CYBER CRIMES

Cyber Crimes

Cyber crime or computer-oriented crime is a crime that includes a computer and a network. The

computer may have been used in the execution of a crime or it may be the target.

Cyber crime is the use of a computer as a weapon for committing crimes such as committing

fraud, identities theft or breaching privacy.

Cyber crime encloses a wide range of activities, but these can generally be divided into two

categories:

1. Crimes that aim computer networks or devices. These types of crimes involve different

threats (like virus, bugs etc.) and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

2. Crimes that use computer networks to commit other criminal activities. These types of

crimes include cyber stalking, financial fraud or identity theft.

 Classification of Cyber Crimes
Cyber crimes are classified based on the subject of the crime, the
person or organization against whom the crime is committed, and the
temporal nature of the crimes committed online.

The cyber crimes may be broadly classified into four groups. They are:
1.Crime against the Individuals:
Crimes that are committed by the cyber criminals against an individual or a person. A
few cyber crimes against individuals are:
Harassment via electronic mails.
Dissemination of obscene material.
Cyber-stalking.
Indecent exposure.
Cheating.
Unauthorized control/access over computer system.
Email spoofing.
Fraud.
2. Crimes against Property:

These types of crimes includes vandalism of computers, Intellectual (Copyright, patented, trademark

etc.) Property Crimes, Online threatening etc. Intellectual property crime includes:

Computer vandalism.

Transmitting virus.

Net-trespass.

Unauthorized access / control over computer system.

Internet thefts.

Intellectual Property crimes- Software piracy, Copyright infringement, Trademark infringement.

3. Crime against Organization:
Crimes done to threaten the international governments or any organization by using internet facilities.
These cyber crimes are known as cybercrimes against Organization. These crimes are committed to
spread terror among people. Cyber terrorism is referred as crimes against a government. Cybercrimes
against Government includes cyber attack on the government website, military website or cyber
terrorism etc.

Unauthorized access / control over computer system.

Cyber terrorism against the government organization.

Possession of unauthorized information.

Distribution of Pirate software.

4. Crime against Society:
Those cybercrimes which affects the society interest at large are known as cyber crimes
against society, which include:
Child pornography.

Indecent exposure of polluting the youth financial crimes.

Sale of illegal articles.

Trafficking.

Forgery.

Online gambling.
Prevention of Cyber Crime :

1. Use strong password –

Maintain different password and username combinations for each account.

Weak passwords can be easily cracked using certain attacking methods like Brute

force attack, Rainbow table attack etc. So make them complex.

That means combination of letters, numbers and special characters.

2. Use trusted antivirus in devices –

Always use trustworthy and highly advanced antivirus software in mobile and

personal computers. This leads to the prevention of different virus attack on

devices.
3. Keep social media private –

Always keep your social media accounts data privacy only to your friends.

Also make sure only to make friend who are known to you.

4. Keep your device software updated –

Whenever your get the updates of the system software update it at the

same time because sometimes the previous version can be easily

attacked.

5. Use secure network –

Public Wi-Fi are vulnerable. Avoid conducting financial or corporate

transactions on these networks.

6. Never open attachments in spam emails –

A computer get infected by malware attacks and other forms of cybercrime is via

email attachments in spam emails. Never open an attachment from a sender you

do not know.
 Reasons for Commission of Cyber Crimes
❑ Money: People are motivated towards committing cyber crime is to make quick and easy money.
❑ Revenge: Some people try to take revenge with other person/organization/society/caste or religion by
defaming its reputation or bringing economical or physical loss.
This comes under the category of cyber terrorism.
❑ Fun: The amateur do cyber crime for fun. They just want to test the latest tool they have encountered.
❑ Recognition: It is considered to be pride if someone hack the highly secured networks like defense sites or
networks.
❑ Anonymity- Many time the anonymity that a cyber space provide motivates the person to commit cyber
crime as it is much easy to commit a cyber crime over the cyber space and remain anonymous as compared to
real world.
It is much easier to get away with criminal activity in a cyber world than in the real world.
❑ Cyber Espionage: At times the government itself is involved in cyber trespassing to
keep eye on other person/network/country. The reason could be politically, economically socially
motivated.
 MALWARE

❑ Malware stands for “Malicious Software”.

❑ It is designed to gain access or installed into the computer without the consent of the user.

❑ They perform unwanted tasks in the host computer for the benefit of a third party.

❑ There is a full range of malwares which can seriously degrade the performance of the host machine.

❑ There is a full range of malwares which are simply written to distract/annoy the user, to the complex ones
which captures the sensitive data from the host machine and send it to remote servers. There are various types
of malwares present in the Internet.
 Adware
It is a special type of malware which is used for forced advertising. They either redirect the
page to some advertising page or pop-up an additional page which promotes some product or
event. These adware are financially supported by the organizations whose products are
advertised.
Spyware
It is a special type of which is installed in the target computer with or without the user
permission and is designed to steal sensitive information from the target machine. Mostly it
gathers the browsing habits of the user and the send it to the remote server without the
knowledge of the owner of the computer. Most of the time they are downloaded in to the host
computer while downloading freeware i.e. free application programmes from the internet.
• Spywares may be of various types;
• It can keeps track of the cookies of the host computer,
• it can act as a keyloggers to sniff the banking passwords and sensitive information, etc.
Browser hijacking software
There is some malicious software which are downloaded along with the free software offered
over the internet and installed in the host computer without the knowledge of the user. This
software modifies the browsers setting and redirect links to other unintentional sites.
Virus
A virus is a malicious code written to damage/harm the host computer by deleting or
appending a file, occupy memory space of the computer by replicating the copy of the code,
slow down the performance of the computer, format the host machine, etc. It can be spread
via email attachment, pen drives, digital images, e-greeting, audio or video clips, etc. A virus
may be present in a computer but it cannot activate itself without the human intervention.
Until and unless the executable file(.exe) is execute, a virus cannot be activated in the host
machine.
Worms
They are a class of virus which can replicate themselves. They are different from the virus by the fact that they does
not require human intervention to travel over the network and spread from the infected machine to the whole
network. Worms can spread either through network, using the loopholes of the Operating System or via email. The
replication and spreading of the worm over the network consumes the network resources like space and bandwidth
and force the network to choke.
Trojan Horse
Trojan horse is a malicious code that is installed in the host machine by pretending to be
useful software. The user clicks on the link or download the file which pretends to be a useful file or software from
legitimate source. It not only damages the host computer by
manipulating the data but also it creates a backdoor in the host computer so that it could be controlled by a remote
computer. It can become a part of botnet(robot-network), a network of computers which are infected by malicious
code and controlled by central controller. The computers of this network which are infected by malicious code are
known as zombies. Trojens neither infect the other computers in the network nor do they replicate.
 Scareware
Internet has changed how we talk, shop, play etc. It has even changed the way how the
criminal target the people for ransom. While surfing the Internet, suddenly a pop-up alert
appears in the screen which warns the presence of dangerous virus, spywares, etc. in the
user‟s computer. As a remedial measure, the message suggests the used download the full
paid version of the software. As the user proceeds to download, a malicious code, known as
scareware is downloaded into the host computer. It holds the host computer hostage until the
ransom is paid. The malicious code can neither be uninstalled nor can the computer be used
till the ransom is paid.
 Computer Hacking

The practice of modifying computer hardware and software to accomplish a goal outside the creator‟s original purpose. The
purpose of hacking a computer system may vary from simply demonstrations of the technical ability, to sealing, modifying or
destroying information for social, economic or political reasons. Now the corporate are hiring hackers, a person who is engaged
in hacking computers, to intentionally hack the computer of an organization to find and fix security vulnerabilities.
The hackers may be classified as:
White Hat: white hat hackers are the persons who hack the system to find the security
vulnerabilities of a system and notify to the organizations so that a preventive action
can be taken to protect the system from outside hackers. White hat hackers may be
paid employee of an organization who is employed to find the security loop-holes, or
may be a freelancer who just wants to prove his mantle in this field. They are popular
known as ethical hackers.
Black Hat: in contrast to the white hat, the black hat hack the system with ill
intentions. They may hack the system for social, political or economically motivated
intentions. They find the security loopholes the system, and keep the information
themselves and exploit the system for personal or organizational benefits till
organization whose system is compromised is aware of this, and apply security
patches. They are popularly known as crackers.
Grey Hat: Grey hat hackers find out the security vulnerabilities and report to the site
administrators and offer the fix of the security bug for a consultancy fee.
Blue hat: A blue hat hacker is someone outside computer security consulting firms
who is used to bug-test a system prior to its launch, looking for exploits so they can be
closed.
 Creating and distributing viruses over internet

Spamming
Sending of unsolicited and commercial bulk message over the internet is known as spamming.
An email can be classified as spam, if it meets following criteria:
a. Mass mailing:- the email is not targeted to one particular person but to a large number
of peoples.
b. Anonymity:- The real identify of the person not known
c. Unsolicited:- the email is neither expected nor requested for the recipient.
These spams not only irritate the recipients and overload the network but also waste the time
and occupy the valuable memory space of the mailbox.
Cross Site Scripting
It is an activity which involves injecting a malicious client side script into a trusted website.
As soon as the browser executes the malicious script, the malicious script gets access to the cookies and other sensitive
information and sent to remote servers. Now this information can be use to gain financial benefit or physical access to a system
for personal interest.
Online Auction Fraud
There are many genuine websites who offers online auction over internet. Taking the advantage of the reputation of these
websites, some of the cyber criminals lure the customers to online auction fraud schemes which often lead to either
overpayment of the product or the item is never delivered once the payment is made.
 Online Auction Fraud
There are many genuine websites who offers online auction over internet. Taking the
advantage of the reputation of these websites, some of the cyber criminals lure the customers
to online auction fraud schemes which often lead to either overpayment of the product or the
item is never delivered once the payment is made.
Cyber Squatting
It is an act of reserving the domain names of someone else‟s trademark with intent to sell it
afterwards to the organization who is the owner of the trademark at a higher price.