cybercrimes (oumh1203) - english for written communication

8/2/2019 Cybercrimes (Oumh1203) - English for Written Communication

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1. INTRODUCTION

The internet is growing rapidly. It has given rise to new opportunities in every field

especially entertainment, business, sports or education. Although internet bring a lot of

advantages to our community, but there are two sides to a coin. Internet also has its own

disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages is the illegal activitiy committed on the

internet, or know as Cyber Crimes.

Cybercrime, refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network. The

computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target.

(passage pick from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime)

Cyber crime encompasses any criminal act dealing with computers and networks

(called hacking). Additionally, cyber crime also includes traditional crimes conducted

through the Internet. For example; hate crimes, telemarketing and Internet fraud, identity

theft, and credit card account thefts are considered to be cyber crimes when the illegal

activities are committed through the use of a computer and the Internet. (passage pick from:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cyber_crime.html)

Cyber crime generally means a wrongful act committed using computer as a tool

or a target of the said act or both. (passage pick from:

http://www.laweddie.com/wordpress/what-are-cyber-crimes/)

Cyber crime are more properly restricted to describing criminal activity in which

the computer or network is a necessary part of the crime, these terms are also sometimes

used to include traditional crimes, such as fraud, theft, blackmail, forgery, and

embezzlement, in which computers or networks are used to facilitate the illicit activity.

Cyber crime can broadly be defined as criminal activity involving an information

technology infrastructure, including illegal access (unauthorized access), illegal

interception (by technical means of non-public transmissions of computer data to, from or

within a computer system), data interference (unauthorized damaging, deletion,

deterioration, alteration or suppression of computer data), systems interference (interfering

with the functioning of a computer system by inputting, transmitting, damaging, deleting,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crimehttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cyber_crime.htmlhttp://www.laweddie.com/wordpress/what-are-cyber-crimes/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crimehttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cyber_crime.htmlhttp://www.laweddie.com/wordpress/what-are-cyber-crimes/


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deteriorating, altering or suppressing computer data), misuse of devices, forgery (ID theft),

and electronic fraud.

Cyber crime is the latest and perhaps the most complicated problem in the cyber

world. Cyber crime may be said to be those species, of which, genus is the conventional

crime, and where either the computer is an object or subject of the conduct constituting

crime. Any criminal activity that uses a computer either as an instrumentality, target or a

means for perpetuating further crimes comes within the ambit of cyber crime.

Since computer and network appeared, the cyber crimes starts stimulating. Various

crime technics piling up one after another makes people hard to take precautions to against

them. To avoid ourself to be the victim of cyber crimes, We need to have full understand to

this aspect. Unlike conventional crimes such as burglary, rape or murder, cyber crimes are

very skill intensive. The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun.

Tomorrow's terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb.

Cyber crime can broadly be defined as criminal activity involving the information

technology infrastructure, including illegal access (unauthorized access), illegal

interception (by technical means of non-public transmissions of computer data to, from or

within a computer system), data interference (unauthorized damaging, deletion,

deterioration, alteration or suppression of computer data), system interference (interfering

with the functioning of a computer system by inputting, transmitting, damaging, deleting,

deteriorating, altering or suppressing computer data), misuse of devices, forgery (ID theft),

and electronic fraud.

2. CONTENT

2.1 Classification of cyber crimes

Cyber crimes become the hot issue and the very usual social phenomena since

computer and network were appeared. The most important factor in understanding the

limitations of such generalisations is that malware and hack attacks can be launched from

anywhere and by anybody. Likewise we have to be aware that criminals will go to great

lengths to obscure their tracks.So drawing a definitive map of cyber crime is therefore far


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from an exact science and assuming any one country has sole rights to any one crime

would be a mistake. Cyber crime is truly a global problem.

"The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow's

terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb". National

Research Council, "Computers at Risk", 1991. Through this passage we can know that

cybercrimes can bring much bad impact to individual, community or our country.

Mr. Pavan Duggal, is one of the pioneers in the field of Cyberlaw and is Asia's

leading authority on Cyberlaw. He is a practicing Advocate, Supreme Court of India and a

Cyberlaw Consultant. He is the President & founder ofCyberlaw India . He is also the

Founder President ofCyberlaw Asia, Asias pioneering organization committed to the

passing of dynamic Cyberlaws in the Asian continent. Cyberlaw Asia is engaged in the

process of creating greater awareness about Cyberlaws in different countries of Asia. Mr.

Pavan Duggal clearly defined the various categories and types of cybercrimesin a report.

Cybercrimes can be basically divided into three major categories:

i. Cybercrimes against individual.

ii. Cybercrimes against organization.

iii. Cybercrimes against Society at large.

i) Against individual

Malware and malicious code

Denial-of-service attack

Computing virus

Cyber terrorism

Information warfare

Cyber stalking

Fraud and identity theft

Phishing

Virtual crime

Individual property:

a. Unauthorized control or access over computer system


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b. Internet time thefts.

c. Netrespass

d. Computer vandalism

e. Intellectual Property crimes

f. Transmitting virus

Cybercrimes against individual include various crimes like transmission of child-

pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail. The most

important Cybercrimes today are trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of

obscene material including pornography and indecent exposure. The potential harm of such

a crime to humanity if not controlled can hardly be amplified.

This is one Cybercrime which threatens to undermine the growth of the younger

generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation.

There is an incident happen cause by the cybercrimes:

A minor girl in Ahmedabad was lured to a private place through cyber-chat by a

man, who, along with his friends, attempted to gang rape her. As some passersby heard her

cry, she was rescued.

ii) Againts organization

i. Unauthorized control/access over computer system

ii. Possession of unauthorized information.

iii. Cyber terrorism against the government organization.

iv. Distribution of pirated software etc.

For an example, a Mumbai-based upstart engineering company lost a say and much

money in the business when the rival company, an industry major, stole the technical database

from their computers with the help of a corporate cyberspy.

iii) Against Society at large

i. Pornography (basically child pornography).


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ii. Polluting the youth through indecent exposure.

iii. Trafficking

iv. Financial crimes

v. Sale of illegal articles

vi. Online gambling

vii.Forgery

In a report of expressindia. com, it was said that internet was becoming a boon for the

terrorist organisations. According to Mr. A.K. Gupta, Deputy Director (Co-ordination), CBI,

terrorist outfits are increasingly using internet to communicate and move funds. "Lashker-e-

Toiba is collecting contributions online from its sympathisers all over the world. During the

investigation of the Red Fort shootout in Dec. 2000, the accused Ashfaq Ahmed of this

terrorist group revealed that the militants are making extensive use of the internet to

communicate with the operatives and the sympathisers and also using the medium for intra-

bank transfer of funds".

There are few example of cybercrimes that been report and identified for the last

few years:

2.1.2 Manner Of Commiting Cyber Crime:

1. Unauthorized control or access over computer system (hacking)

This activity is commonly referred to as hacking. It is the most common from of

cyber crime snd it continues to grow popularity. A hacker is someone who uses a

computer and network or internet connection to intrude into another computer or

system to perform an illegal act. This may amount to simple trespassing or acts that

corrupt, destroy or change data.

2. Malicious code and virus/Transmitting virus or worms

Malware or malicious software is software designed to infiltrate or damage

computer system without owners informed consent. The expression is a general

term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile,

intrusive, or annoying software or program code.


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Worms and viruses are forms of high-tech maliciousness. A worm is a program that

copies itself repeatedly into a computers memory or onto a disk drive. Sometimes

it will copy itself so often it will cause a computer to crash.

A virus is a nonstandard program stored on a computer hard drive that can cause

unexpected and often undesirable effects such as destroying or corrupting data.

Worms and viruses are passed in various ways:

i. by diskettes CDs or thumb drives

ii. by network

3. Cyber terrorism against the government organization

A software bomb or virus directed against military, government, or civilian

computers may make as powerful a statement as a real bomb, and cause just as

much damage. The Red Brigade manifesto specifically includes destruction of

computer targets as an objective.

Cyber terrorism may be defined to be the premeditated use of disruptive activities,

or the threat thereof, in cyber space, with the intention to further social, ideological,

religious, political or similar objectives, or to intimidate any person in furtherance

of such objectives

Another definition may be attempted to cover within its ambit every act of cyber

terrorism.

A terrorist means a person who indulges in wanton killing of persons or in

violence or in disruption of services or means of communications essential

to the community or in damaging property with the view to

(1) putting the public or any section of the public in fear; or


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(2) affecting adversely the harmony between different religious, racial,

language or regional groups or castes or communities; or

(3) coercing or overawing the government established by law; or

(4) endangering the sovereignty and integrity of the nation

4. fraud and cheating

Internet fraud is any dishonest misrepresentation of fact intended to induce another

to do or refrain from doing something which causes loss.

Online fraud and cheating is one of the most lucrative businesses that are growing

today in the cyber space. It may assume different forms. Some of the cases of

online fraud and cheating that have come to light are those pertaining to credit card

crimes, contractual crimes, offering jobs, etc.

5. Cyber-stalking-

The use of communication technology, mainly the Internet, to torture other

individuals is known as cyber-stalking. False accusations, transmission of threats

and damage to data and equipment fall under the class of cyber-stalking activities.

The Oxford dictionary defines stalking as "pursuing stealthily". Cyber stalking

involves following a person's movements across the Internet by posting messages

(sometimes threatening) on the bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering

the chat-rooms frequented by the victim, constantly bombarding the victim with

emails etc.

Cyber-stalkers often target the users by means of chat rooms, online forums and

social networking websites to gather user information and harass the users on thebasis of the information gathered. Obscene emails, abusive phone calls and other

such serious effects of cyber-stalking have made it a type of computer crime.

6. Phishing


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Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire sensitive information like usernames,

passwords and credit card details by disguising as a trustworthy source. Phishing is

carried out through emails or by luring the users to enter personal information

through fake websites. It also might be as simple as trash diving for obtaining

useful information about user to phone survey. In this situation, a hacker may

contact potential victims by phone, e-mail or fake websites and ask the victims to

provide password information for an apparently legitimate reason. Criminals also

often use websites that have a look and feel of some popular website, which makes

the users feel safe to enter their details there.

7. Spoofing

A spoofing attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully

masquerades as another by falsifying data and thereby gaining an illegitimate

advantage.

The word "spoof" means to hoax, trick, or deceive. Therefore, in the IT world,

spoofing refers tricking or deceiving computer systems or other computer users.

This is typically done by hiding one's identity or faking the identity of another user

on the Internet. Spoofing can take place on the Internet in several different ways.

One common method is through e-mail.

E-mail spoofing involves sending messages from a bogus e-mail address or faking

the e-mail address of another user. Fortunately, most e-mail servers have security

features that prevent unauthorized users from sending messages. However,

spammers often send spam messages from their own SMTP, which allows them to

use fake e-mail addresses. Therefore, it is possible to receive e-mail from an

address that is not the actual address of the person sending the message.

8. Cyber theft

Cyber-Theft is the use of computers and communication systems to steal information in

electronic format. Hackers crack into the systems of banks and transfer money into their

own bank accounts. This is a major concern, as larger amounts of money can be stolen

and illegally transferred.


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9. Harassment

Cyber harassment, is a kind of cyber crime that repeatedly making reference to a

person in an offensive, rude, or insulting manner online (can be a form of

cyberbullying). This is a very common type of harassment via e-mails.Harassmentthrough e-mails is not a new concept. It is very similar to harassing through letters.

10. Computer vandalism

Computer vandalism is a program that performs malicious function such as

extracting a user's password or other data or erasing the hard disk. A vandal differs

from a virus, which attaches itself to an existing executable program. The vandal is

the full executing entity itself which can be downloaded from the Internet in the

form of an ActiveX control, Java applet, browser plug-in or e-mail attachment.

It also can bring out as the unauthorized removal of valuable information from a

computer system, thereby preventing the legitimate user or owner from having

access to that information.

11. Logic bomb

Logic bomb is a computer program that uses illegitimate instructions or misuses

legitimate instructions to damage data structures; operates at a specific time,

periodically, or according to other instructions.

12. Attack code

Attack code is a a malicious software program intended to impair or destroy the

functioning of a computer or a network resource.

2.2 Comparison Of Cyber Crimes In Malaysia And USA

In Malaysia, the in Information and Communication Technology industry (ICT) is

grow rapidly. The usage and the develop of ICT has been widely found in many sector such

like government, private sector and event individuals. However, the develop of ICT also

bring along various type of negative effect. The unlawful acts wherein the computer is either

a tool or target or both, can be define as cybercrime.


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Cyber999 is a service offered by MyCERT (Malaysian Computer Emergency

Response Team) was launched on year 2009 to handle security issues or incidents faced by

computer/internet users within the Malaysian Cyber-Security constituency.

"Cybersecurity crimes in Malaysia average about 300 cases a month and we need to

address such issues which include viruses and intrusion," Deputy Minister of Science,

Technology and Innovation, Datuk Fadillah Yusof said after the signing of a memorandum

of understanding (MOU) between Kolej Yayasan Melaka and The International Council of

Electronic Commerce Consultants(EC-Council) Asia Pacific.

Based on a report from Cybersecurity, more than 4,000 cyber complaints, mostly

concerning cyber crimes have been lodged with Cybersecurity Malaysia in the year 2008 and

2009.

Year Complaints % (+ / -)

2007 2,000

2008 2,123

2009 3,564 68

2010 8,090 127

2011 (Jan~June) 7,404 147

Figure 1: Cyber Security Incidents Reported to Cyber999


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Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT) report

Although the case classification was same, cybercrimes in Malaysia are low if

compare to USA. Based on the IC3 2010 Annual Report on Internet Crime Released, In

2010, IC3 received 303,809 complaints of Internet crime, the second-highest total in IC3's

10-year history.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal

Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C),

funded in part by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Since its creation in 2000, IC3

has received more than 2 million Internet crime complaints.

Yearly Comparison of Complaints Received Via the IC3 Website


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Top 10 Crimes Received Via the IC3 Website

All the figures above only shown the cases that had been reported and investigated.

The total amount should be higher than the amount that shown since targets may not

always report these offences. But the data collected from Cybersecurity and IC3 surveys

can help in understanding the impact of cybercrime.

Cyber crime is clearly an international problem.The number of cybercrimes

increase year by year. Cybercrime is a multi-billion dollar problem. Law enforcement must

seek ways to keep the drawbacks from overshadowing the great promise of the computer

age. Cybercrime is a menace that has to be tackled effectively not only by the official but

also by the users by co-operating with the law.

2.3 Solution

An important question arises that how can these crimes be prevented. A number of

techniques and solutions have been presented but the problems still exists and are

increasing day by day. Prevent is better then cure, we have to complete our own with the

knowledge about how to prevent cybercrimes:

1.to prevent cyber stalking avoid disclosing any information pertaining to oneself.

This is as good as disclosing your identity to strangers in public place.

2.always avoid sending any photograph online particularly to strangers and chat

friends as there have been incidents of misuse of the photographs.

3.always use latest and up date anti virus software to guard against virus attacks.


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4.always keep back up volumes so that one may not suffer data loss in case of virus

contamination

5.never send your credit card number to any site that is not secured, to guard

against frauds.

6.always keep a watch on the sites that your children are accessing to prevent any

kind of harassment or depravation in children.

7.it is better to use a security programme that gives control over the cookies and

send information back to the site as leaving the cookies unguarded might prove

fatal.

8.web site owners should watch traffic and check any irregularity on the site.

Putting host-based intrusion detection devices on servers may do this.

9.use of firewalls may be beneficial.

10. web servers running public sites must be physically separate protected from

internal corporate network.

3. Conclution

We are currently living in Cyber age, where Internet and computers have major

impacts on our way of living, social life and the way we conduct businesses.

The usage of information technology has posed great security challenges and

ethical questions in front of us. Just as every thing has positives and negatives, there aretwo sides to a coin. The usage of information technology is beneficial as well as insecure.

With the growth of the internet, network security has become a major concern.

Cyber crimes have emerged rapidly in the last few years and have major consequences. As

the cases of cybercrime grows, there is a growing need to prevent them.

Capacity of human mind is unfathomable. It is not possible to eliminate cyber crime

from the cyber space. It is quite possible to check them. History is the witness that no

legislation has succeeded in totally eliminating crime from the globe. The only possible

step is to make people aware of their rights and duties and further making the application of

the laws more stringent to check crime.


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4. References:

1. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_computer_vandalism_mean#ixzz1d0EW9dwQ

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime

3. http://www.cyberlawindia.com/pd.php

4. http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/web-crime-complaints-drop-yoy-up-in-decade-

16536/crimecomplaintcenter-crime-trend-2000-2010-mar11gif/

5.

http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0073401536/student_view0/chapter16/chapter_glossary.htm

l
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_computer_vandalism_mean#ixzz1d0EW9dwQhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crimehttp://www.cyberlawindia.com/pd.phphttp://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/web-crime-complaints-drop-yoy-up-in-decade-16536/crimecomplaintcenter-crime-trend-2000-2010-mar11gif/http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/web-crime-complaints-drop-yoy-up-in-decade-16536/crimecomplaintcenter-crime-trend-2000-2010-mar11gif/http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0073401536/student_view0/chapter16/chapter_glossary.htmlhttp://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0073401536/student_view0/chapter16/chapter_glossary.htmlhttp://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_computer_vandalism_mean#ixzz1d0EW9dwQhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crimehttp://www.cyberlawindia.com/pd.phphttp://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/web-crime-complaints-drop-yoy-up-in-decade-16536/crimecomplaintcenter-crime-trend-2000-2010-mar11gif/http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/web-crime-complaints-drop-yoy-up-in-decade-16536/crimecomplaintcenter-crime-trend-2000-2010-mar11gif/http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0073401536/student_view0/chapter16/chapter_glossary.htmlhttp://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0073401536/student_view0/chapter16/chapter_glossary.html

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