A Cyber Crime And Computer Crime Information Technology Essay

Nowadays, computer is used for different purposes depending on the persons skill and wants. When you look at the population of the people who use computers in the world, the number is very surprising. It increases everyday and as every second passes, technologies are increasing. Lets take China for example an article which says “There are nearly 300 million inter users only in China” (Eliza Strickland, New York Times, population of internet users in china, 1 July, 2009)(1). So with this population of computer and cyber users, there is no wrong in saying cyber and computer crime will keep increasing as it is networked internationally, which makes computer criminals to get access to it easily. As government and Businessmen rely on computers so do criminals.

The first recorded cyber crime was in 1820. This is not surprising because the first form of computer is Abacus which has been around since 3500BC. By looking at this fact their will be no doubt in saying that cyber crime and computer crime will keep increasing day by day.

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2.0 DEFINITION OF CYBER CRIME AND COMPUTER CRIME

2.1 CYBER CRIME

Cyber crime is a crime that is committed using a computer, network or hardware device. The computer and the internet serve as a target victim or as a tool to commit a lot of crimes. Cyber crime does not only mean stealing of millions as many people think. Cyber crime constitutes a lot of crimes such as fraud, cyber stalking, unauthorized access, child pornography, forgery, and etcetera. Looking at it that way, the major crime that Government, Industries, and people around the world are concerned about are cracking, piracy, phreaking, cyber stalking, cyber pornography, cyber terrorism, etcetera.

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Cyber crime also involves traditional crimes that take place via the internet. Cyber crime is the latest and the most complicated problem in the cyber world. There are organized and individual hackers. The individual hackers normally do this sort of things to prove themselves to be good in computer programming and other breaching softwares while the organized crimes are always done for monetary purposes, like hacking into big companies, business organizations or even Banks.

“The chief Executive Officer Lieutenant-Colonel Jazri said that in the past two years there has been at least 4000 complaints filed in the country of Malaysia , mostly consisted of hack threats, fraud, denial of services and other computer problems such files lost or corrupted by viruses.” (Sanooaung, More than 4,000 cybercrime cases reported in Malaysia within two years,  January 17, 2009.) (2)

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As (Parthasarathi pati, cyber crime, page 2, Indian printing press,2006) (3) said “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”.

2.2 COMPUTER CRIME

Computer crime is a crime that is committed with the help of a computer. These crimes have been around since before the coming of computer but now as the world is changing crime can also be a situation computers are used to assist in crime activities. When this kind of crime is committed it doest have to result in any loss of data and also the data in the computer doest have to be modified.

Computer crime can also be a situation whereby data on a computer is accessed without the administrators permission. It doesnt mean that data in the computer have to be modified or as a result got lost. The worst time of computer crime is that which occurs without any indication that data has been accessed.

Computer crime are now done in groups, because they have now realize that if such crimes are organized, their will be low-level of risk and ease of stealing. Computer crime is mostly done by rogue hackers and crackers, majority of who are employees of an organization.

“internet Crime has risen from $68 million in 2004 to $265 million in 2008. The statistics on Internet fraud indicates the seriousness of the problem.” (Beverly Bright(2009), Computer Crime Is On The Rise: Help Is Available For Cyber Crime

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Victims: (http://crime.suite101.com/article.cfm/com puter _crime _is _ on_the_ rise#ixz z 0i2XKCCGE), 6 march, 2010.) (4)

3.0 DEFINITION OF TERMS INVOLVING COMPUTER AND CYBER CRIME.

FRAUD:

Fraud is normally caused by extorting money from individuals by way of tricking them. Fraudsters are on the rise in the world, they execute this act by way of email etcetera and it usually comes in form of big business organization or individual.

BLACK HAT:

Is a word used for a hacker who breaks into a computer or network or even creates computer viruses. Black hats are sort of the villains of the computer world.

IDENTITY THEFT:

Identity theft is using of some ones personal data illegally, meaning without his knowledge. If a persons identity has been stolen, is may be very devastating because a lot of activities may be taking place without the owner knowing. They use a persons name, social security Number, birthday or even using some ones international passport to create new credit cards or collect loans which will affect the owners record.

PHISHING:

Phishing is an e-mail fraud in which the phishers sends millions of messages to different people. The message will look as if it was sent by a genuine source, it will look very real. What they normally ask is your financial information from the message recipients.

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PHARMING:

Pharming is a way hackers use to trick people using the internet Unlike phishing, pharmers use a technique of changing an IP address of a web-site, so when you type a web- site thinking that its sending you to the right site, it then diverts hackers fake link page. What they do is that they use the same Domain name but different IP address so you will end up filling a page that Is fake and they will have all your information.

DENIAL-OF-SERVICE ATTACK:

Denial of Service attack is a situation whereby computer resources are made unavailable to organization or intended users. Mostly, DOS does not usually result of information or other security loss. This attack may make inter sites or services from working properly.

MALWARE:

Malware is a software made to penetrate or damage a computer system without the owners giving permission to penetrator.

HACKING:

Hacking is a word used to describe breaking into computer systems without the owners consent. It is also the unauthorized trespassing in the internet world.

Example: “some Russian hackers known as Russian Business Network stole 10s of millions of Dollars from US Banks and are still at large, the FBI are still investigating the case”( Bubbie Johnson, The age. ‘Russian hacks stole from US Banks. Dec 25, 2009. ) (5)

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SPYWARE:

Spyware is a computer software that is being installed which takes control of partial interaction between the user and his computer without the user knowing. Spyware programs can store personal information. It also redirects web browser activities which may cause more harmful Viruses to your computer. This sort of spywares can cause problems like slowing down the connection speed and even loss of internet or other programs.

4.0 FUTURE OF CYBER CRIME

Looking at the future of cyber crime in Asia and where cyber criminals are heading, you will see that cyber criminals (attackers) are always a step a head of the authorities. Cyber criminals always find a new way of committing crimes. They always find a way to by-pass the authorities. Authorities should increase the skill-level of international police so as to catch up with this sort of crime committers.

The future of cyber crime is very unpredictable because cyber criminals have realized that it is easier to get a lot of money from people by defrauding and using scams on them.

In Asia, the cases of cyber crime are high because of their population and their exposure to computer; about 85-90% of Asians have access to computers. When looking at how cyber crime is growing, you can say that cyber crime will keep getting worst. Relying on the current law and technical protection is not sufficient for the computer worlds well being.

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Protection measures most be taken for people to secure themselves from cyber crime

for example “People should know when and where to do their online Banking. A person

may be doing his thing not knowing that the computer has spywares which can store all his datas”. These problems can be solved by installing up to date Anti-virus and configuring your firewalls is also very important.

In china, 25% of major cyber crimes are committed as cyber frauds. There are about 300 million internet users in only China, what if we look at the whole world? How many bad eggs will we find? What these cyber criminals put in mind is that they urgently want to get rich by all means which will lead to no good. And know the fastest way to steal from people and escape is using cyber fraud.

5.0 SCENARIOS OF CYBER CRIMES

There are a lot of examples involved in cyber crime. These are some of the examples:

A case was filed in which 250,000 was stolen from a Bank in Indonesia through a fake computerized Bank Account.

The police in India arrested an unemployed computer operator together with his friend, a host of a five star hotel allegedly stealing and misusing the total hotel customers credit card numbers. The host copied down the information on the credit card and passes it to his computer operator friend. And what the friend normally does is that he uses the details to purchase a different websites online.

Cyber pornography has been rated as the biggest and largest business on the internet today.

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The CEO of an online auction website “bazee.com” was arrested by the Delhi police for disobeying Indias laws on cyber pornography. This was so because a student was using bazee website to sell a Video showing two students having sexual intercourse. The website was responsible for the being of everything that goes on in the site. So the CEO was arrested for distributing porn videos.

A professional on software from Bangalore (India) was arrested for misappropriating the source code of a product that was developed by his employers. He then started his own company and used the stolen code to launch his new software product.

In 2003, a computer user in China got hold of a source code for a game called LINEAGELL from a website that was unprotected. In 2004, he then started selling the codes to different people. He was warned by the South Korean company who owned the code legally. But despite their warnings, he was still reluctant and was even trying to expand his illegal Business. The South Korean company realized that they were loosing $250,000 a month, that when they filed a case. The US FBI arrested the suspects and the web-sites were shut down.

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6.0 PREVENTION OF CYBER CRIME

HACHING TECHNIQUES

PREVENTION MEASURES

Password compromised

make your password difficult to guess

Profiling

Using of random passwords

Malware

By using of Anti-virus, And spyware software

Lost laptops

Secure your system by pass wording your laptop

Software Vulnerability

By Knowing the location of all your softwares and how its used

Password observers

>beware of your surrounding

>type fast

Firewall

>Make sure it is always on.

>Upgrade or replace

Bribed Staff

Never share your password

Windows Vulnerability

Install windows updates

No License

>Change to retrieve source software

>Buy License

Configured badly

Get help from professionals.

Fig 1.0 Crimes and their Preventions.

The diagram above is describing some of the safety measures to be taken to prevent hackers from intruding into your computer. The column with the blue color is describing the technique the hackers use while the column with white explains their preventions. Further preventions will be discussed in a bigger sense below, which some of them will be referring to the hacking technique in figure 1.0.

These are the preventions:

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Using of spam blocker is a way to stop receiving unwanted e-mails as the fig 1.0 shows. There is always a spam blocking feature provided by most of the internet providers. Fraudulent, phishing e-mails are example of mails blocked if you use the spam blocker.

Make sure you install well recommended Anti-virus software (reference to fig. 1.0). Its not only installing the Anti-virus but up-dating it regularly and scanning your computer at least once a week or two (2) In order to remove unwanted programs like malware, viruses, spyware, and a lot more. AVG is free security software for those who prefer free versions.

Always be cautious of giving out your personal information to web-sites you know nothing about, mostly those who request your bank account details, name, mailing address or even social security number are all fraudsters.

Using of parental control software to limit your childrens whereabouts online is a very wise thing to do, checking on them regularly while they are online and also checking the browsers is another way of knowing what your kids are always doing and with whom are they interacting with.

Always keep your computer firewalls protection feature on because it prevents hackers from penetrating through your computer.

Police should be trained not only in the field but also in the technology wise with all its technicalities. Looking at a lot of books and journals and the law behind

Cyber criminals, you will find out that the sentence for a black hat hacker is between 1-5 years in prison. I think if the Government will use these culprits they can do well to the society by giving them another chance in a community service

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punishment. Their punishment should be helping the Government to nab such criminals because they know all the maneuvers involved in hacking or cracking.

Companies, Banks, and big organizations should make it a habit of changing their security measures on regular bases.

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7.0 CONCLUSION

In conclusion to this paper, what computer and cyber crime will become in the future is not predictable. Things that have been happening before is not what will happen in the future, because everyday there is an advancement in the computer world.

There are a lot of cyber crimes victims who refuse to report petty crimes, because they feel what they have lost are too small, they feel its better to loose than to be embarrassed.

I hope that the people this society will take this case very seriously. Computer crime should be stopped. Reports should be filed immediately no matter how small a crime is because other people may learn from your mistakes

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