In the 21st century, cybercrime has become one of the largest forms of crime in the world. This is a cowardly criminal act that can be committed anywhere in the world. It is estimated that cybercrime could cost businesses around the world more than $5.2 trillion over the next five years. This is, however, an estimated figure, as it is very difficult to determine exact amounts for cybercrime as many thefts go unreported. One of the most significant forms of theft in cybercrime is identity theft, which is "the use of an individual's personally identifiable information by someone else (often a stranger) without permission." permission or without the knowledge of that individual. This form of identity theft is often used to commit fraud, usually resulting in financial harm to the individual and financial gain to the impersonator. "Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essayIdentity theft usually targets a specific person. Criminals usually target someone and attempt to obtain any type of public information from online and social media accounts, such as a person's phone number or address, and if possible, confidential information, such as a person's social security number , credit card numbers that can help the attacker take your identity more easily Criminals are very interested in Social Security cards because Social Security numbers are not updated and can wait years. to use them to steal someone's information By accessing this information, an identity thief can pretend to be someone else to commit fraud. Around financial gains, some will gain access to personal accounts and then use them to obtain a ransom from you in exchange for it. In 2017, 7 million people were victims of some form of identity theft, according to a 2018 survey by Harris Poll, and it happens regularly, every 2 seconds, someone falls victim somewhere in the world. world. The theft of personal information has made enormous progress since the turn of the millennium. The oldest and simplest ways criminals stole information included techniques such as stealing mail, digging through trash for information, eavesdropping on conversations which some people call surfing. the shoulder, or simply theft by illegal taking. People have even gone so far as to take information from deceased people by collecting tombstones of information. With the huge advancements in technology over the past 20 years, more and more people are relying on phones and computers to complete their daily tasks, and cybercriminals have grown with it. Instead of rummaging through trash or eavesdropping on people for information, criminals can simply take a person's personal data without leaving their home. Criminals have become very clever now using techniques such as skimmers which are essentially copy machines placed on top of ATM card readers that collect all the information. information from your card when you use the ATM. Other methods include spamming which may take the form of a banking website or commercial website which usually asks you to update information and collects your data in this way..