The Problem of Cyber Crimes

Cybercrime is defined as crimes committed on the internet using the computer as either a tool or a targeted victim by hacker or cracker. while we growth on fast data manipulating system in this technology era, Unfortunately, some of the skilled professionals use this ability in a bad way by harming society, by finding the vulnerabilities in the companies systems and tacking them, creating and distributing virus-containing codes. Here the term ‘cyber crime’ is a misnomer. Mainly the concept of cyber crime is notradically different from the concept of conventional crime. In recent year privacy and ethical behavior play important role in our lives .it is especially important in the security related areas.

What is Cyber Crime

Cyber crime is the recent and perhaps the most knowing problem in the cyber world. “Cyber crime may be said to be those species, of which, genus is the common crime, and where either the computer is an subject of the behaviour forming crime” “Any criminal activity that uses a computer either as an instrumentality, target or a means for maintaining further crimes comes within the curcuit of cyber crime”. A definition of cyber crime may be “illegal acts wherein the computer is either a tool or target or both” The computer may be used as a tool in the following financial crimes, sale of unlawful articles, pornography, intellectual property crime, e-mail spoofing, cyber stalking, forgery, cyber defamation.

The computer may however be target for illegal acts in the following cases- unrightful access to computer system/ computer networks, theft of information contained in the electronic form,so e-mail bombing, data didling, salami attacks, logic bombs, Trojan attacks, internet time thefts,web jacking, theft of computer system, physically damaging the computer system.

Who is Hacker

There are hundreds definitions of “hackers” on the Web. Combining it all together we get a computer enthusiast, who enjoys learning programming languages and/or computer systems and can often be considered an expert on the subject, So who had good skill at the art and science of making computers and software do much more than the original designers intended. “Hackers are computer experts.  Hackers built the Internet. So Hackers made the Unix operating system what it is today. So Hackers run Usenet . Hackers make the World Wide Web work. So If you are part of this culture, if you have contributed to it and other people in it know who you are and call you a hacker, you are a hacker. Real hackers consider crackers lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright and want nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word “hacker” to describe “crackers”, which is a obviously upsets real hackers

Who is cracker

A person who breaks into other people's computer systems to get a kick and out of it or who intent to cause harm is a “cracker”. A hacker is a very talented programmer, respected by his peers. On the other hand A true hacker can find plenty of useful projects to work on definityly breaking things is more a characteristic of children of any age. Denifitely The basic difference is this: hackers build things; crackers break them.

Reasons for Cyber Crime

Now “The Concept of Law” has said ‘human beings are vulnerable so rule of law is required to protect them’. So, Applying this to the cyberspace we may say that computers are vulnerable so rule of law is required to protect and safeguard them against cyber crime. The reasons for the vulnerability of computers may be said to be:

Capacity to store data in comparatively small space: In the The computer has unique characteristic of storing data in a very small space. This affords to remove or derive information either through physical or virtual medium makes it much easier.

Easy to access: Also The problem encountered in guarding a computer system from unauthorised access is that there is every possibility of breach not due to human error but due to the complex technology. By secretly implanted logic bomb, key loggers that can steal access codes, advanced voice recorders; retina imagers etc. that can fool biometric systems and bypass firewalls can be utilized to get past many a security system.

Complex: In the The computers work on operating systems and these operating systems in turn are composed of millions of codes. Human mind is fallible and it is not possible that there might not be a lapse at any stage. The cyber criminals take advantage of these lacunas and penetrate into the computer system .

Negligence: So, Negligence is very closely connected with human conduct. It is therefore very probable that while protecting the computer system there might be any negligence, which in turn provides a cyber criminal to gain access and control over the computer system.

Loss of evidence: The Loss of evidence is a very common & obvious problem as all the data are routinely destroyed. Further collection of data outside the territorial extent also paralyses this system of crime investigation.

Types Of Cyber Crime : Email bombing: In This kind of activity refers to sending large numbers of mail to the victim, which may be an individual or a company or even mail servers there by ultimately resulting into crashing. Data diddling: In This kind of an attack involves altering raw data just before a computer processes it and then changing it back after the processing is completed. The electricity board faced similar problem of data diddling while the department was being computerized . Salami attacks: So, This kind of crime is normally prevalent in the financial institutions or for the purpose of committing financial crimes.

An important feature of this type of offence is that the alteration is so small that it would normally gounnoticed. E.g. the Ziegler case wherein a logic bomb was introduced in the bank’s system, which deducted 10 cents from every account and deposited it in a particular account. Denial of Service attack: The computer of the victim is flooded more requests than it can handle which cause it to crash. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoss) attack is also a type of denial of service attack, in which the offenders are wide in number and widespread.

Trojan attacks: Oviously, This term has its origin in the word ‘Trojan horse’. In software field this means an unauthorized programme, which passively gains control over another’s system by representing itself as an authorised programme. The most common form of installing a Trojan is through e- mail. E.g. a Trojan was installed in the computer of a lady film director in the U.S. while chatting. The cyber criminal through the web cam installed in the computer obtained her nude photographs. He further harassed this lady.

Internet time thefts: In these kinds of thefts the Internet surfing hours of the victim are used up by another person. This is done by gaining access to the login ID and the password. E.g. Colonel Bajwa’s case- the Internet hours were used up by any other person. This was perhaps one of the first reported cases related to cyber crime in India. However this case made the police infamous as to their lack of understanding of the nature of cyber crime .

Web jacking: So,In This term is derived from the term hi jacking. In these kinds of offences the hacker gains access and control over the web site of another. He may even mutilate or change the information on the site. This may be done for fulfilling political objectives or for money. E.g. recently the site of MIT (Ministry of Information Technology) was hacked by the Pakistani hackers and some obscene matter was placed therein.

Further the site of Bombay crime branch was also web jacked. Another case of web jacking is that of the ‘gold fish’ case. In this case the site was hacked and the information pertaining to gold fish was changed. Further a ransom of US $ 1 million was demanded as ransom. Thus web jacking is a process whereby control over the site of another is made backed by some consideration for it.

Protection from cyber Crime

So, Hacking and its subcategory cyber-terrorism, is a growing problem that must be addressed accordingly. Dr. Les Labuschagne from the California Berkley University suggests two approaches: proactive and reactive. Most organizations adopt a reactive approach to information security. The vulnerability of systems is usually evaluated after an attack takes place, result in  money spent on fixing the security holes and recovering from the data and business loss. This is the least effective, and more expensive approach. The proactive approach said to demonstrate organizations that try to locate security holes before the hackers do. The proactive approach is sometimes called “ethical hacking”.

Conclusion

In this 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.