What leads intention of individual to cyber vandalism?

 Low Self-Control or Impulsivity

Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) self-control theory says individuals with low self-control will find crime tempting. There are also suggested a relationship between impulsivity and violence which applies to the cyber world leading to cyber vandalism.

 Psychopathic and Machiavellian Traits

A study of online data collected from 418 U.S. residents shown 5.6% reported enjoying trolling behaviour online. Some say that they are motivated by boredom, attention-seeking, and revenge at the same time having pleasure from causing damage. One specific trait of psychopathy is a lack of empathy (Hare, 2003), which is the inability to experience the emotions of another person or to comprehend the emotions of another person.

 Internalizing Traits

Such traits include depression or shyness. When a person is having those traits they may want to grab attention from the outside world. Some may even say it is to fulfill their self-esteem.

 Social Control and Social Learning Theories

A study from Ang (2015) found that  poor emotional bonds with parents and a lack of parental monitoring relates to cyber aggression. However, other studies say that it is the influence of peers. At the same time, exposure to violence in the media is also associated with concurrent reports of serious violent behaviour (Ybarra, et al., 2008).

 Propaganda/ Publicity

Some vandals do such thing to spread their propaganda whereas others for the sake of publicity. By inserting information about anything into any website, it will automatically grab server’s attention. Moreover, it is free.

Attitude towards cyber vandalism

As we can see from the previous posts, cyber vandalism is no doubt a threat to the information age. This is especially critical to the companies and people who have their reputation at potential risks.

In spite of that, many know the danger of vandalism and the consequences but yet do not take action against such thing. It is of human nature to ignore things that do not involve them. Humans are more self-centred for it is all they know until one day something bad happens to them, in this case being cyber vandalised. It is only then will they take action and sometimes it’s too late. That is why before we ran out of time, before all the negative things that might occur, we have to prevent or eliminate all vandalised.

What is cyber vandalism?

In this age of technology and internet, it is no surprise that a new form of vandalism has occurred. It is called “CYBER VANDALISM”. It is after all a free world and absolute control is non-existence.

The general definition of those who vandalise are individuals who edit, damage or delete information infrastructures by using computer technology for their own enjoyment and pleasure.It can be said that their action is offensive and cause other people some sort of harm. Their main purpose of such act does not involve financial gain. In truth, it is the desire to prove that the feat could be accomplished. Once inside they leave their mark so there is no denying their presence.Another form of online aggression is “trolling,” which involves destructive and deceptive behaviour to disrupt a space on the Internet for no apparent purpose (Buckels, Trapnell, & Paulhus, 2014).

On the surface, it may seem more of a prank than mere offence aimed at destruction. Despite that, the effect on the business or a person is destructive. These types of attacks fall into the category of Denial of Service attack. The affected site has to be shut down and repaired before it can be returned to normal operation. Often messages are included at the end of the action which may be in different tones including racial, profane, and occasionally political. Whatever the message is, the effect is always disruptive.

Fun Fact

The word vandal comes from the Vandals, the Germanic tribe that attacked Rome in 455 and destroy the artistic, literary works and public buildings. The tribe's name meant "wanderer," but the word vandal was used in the 1600s to mean "destroyer of what is beautiful." In the end, they moved to North Africa. It was in 1794, that the term Vandalism by Henri Grégoire, bishop of Blois, who used the word to describe the destruction of artwork after the French Revolution. Soon the term was quickly adopted and popularised in the whole of Europe.

Copyright: Abha Khetarpal (http://abhakhetarpal.in/blog/origin-of-english-words-vandalism)

Meaning of Vandalism

VANDALISM!

We need to get this word through our head. We need to understand it. In fact, many of us know the meaning but choose to ignore. Most dictionaries say vandalism is an action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property and that it is done out of that person’s will or ignorance. A typical example that is commonly seen around us would be painting or drawings on the street or in public buildings which some may perceive it as street art or graffiti.These people who do such thing are committing a crime. It is most definitely wrong to do so. It is not only for the sake of obeying the law that we must not commit vandalism but we have to realise that it will affect other people and organisations in terms of image or even worse, psychologically.