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CYBER CRIMES

Cyber-crime also known as computer crime the use of a computer as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child pornography and intellectual property, stealing identities, or violating privacy. Cybercrime, especially through the internet, has grown in importance as the computer has become central to commerce, entertainment, and government. Because of the early and widespread adoption of computers and the internet in the United States, most of the earliest victims and villains of cybercrime were Americans. By the 21st century, though, hardly a hamlet remained anywhere in the world that had not been touched by cybercrime of one sort or another. DEFINING CYBERCRIMES: New technologies create new criminal opportunities but few new types of crime. What distinguishes cybercrime from traditional criminal activity? Obviously, one difference is the use of the digital computer, but technology alone is insufficient for any distinction that might exist between different realms of criminal activity. Criminals do not need a computer to commit fraud, traffic in child pornography and intellectual property, steal an identity, or violate someone's privacy. All those activities existed before the cyber prefix became ubiquitous. Cybercrime, especially involving the internet, represents an extension of existing criminal behaviour alongside some novel illegal activities. Most cybercrime is an attack on information about individuals, corporations, or governments. Although the attacks do not take place on a physical body, they do take place on the personal or corporate virtual body, which is the set of

informational attributes that define people and institutions on the internet. in other words, in the digital age our virtual identities are essential elements of everyday life: we are a bundle of numbers and identifiers in multiple computer databases owned by governments and corporations. Cybercrime highlights the centrality of networked computers in our lives, as well as the fragility of such seemingly solid facts as individual identity. An important aspect of cybercrime is its nonlocal character: actions can occur in jurisdictions separated by vast distances. This poses severe problems for law enforcement since previously local or even national crimes now require international cooperation. For example, if person accesses child pornography located on a computer in a country that does not ban child pornography, is that individual committing a crime in a nation where such materials are illegal? Where exactly does cybercrime take place? Cyberspace is simply a richer version of the space where a telephone conversation takes place, somewhere between the two people having the conversation. As a planet-spanning network, the internet offers criminals multiple hiding places in the real world as well as in the network itself. However, just as individuals walking on the ground leave marks that a skilled tracker can follow, cybercriminals leave clues as to their identity and location, despite their best efforts to cover their tracks. In order to follow such clues across national boundaries, though, international cybercrime treaties must be ratified. In 1996 the council of Europe, together with government representatives from the United States, Canada, and japan, drafted a preliminary international treaty covering computer crime. Around the world, civil libertarian groups immediately protested provisions in the treaty requiring internet service providers (ISP) to store information on their customers' transactions and to turn this information over on demand. Work on the treaty proceeded nevertheless, and on November 23, 2001, the council of Europe cybercrime convention was

signed by 30 states. Additional protocols, covering terrorist activities and racist and xenophobic cybercrimes were proposed in 2002. In addition, various national laws, such as the USA patriot act of 2001, have expanded law enforcement's power to monitor and protect computer networks.

Parents, teachers, non-profits, government, and industry have been working hard to protect kids online. However, we also need to think about protecting the Internet from kids who might abuse it. The Department of Justice categorizes computer crime in three ways: The computer as a target - attacking the computers of others (spreading viruses is an example). The computer as a weapon - using a computer to commit "traditional crime" that we see in the physical world (such as fraud or illegal gambling). The computer as an accessory - using a computer as a "fancy filing cabinet" to store illegal or stolen information. Reports of alleged computer crime have been a hot news item of late. Especially alarming is the realization that many of the masterminds behind these criminal acts are mere kids. In fact, children no longer need to be highly skilled in order to execute cyber-crimes. "Hacker tools" are easily available on the Net and, once downloaded, can be used by even novice computer users. This greatly expands the population of possible wrongdoers. Children (and in some cases their parents) often think that shutting down or defacing Web sites or releasing network viruses are amusing pranks. Kids might not even realize that what they are doing is illegal. Still other kids might find themselves hanging out online with skilled hackers who share hacking tools with them and encourage them to do inappropriate things online. Unfortunately, some of these kids don't realize that they are committing crimes until it is too late. Even more distressing and

difficult to combat is the fact that some in the media portray the computer criminal as a modern day Robin Hood. Nothing could be further from the truth. So what are cyber-crimes? Can the law enforcement authorities find criminals online? How can you create context for your children to understand what cybercrimes are? The following information (and areas throughout the site) will help familiarize you with unethical and illegal online behaviour. Additionally, to learn more about cyber-crime visit the Department of Justice Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section's website at www. Cybercrime.gov. The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) at www. Cert.org and the National Infrastructure Protection Centre at the FBI at www.infragard.net provide regularly updated information and descriptions of cybercrimes. Computer crime is a general term that embraces such crimes as phishing, credit card frauds, bank robbery, illegal downloading, industrial espionage, child pornography, kidnapping children via chat rooms, scams, cyber terrorism, creation and/or distribution of viruses, Spam and so on. All such crimes are computer related and facilitated crimes. With the evolution of the Internet, along came another revolution of crime where the perpetrators commit acts of crime and wrongdoing on the World Wide Web. Internet crime takes many faces and is committed in diverse fashions. The number of users and their diversity in their makeup has exposed the Internet to everyone. Some criminals in the Internet have grown up understanding this superhighway of information, unlike the older generation of users. This is why Internet crime has now become a growing problem in the United States. Some crimes committed on the Internet have been exposed to the world and some remain a mystery up until they are perpetrated against someone or some company.

The different types of Internet crime vary in their design and how easily they are able to be committed. Internet crimes can be separated into two different categories. There are crimes that are only committed while being on the Internet and are created exclusively because of the World Wide Web. The typical crimes in criminal history are now being brought to a whole different level of innovation and ingenuity. Such new crimes devoted to the Internet are email phishing, hijacking domain names, virus immersion, and cyber vandalism. A couple of these crimes are activities that have been exposed and introduced into the world. People have been trying to solve virus problems by installing virus protection software and other software that can protect their computers. Other crimes such as email phishing are not as known to the public until an individual receives one of these fraudulent emails. These emails are cover faced by the illusion that the email is from your bank or another bank. When a person reads the email he/she is informed of a problem with he/she personal account or another individual wants to send the person some of their money and deposit it directly into their account. The email asks for your personal account information and when a person gives this information away, they are financing the work of a criminal

STATISTICS:

The statistics that have been obtained and reported about demonstrate the seriousness Internet crimes in the world. Just the "phishing" emails mentioned in a previous paragraph produce one billion dollars for their perpetrators (Dalton 1). In a FBI survey in early 2004, 90 per cent of the 500 companies surveyed reported a security breach and 80 per cent of those suffered a financial loss (Fisher 22). A national statistic in 2003 stated that four billion dollars in credit card fraud are lost each year. Only two per cent of credit card transactions take place over the Internet but fifty per cent of the four billion, mentioned

before, are from the transaction online (Burden and Palmer 5). All these finding are just an illustration of the misuse of the Internet and a reason why Internet crime has to be slowed down.

STOPPING THE PROBLEM:

The question about how to police these crimes has already been constructed, but this task is turning out to be an uphill battle. Since the first computer crime law, the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984, the government has been trying to track down and stop online criminals. The FBI has tried many programs and investigations in order to deter Internet crime, like creating an online crime registry for employers (Metchik 29). The reality is that Internet criminals are rarely caught. One reason is that hackers will use one computer in one country to hack another computer in another country. Another eluding technique used is the changing of the emails, which are involved in virus attacks and phishing emails so that a pattern cannot be recognized. An individual can do their best to protect themselves simply by being cautious and careful. Internet users need to watch suspicious emails, use unique passwords, and run anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Do not open any email or run programs from unknown sources. The internet in India is growing rapidly. It has given rise to new opportunities in every field we can think of be it entertainment, business, sports or education. There are two sides to a coin. Internet also has its own disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages is Cybercrime illegal activity committed on the internet. The internet, along with its advantages, has also exposed us to security risks that come with connecting to a large network. Computers today are being misused for illegal activities like e-mail espionage, credit card fraud, spams, and software piracy and so on, which invade our privacy and offend our senses.

Criminal activities in the cyberspace are on the rise. Here we publish an article by Nandini Ramprasad in series for the benefit of our netizens. Ed.

"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.

What is this Cybercrime? We read about it in newspapers very often. Let's look at the dictionary definition of Cybercrime: "It is a criminal activity committed on the internet. This is a broad term that describes everything from electronic cracking to denial of service attacks that cause electronic commerce sites to lose money".

Mr Pavan Duggal, who is the President of cyberlaws.net and consultant, in a report has clearly defined the various categories and types of cybercrimes. Cybercrimes can be basically divided into 3 major categories:

1. Cybercrimes against persons. 2. Cybercrimes against property. 3. Cybercrimes against government.

Cybercrimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography and indecent exposure, constitutes one of the most important Cybercrimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity 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, if not controlled. The second category of Cyber-crimes is that of Cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes include computer vandalism (destruction of others' property), transmission of harmful programmes.

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 cyber spy.

The third category of Cyber-crimes relate to Cybercrimes against Government. Cyber terrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category. The growth of internet has shown that the medium of Cyberspace is being used by individuals and groups to threaten the international governments as also to terrorise the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself into terrorism when an individual "cracks" into a government or military maintained website.

In a report of express India. 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. Lashkar-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".

Cracking is amongst the gravest Cyber-crimes known till date. It is a dreadful feeling to know that a stranger has broken into your computer systems without

your knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential data and information.

Coupled with this the actuality is that no computer system in the world is cracking proof. It is unanimously agreed that any and every system in the world can be cracked. The recent denial of service attacks seen over the popular commercial sites like E-bay, Yahoo, Amazon and others are a new category of Cyber-crimes which are slowly emerging as being extremely dangerous.

UNAUTHORISED ACCESS:

Using one's own programming abilities as also various programmes with malicious intent to gain unauthorised access to a computer or network are very serious crimes. Similarly, the creation and dissemination of harmful computer programmes which do irreparable damage to computer systems is another kind of Cybercrime. Software piracy is also another distinct kind of Cybercrime which is perpetuated by many people online who distribute illegal and unauthorised pirated copies of software.

Professionals who involve in these cybercrimes are called crackers and it is found that many of such professionals are still in their teens. A report written near the start of the Information Age warned that America's computers were at risk from crackers. It said that computers that "control (our) power delivery, communications, aviation and financial services (and) store vital information, from medical re-cords to business plans, to criminal records, were vulnerable from many sources, including deliberate attack.

SCRIPT-KIDDIES:

Crackers do more than just spoiling websites. Novices, who are called "scriptkiddies" in their circles, gain "root" access to a computer system, giving them the same power over a system as an administrator such as the power to modify features. They cause damage by planting viruses.

The Parliament of India passed its first Cyber law, the Information Technology Act in 2000. It not only provides the legal infrastructure for E-commerce in India but also at the same time, gives draconian powers to the Police to enter and search, without any warrant, any public place for the purpose of nabbing cybercriminals and preventing cybercrime. Also, the Indian Cyber law talks of the arrest of any person who is about to commit a cybercrime. The Act defines five cyber-crimes damage to computer source code, hacking, publishing electronic information which is lascivious or prurient, breach of confidentiality and publishing false digital signatures. The Act also specifies that cybercrimes can only be investigated by an official holding no less a rank than that of Dy. Superintendent of Police.

The Act simply says "Notwi-thstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, any Police Officer not below the rank of Dy.SP may enter, search and arrest any person without search warrant in any public place who he thinks is committing or about to commit a cybercrime".

It is common that many systems operators do not share information when they are victimised by crackers. They don't contact law enforcement officers when their computer systems are invaded, preferring instead to fix the damage and take action to keep crackers from gaining access again with as little public attention as possible.

According to Sundari Nanda, SP, CBI, "most of the times the victims do not complain, may be because they are aware of the extent of the crime committed against them, or as in the case of business houses, they don't want to confess their system is not secure".

As the research shows, computer crime poses a real threat. Those who believe otherwise simply have not been awakened by the massive losses and setbacks experienced by companies worldwide. Money and intellectual property have been stolen, corporate operations impeded, and jobs lost as a result of computer crime.

Similarly, information systems in government and business alike have been compromised. The economic impact of computer crime is staggering.

CYBER ASSAULT & CYBERCRIMES IN THIS PRESENT SCENARIO: Internet usage has significantly increased over the past few years. The number of data packets which flowed through the Internet increased from 153 million in 1988 to 60,587 million in 1994 and the number of host computers increased from 235 in 1982 to 3.2 million in 1994. According to International Data Corporation ("IDC"), approximately 233.3 million devices are estimated to be connected to the Internet by this present year 2000 versus approximately 12.6 million devices in 1995. IDC also estimates that approximately 163 million individuals or entities will use the Internet by the year 2000 as opposed to 16.1 million in 1995. If left to its own measure, it is highly unlikely that such a trend can reverse itself. Given the present growth rate of Internet and the ever changing scenario, numerous legal issues arise. One of the most important issues concerning cyberspace today is that of Cybercrimes.4

When Internet was developed, the founding fathers of Internet hardly had any inclination that Internet could also be misused for criminal activities. Today, there are many disturbing things happening in cyberspace. Cybercrime refers to all the activities done with criminal intent in cyberspace. These could be either the criminal activities in the conventional sense or could be activities, newly evolved with the growth of the new medium. Because of the anonymous nature of the Internet, it is possible to engage into a variety of criminal activities with impunity and people with intelligence, have been grossly misusing this aspect of the Internet to perpetuate criminal activities in cyberspace. The field of Cybercrime is just emerging and new forms of criminal activities in cyberspace are coming to the forefront with the passing of each new day. There can be no one exhaustive definition about Cybercrime. However, any activities which basically offend human sensibilities can also be included in its ambit. Child Pornography on the Internet constitutes one serious Cybercrime. Similarly, online pedophiles, using internet to induce minor children into sex, are as much Cyber criminals as any other. Cyber-crimes can be basically divided into 3 major categories being Cybercrimes against persons, property and Government. Cyber-crimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail, and cyber-stalking. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography, indecent exposure, and child pornography, constitutes one of the most important Cyber-crimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity can hardly be overstated. This is one Cyber-crime which threatens to undermine the growth of the younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled.

Similarly, Cyber harassment is a distinct Cybercrime. Various kinds of harassment can and does occur in cyberspace, or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious or other. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also guilty of cybercrimes. Cyber harassment as a crime also brings us to another related area of violation of privacy of netizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a Cybercrime of a grave nature. No one likes any other person invading the precious and extremely touchy area of his or her own privacy which the medium of internet grants to the citizens. Another Cybercrimes against persons is that of Cyber stalking. The Internet is a wonderful place to work, play and study. The Net is no more and no less than a mirror of the real world, and that means it also contains electronic versions of real life problems. Stalking and harassments are problems that many persons especially women, are familiar with in real life. These problems also occur on the Internet, in what has become known as "Cyber stalking" or "on-line harassment". The second category of Cybercrimes is that of Cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes include unauthorized computer trespassing through cyberspace, computer vandalism, transmission of harmful programs, and unauthorized possession of computerized information. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography, indecent exposure, and child pornography, constitutes one of the most important Cybercrimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity can hardly be overstated. This is one Cybercrimes which threatens to undermine the growth of the younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled.

As well as stealing the significant information, data, A/c no credit card number transmit the data from one place to another. Hacking and cracking are amongst the gravest Cybercrimes known till date. It is know that someone has broken into your computer systems without yo ur knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential data and information. Coupled with this, the actuality is that no computer system in the world is hacking proof. It is unanimously agreed that any and every system in the world can be hacked. Using one's own programming abilities as also various programmes with malicious in tent to gain unauthorized access to a computer or network are very serious crimes. Similarly, the creation and dissemination of harmful computer programs which do irreparable damage to computer systems is another kind of Cybercrime. Software piracy is also another distinct kind of Cybercrime which is perpetuated by many people online who distribute illegal and unauthorised pirated copies of software. The third category of Cybercrimes relate to Cybercrimes against Government. Cyber Terrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category. The Information Technology Act, 2000, there are still several grey areas that exist within the law. "The IT Act, 2000, is primarily meant to be a legislation to promote e-commerce. It is not very effective in dealing with several emerging cyber-crimes like cyber harassment, defamation, stalking and so on." Cases of spam, hacking, cyber stalking and email fraud are rampant and, although cyber-crimes cells have been set up in major cities, Duggal believes the problem are that most cases remain unreported due to a lack of aware. CONCLUSION:

As someone rightly said that bytes are replacing bullets in the crime world. The growth of cyber-crime in India, as all over the world, is on the rise and to curb its scope and complexity is the pertinent need today. Cyber space offers a plethora of opportunities for cyber criminals either to cause harm to innocent people, or to make a fast buck at the expense of unsuspecting citizens. Indias profile and wealth have risen enormously in the world due to the constructive use of information technology. At the same time, India ranks fifth in the world for cyber-crime, according to a report last year by the U.S.-based Internet Crime Complaint centre, a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime centre. Even under the IT Act, investigations in India are not easy. This is mainly due to the lack of what is called cyber forensics. We know that forensic evidence is important in normal criminal investigations. But the collection and presentation of electronic evidence to prove cyber-crimes have posed a challenge to investigation and prosecution agencies and the judiciary. To sum up, India needs a good combination of laws and technology, in harmony with the laws of other countries and keeping in mind common security standards. In the era of e-governance and e-commerce, a lack of common security standards can create havoc for global trade as well as military matters.

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