The term “cybercrime” usually refers to any criminal offense committed against or with the use of a computer or computer network. A cybercrime incident can lead to loss of institutional and consumer confidence, financial loss, productivity loss, and even loss of intellectual property [think: research data]. For something to be considered a crime, however, requires a law to denote it as such, and the laws have, to this point, lagged behind technology. When money is involved (fraud, extortion, etc.), it’s almost always a crime.

If you become a victim of cybercrime and you are working with UT information resources, you should report the incident immediately to your departmental IT staff and notify the OIT HelpDesk. Depending on the scope of the crime, the incident should also be reported to the appropriate agency. That may be local, state, federal, or even international. The US DOJ maintains a list of federal agencies to which computer related crimes may be reported at the following address: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.htm. In addition, you may report cybercrimes to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership among the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).

The important thing is that you report the incident. Incidents occurring on the UT network can affect everyone. Don’t reboot; don’t shut your computer down. Disconnect it from the network if possible and report it. Do it as soon as you can. Some compliance related research have data agreements that require the incident be reported within 24-hours or there are financial penalties.

Incidents may be reported at UTK by calling the OIT HelpDesk at 865-974-9900.