An essay on Cybercrime

Cyber Crimes and their Prevention

When Charles Babbage known as the ‘Father of Computer ‘ invented computer he would never have imagined that his invention would impact and revolutionize the world in such a massive manner. Today computers have permeated to and have an influence in every task we perform. We are using computers at homes ,schools, offices , hospitals , banks , shopping malls and their modified versions in washing machines , mobile phones and cars to perform a wide array of tasks. All these facts highlights that in the present scenario our existence in entirely dependant on computers so much so that life without them is unimaginable. Although at the beginning computers were made only for the purpose of performing calculations , it was the Internet which was invented during the second World War for use by the defense department of United States which made computers suitable for the extensive purposes like ticket reservations, online banking, video conferencing , e-mails , searching and sharing research materials etc .
Internet is basically a group of computers connected together by means of a network. Internet has given rise to a ‘virtual world’ just as our actual world where we can meet and chat with different people belonging to different nationalities , caste and race. It has in fact brought the world together in a single room .Yes , this gigantic world is decreasing and it is being condensed more and more with each passing day . Twentieth century will always be known for internet revolution. As a coin has two sides , so is the case with this internet revolution . On one side it has increased our comforts and made our lives more easier it has also given rise to computer based crimes known as cybercrimes.
Cybercrime is any 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. In most of these crimes internet plays the role of intermediary which connects the perpetrator of the crime with its victim. Cybercrimes can take place against the government , private institutions and organizations and against any individual who uses the internet. Identifying the culprits of cybercrime is very difficult as internet is accessible from across the globe and many times a person sitting in one part of the globe may be performing a crime in another country. Hence it is pertinent that Governments across the world come together in order to fight against this menace of cybercrimes. Cybercrimes are mostly carried out by computer savvy individuals , who are proficient in the use of computers and know all the intricacies of internet and related technologies. For this reason they are also known as white collar crimes and e- crimes etc.
Different kinds of cybercrimes are
Computer Hacking : Hacking is unauthorised breaking into someone else’s computer system to steal their personal information , erase and format their hard drives and control the working of their computers. It also includes defacing an organizations website and stealing trade secrets . The most prominent case of hacking came to light when United Nations website was hacked and defaced.
E-Mail Spoofing : A spoofed email is the one which appears to have come from a particular address while actually the real address from which it arrived has been changed.
Spamming : In spamming a lot of emails containing promotional offers flood the inbox. These emails promise free gifts and collect our personal information which is given to telemarketing companies ,which then calls the users to sell their products.
Data diddling : In data diddling raw data is altered before it is processed by a computer and re- altered afterwards.
Salami Attacks : These types of attacks are used for financial crimes where by a malicious code is inserted in the software of banks which deducts a small amount of money from account of every customer and credit it into a particular account. The deduction is so insignificant that in a single case it goes totally unnoticed.
Phishing : In phishing emails with links to fake website is sent . When the user clicks these links a website which is same as his bank’s website opens with same logos , the user is urged to enter his username and password which is then used in real website.
Pyramid Schemes : These schemes consists of a business scheme model where people are urged to become a member by investing money , after sometime the website vanishes and the owner of site vanishes with each members money. ‘ Gold Quest ‘ is one such scheme which was exposed recently.
Forgery : Counterfeit currency notes , fake mark sheets , revenue stamps are made by use of software installed on computers.
Cyber Defamation : It involves making slander comments about a person on a site , altering his photograph and pasting it on pornographic website.
Cyber Stalking : This is done by following a person across various chat rooms and the websites which a person frequents and harassing him online.
Copyright Violation : This is the newest form of cybercrime where research or work of an individual is used by another person without his due permission.
Besides cybercrimes are also being used by militants to commit acts of terrorism. After the recent blasts in Delhi terrorist hacked into Wifi system of a household in Bangalore to send emails to various news channels . When contacted by police and other agencies these families were left aghast . This is a classic case of IP spoofing. Cybercrimes have now become a global phenomenon and so it’s the responsibility of each and every country to police these cybercrimes. The major problem facing cybercrime is multiplicity of laws in one country and its sheer absence in another. The culprits use those countries as their base where cyber laws are weak or non existential. The need of an hour is to have uniform international laws against all forms of cybercrimes so that the culprits of cybercrime cannot take advantage of global reach of internet to get away with their offenses.
At an individual level we should also take some precautions like having a good antivirus and antispyware software. We should not keep our birth dates as passwords and use both digits and alphabets in our passwords. We should also have ‘Firewalls’ and ‘antiphising filters ‘ installed in our browsers which warns us of suspicious websites. Furthermore we should not give our personal details to any website . While shopping online and using E- banking facility we should see that ii is bein done through a ‘secured connection’ and personal computer. We should refrain from doing these activities from a public computer. We should also use intrusion alert and network scanning software which tells us about suspicious activities going on in our network and alerts us if someone has hacked our computer system.
Government should take steps to educate the people about cybercrimes through organizing lectures and awareness campaigns. Sensitive data related to defense of country , trade secrets of an organization , bank accounts should be kept encrypted . An encrypted data is impossible to be read without a proper key . In encryption a large number of techniques like Digital Watermaking, Cryptography and Stentography are used to pass on sensitive information hidden in images, audio and visual files. Digital Watermarking is playing a very important role in copy right protection where by original owner’s information is stored invisibly in his documents and if a copyright violation occurs the offender can be easily caught and punished.
Cybercrime is a criminal activity performed with the help of computers and internet. Cases of cybercrime is growing day by day . It has no boundaries and can affect anybody ranging from an ordinary individual to government offices and multinational companies. The need of hour is to unite and fight these crimes with every nation playing its part and doing its bit to control this menace. We should try to develop better e – mail systems , superior antivirus software and clog the loop holes that exist in existing banking and other financial systems. Also the perpetrators of cybercrimes should be dealt strictly with and should not be let off easily . Government should also try and spread awareness about these crimes. At present internet penetration of our country is about seven percent and by 2020 India will be world’s largest internet market , so it is essential that we deal with this problem now and get rid of it because it can attain massive proportion in years to come when the computer users in our country will grow.