shocked me. The police had been at his house the night before because he had been a victim of attempted sextortion - when someone gets hold of intimate photos and threatens to share unless they’re paid money. He hadn’t sent these photos to anyone untrusted, and still doesn’t know how they received them. His whole night became a whirlwind of panic and terror. He didn’t have the money they were asking for, but he also didn’t want the photos released. So he did what he thought was best: he called the police.
I always hear stories of hacking accounts and leaked nudes in the news. They are always framed so specifically, aren’t they? In many cases, it’s presented as the victim’s fault for not securing their accounts, or for taking intimate photos in the first place. What we rarely hear is it being called its actual name – cybercrime.
When thinking about cybercrime, I often imagine high-tech operations like you see in the movies: foreign adversaries hacking into government files to blackmail the country. But lots of cybercrime is much less glamorous, but just as devastating. My friend’s story is just one experience of thousands and the memory continues to traumatise him. According to Oxford Reference, cybercrime’s definition is broad: “crimes committed over the internet”. That means it casts a wide net and can potentially affect anyone, not just those who are older, or inexperienced online as we often assume.
We often think of cybercrime as affecting our nanas or granddads, but concerningly, our generation is at high risk. In a survey by UK Finance, 49% of 18-24 years olds surveyed said they had been contacted by a scammer pretending to be someone they trusted. Of those targeted, over half actually shared personal information or made a payment. With Gen Z spending lots of time online overall, we might be more susceptible to online fraud - but the survey also found 18-24 year olds were the most confident of any age group that they could spot a scam. That could increase the risk: only 27% said they would always take steps to check a person or organisation asking for information can be trusted, compared to over 60% of those aged 55 or older. I can sympathise: a lot of the time I am more confident than I should be online.
Cybercrime is also growing in scale. In 2023-24, 16,890 cybercrimes were recorded by the police in Scotland, a third of them sexual in nature. The data suggests it’s only getting worse in England and Wales too. And in conversations with my friends, social media hacking and nude leaking have become much more normalised, reflecting these growing rates. But what forms of cybercrime are there? And how are they affecting young people?
Police Scotland don’t break down their cybercrime data to show which types affect us most, but information online suggests young people across the world might be particularly affected by sextortion, email phishing and fraudulent job postings or websites. Most of us can recognise sextortion, but fraudulent job ads can be less obvious, regardless of your tech experience. They usually take the form of a job listing on a website, but instead of a potential employer receiving your data, a scammer does. Email phishing scams involve fake emails asking for personal information like passwords or credit card details, and they can be almost unrecognisable as fraudulent: my dad, who works in cyber-security, almost fell victim to one such scam. How can we protect ourselves? Anyone can be a victim of cybercrime, and with the surge in cases, it can seem impossible to be completely safe. But there are ways to increase your protection. The National Cyber Security Centre recommends these steps:
Protect your email by using a strong and separate password.
Install the latest software, as it usually includes security updates.
Turn on 2-step verification.
Use password managers.
Back up your data.
Use three random words as a password to make hacking harder.
We might think we're tech-savvy but as my friend's experience shows, cybercrime can happen to any of us. In the end, his pictures weren't shared and he didn't need to send any money, but the scary experience has had a lasting impact on him - and not everyone is so lucky. Knowing how to keep ourselves safe is crucial in the face of this growing problem.
