Impact of Digital Technology on Cybercrime

The rising trend of cybercrime through the use of digital technologies through online platforms such as Telegram is cause for concern. This study examines how digital technology influences cybercrime on the Telegram platform in the context of Singapore. The impact of the use of artificial intelligence (AI), crypto payment systems, identity impersonation technology, Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, and cloud technology on cybercrime is studied to evaluate how the usage of these digital technologies with Telegram shapes cybercrime, and if countermeasures effectively mitigate harm. Data were extracted from Telegram using a custom-built web-scraping tool using Python and analyzed through exploratory data analysis and mixed-effect model analysis. Findings reveal that digital technologies necessarily instigate the proliferation of cybercrime. Interestingly, AI, identity impersonation technology, and cybersecurity technology have an insignificant effect on cybercrime due to the dual role that such technology plays in instigating and mitigating cybercrime. Overall, this research provides an understanding of how digital technology can both empower and exploit vulnerable users of such technology. It highlights the complexities of the influence of digital technology on cybercrime and emphasizes the need for targeted preventative interventions that consider local contexts and technological landscapes in order to mitigate cybercrime.