Vandalism

The term vandalism describes deliberately damaging or destroying another person or company's property without their permission. For example, with a computer, hardware vandalism is intentionally breaking or destroying computer hardware. For example, a student could purposely damage a laptop given to them by the school.

With the Internet, vandalism or cybervandalism could include any of the following.

• Hacking into and defacing a website.
• Intentionally damaging or destroying a digital object.
• Post fake reviews.
• Giving bad information on a forum or wiki.
• Cheating or creating bots to cheat in online gaming.
• Posting fake news on a social network.
• Post a virus or other malware for others to download unknowingly.

Why would someone vandalize?

There are various motives as to why someone would want to vandalize another person or organization. Below are some common reasons for vandalism.

• The person is malicious and is only looking to cause others harm.
• They feel the person or company they are vandalizing has harmed them or wronged them somehow and uses vandalism as a form of revenge.
• The person is bored or a troll, and finds it funny to cause others harm.
• They want to bring attention to themselves or a cause.
• The person feels a sense of empowerment when he or she vandalizes.
• A terminated employee wanting to sabotage the company that let them go.

Computer crime, Security terms