Problem of Cyber Crime and Security

Spam

Spam, or the unsolicited sending of mass email for commercial purposes, is illegal to varying degrees. In relation to email, specific anti-spam laws are relatively new, however restrictions on unsolicited electronic communications have existed in various forms for some time. Spam originating from India accounts for one percent of all spam emanating from the top 25 spam-producing countries, making India the 18th ranked country globally for generating spam.

Phishing

Phishing is a system used by outsiders to "fish" for information about you, such as your bank account number, PIN, and other personal identifiers, like your National Insurance number.

Information that you wouldn't normally divulge to a stranger. These messages often contain company or bank logos that look legitimate and use technical or legalistic language about enhancing security by confirming your identity details.

Fraud

PC extortion is any unscrupulous deception of reality, designed to manipulate another to act, or refrain from acting, in a way that causes loss. In this context, the fraud will result in obtaining an advantage by:

• Altering PC contributions in an unapproved manner. This requires minimal specialized ability and is a common form of theft by employees who modify data before entry, enter false data, input unauthorized instructions or use unauthorized processes;
• Altering, destroying, suppressing, or stealing output, typically to conceal unauthorized transactions: this is difficult to detect;
• Altering or deleting stored data; or
• Altering or abusing existing system tools or software packages, or altering or writing code for fraudulent purposes. This requires advanced programming skills and is not common;
• Other forms of fraud may be facilitated using computer systems, including bank fraud, identity theft, extortion, and theft of classified information (Csonka, 2000).

Obscene or offensive content

The content of websites and other electronic communications may be unpleasant, distasteful or offensive for a variety of reasons. In some instances, these communications may be illegal. Many sites place restrictions on certain speech and prohibit racist, blasphemous, politically subversive, slanderous or offensive, radical, or incendiary material that tends to incite hate crimes. The extent to which these communications are illegal varies greatly among countries, and even within nations. It is a sensitive area where the courts can become involved in mediating between groups with entrenched beliefs.

Harassment

While substance might be hostile in a general sense, bullying directs obscenities and unfavorable remarks at specific individuals, focusing on attributes such as sex, race, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation. This frequently occurs in chat rooms, through newsgroups, and by sending hate emails to targeted individuals (see cyberbullying, cyber stalking, and harassment by computer; hate crime, online predator, and stalking). Any comment that may be found abusive or offensive is considered harassment.

Drug trafficking

Medication traffickers are increasingly exploiting the web to sell their illicit substances through encrypted email and other web technology. Some drug traffickers arrange deals at internet cafes, use courier websites to track illegal packages of pills, and swap recipes for amphetamines in restricted access chat rooms. The rise in web drug transactions could also be attributed to the lack of face-to-face communication. These virtual exchanges allow more intimidated individuals to more easily purchase illegal drugs. The direct impacts that are often associated with drug transactions are significantly reduced, and the filtering process that comes with physical interaction fades away. Moreover, traditional drug recipes were carefully guarded secrets. However, with modern computer technology, this information is now being made available to anyone with computer access.

Cyber terrorism

Government authorities and data innovation security experts have documented a significant increase in web issues and server scans since mid-2001. There is a growing concern among these officials that these intrusions are part of an organized effort by cyber terrorists, foreign intelligence services or other groups to identify security gaps within critical systems. A cyber terrorist is someone who threatens or coerces a government or organization to advance their political or social goals by launching a computer-based attack on computers, networks and the information stored on them.

Cyber terrorism, in general, can be defined as an act of terrorism committed using the internet or computer resources (Parker 1983). Consequently, a simple piece of propaganda on the web, such as a bomb threat during holidays, can be considered cyber terrorism. In extreme cases, cyber terrorists may utilize the internet or computer resources to carry out a real attack. Additionally, hacking activities targeting individuals, families, organized by groups within networks intend to instill fear among people, demonstrate power, or gather information for destructive purposes, such as theft, blackmail, etc.

Documented cases

• The "Hurray!" site was assaulted at 10:30 PST on Monday, 7 February 2000. The assault lasted three hours. The site was pinged at the rate of one gigabyte per second.
• On 3 August 2000, Canadian government prosecutors charged "Mafia Kid" with 54 counts of unlawful access to computers, in addition to a total of ten counts of mischief to data for his attacks on Amazon.com, eBay, Dell PC, Outlaw.net, and "Hurray!".
• "Mafia Kid" had also attacked other sites, but prosecutors decided that a total of 66 charges were enough. "Mafia Kid" pleaded not guilty. Around fifty computers at Stanford University, and also computers at the University of California at Santa Barbara, were among the zombie computers sending pings in DDoS attacks.
• On 26 March 1999, the Melissa worm infected a document on a victim's computer, and then automatically sent that document and a copy of the virus via email to other people.
• On 21 January 2003, a UK virus writer was sentenced to two years in jail for infecting 27,000 computers.

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