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Cybercrime: Awareness, Prevention, and Response by Kathy Macdonald

Cybercrime: Awareness, Prevention, and Response
By Kathy Macdonald; 2019, 300 pages
ISBN: 978-1-77255-451-9

We live in a society that has an increased sensitivity to and heightened awareness of risk, and the police play an important role in how we seek to address the risks that are all around us. This role is particularly important in the field of cybercrime, where public and private institutions, organizations, and individuals are vulnerable to a wide range of threat actors with sometimes complex motivations.

Cybercrime: Awareness, Prevention, and Response details the degree to which police are involved in the many aspects of cybercrime response and investigation. Their evidence preservation skills can be crucial to the effective prosecution of these crimes, and this book details ways in which police can better navigate the Internet to collect open source information or seize digital evidence on social media.

Finally, police are an essential point of contact for the cybercrime victim beyond responding to the crime itself. The follow-up services and advice that police provide can help victims better mitigate the effects of an attack. This support extends to the important public education role that police play. Cybercrime: Awareness, Prevention, and Response provides readers with important guidance on privacy and risk mitigation practices. Readers will become more aware of the cybersecurity risks inherent in Internet use so that they can protect themselves and the public they serve. Awareness of cyberthreats helps police better identify those risks, which, in turn, through proper education and outreach, leads to increased public awareness of cybercrime vulnerability and prevention.

There is no doubt that the more the police understand computing science, the better equipped they may be to address some types of cybercrime. The guidance in this book will help readers be better able to assist victims in the increasingly important field of cybercrime awareness, prevention, and response.

– Martin Kratz, QC, senior cybersecurity and technology lawyer with Bennett Jones LLP.