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Articles

CJICT: VOL. 11, NO. 2, December 2023

Combating Cybercrime Perpetrated Via Social Media Channels Using Individual Resilience Techniques

Submitted
January 10, 2024
Published
2024-01-01

Abstract

Cybercrime is a social vice associated with modern society due to the rapid development of technology. Various studies over the years have shown that there is no society without an element of cybercrime. Cybercrime also has negative economic implications for nations and businesses globally. Over the years, several approaches have been employed to reduce the rate of cybercrime by employing various combating techniques. Hence, this study explores individual resilience techniques used in combating cybercrime perpetrated via social media channels in Abuja. Three goals and research agendas were developed to guide the research toward achieving the stated goal: a review of relevant literature, a qualitative and quantitative survey design involving about seven million, one hundred and ten thousand internet subscribers that use social media in Abuja, and a sample size of four hundred respondents from the study area were selected using the Taro Yamane purposive sampling technique. The respondents’ data were collected using a twelve-item structured questionnaire. Completed instruments of the sample size were analysed using mean values and standard deviations designed using Google Forms. The results showed that identity theft, cyberstalking, malware attacks, and cyber-casing are major cybercrimes perpetrated online by cyber attackers, and these attacks have led to harassment, child exploitation, digital piracy, and intentional damage to individuals’ online reputations. However, anti-malware, outlier detection, password managers, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are various individual resilience techniques social media users can employ to combat cybercrime on social media. Creating more awareness of cybercrime and the various individual resilience techniques required in protecting social media accounts on web-enabled devices and setting up a special task force void of bias to help cybercrime victims regain their assets were recommended.