“This is just the beginning, the beginning of understanding that cyberspace has no limits, no boundaries.”

Technology has developed rapidly in the last few decades and the internet, although it is advancing, is also growing more dangerous by the day. Many people know nothing about these problems let alone how to protect themselves from them.

Social media and the internet have negatively impacted our security and lives because of its use by terrorist groups, the DarkWeb and cyber fraud. 

Terrorism has been able to burrow itself into the internet and many terrorist groups have become exponentially more powerful due to the internet. Terrorist groups such as ISIS have used the internet to recruit most of its members, namely those hailing from countries where ISIS has no power.

Nowadays, so much of our lives are connected to the internet, and where the virtual and real worlds meet is where we are most vulnerable. An attack on any smart cities or organizations would be extremely destructive, as they would able to obtain our technology and use it for their own purposes to spread more panic.

Some may argue that at the moment, the power of the terrorist groups lays in their own hands, and they most likely wouldn’t bother with such a complex form of terrorism.

However, many large terrorist groups are not scared of this challenge. They seek to increase their arsenal of destructive cyber weapons and will have the resources to commit such crimes as soon as they can train their members.

Another problem the internet poses to our safety is the DarkWeb, but is an issue many people have never heard of. As a collection of secret websites that require special programs to view, the DarkWeb is extremely unsafe due to the prevalence and elusiveness of its sites and their practices.

57% of the DarkWeb, which contains 7500 Terabytes of information and which grows daily, facilitate crimes including drugs, illicit finance, pornography, and sex slavery. Horrendous crimes are committed and lost in the ocean of others, and since its users are kept anonymous, the criminals are incredibly hard to catch.

On the other hand, it is used to solve social issues- whistleblowers and “hacktivists” are known to fight for equality and freedom of speech in areas where people are not allowed to do so in society.

Although it lets people voice their opinions freely, there is much too large of a divide between the extremely dangerous and advocacy-based actions on the DarkWeb, which is why it has the potential to be so harmful to our lives and must be addressed.

Another outstanding issue that has arisen due to the internet are the major frauds committed every few seconds, causing companies and everyday people to lose millions of dollars a year. In fact, companies lose an average of $15.7 million per cybercrime.

Most everyday people believe nothing can be done to catch the perpetrators or that internet fraud is not considered a true crime, or if it is, it is only valid when it affects a large-scale company. This is why so many go unnoticed, and the criminals have been able to continue their ways, allowing fraud to grow to into what it has become.

Overall, the internet has allowed several advancements that have become extremely detrimental to our way of life and safety both in the real and virtual worlds.

It is unimaginably crucial to understand these issues and how to prevent them during these critical times. On the national level, it is obviously necessary to put more effort and funding toward dismantling the DarkWeb and lowering availability of hackers and cyber weapons to terrorists. However, on the smaller scale, individuals mustn’t be afraid to report incidences of fraud that they experience, as well as educating others on the importance of understanding cybercrimes so that we may all protect ourselves.