Cybercrime

Introduction

• Cybercrime is
defined as a crime
in which a
computer is the
object of the crime
(hacking, phishing,
spamming) or is
used as a tool to
commit an offense
(child pornography,
hate crimes).
History of Cybercrime
• The first recorded cybercrime took place in
1820. Considering the fact that the abacus,
which is thought to be the earliest form of
computer, has bee around 3500 B.C.

• In India, Japan and China, the era of modern

computer began with the analytical engine.

• The first spam email took place in 1976 when

it sent out over the ARPANT.
History of Cybercrime
• The first virus was installed on an Apple
computer in 1982 when a high school student,
Rich Skrenta, developed the EIK Cloner.

• Cybercrime first started with hackers trying to

break into computer networks.

• Some did just for the thrill of accessing high-

level security networks, but others sought to
gain sensitive, classified material.
What is Cybercrime?
• Cybercrime, or computer oriented crime, is
crime that involves a computer and a network.
• The computer may have been used in the
commission of a crime or it may be a target.

• Cybercrimes are generally defined as any type

of illegal activity that makes the use of the
Internet, a private or public network, or an in-
house computer system.
What is Cybercrime?
• Cybercrimes can be defined as: “Offenses that
are committed against individuals or groups of
individuals with a criminal motive to
intentionally harm the reputation of the victim
or cause physical or mental harm, or loss, to
the victim directly or indirectly, using modern
telecommunication networks such as Internet
(networks including but not limited to chat
rooms, emails, notice and boards and groups)
and mobile phones (Bluetooth/SMS/MMS)”.
What is Cybercrime?
• Debarati Halder and K. Jaishankar further
define cybercrime from the perspective of
gender and defined cybercrime against
women as crimes targeted against women
with a motive to intentionally harm the victim
psychologically and physically, using modern
telecommunication networks such as internet
and mobile phones.
• Cybercrimes crossing internationally borders
and involving the actions of at least one nation
state is sometimes referred to as
cyberwarfare.
Two categories of cybercrime
• At the Tenth United Nations Congress on the
Prevention of Crime and Treatment of
Offenders, in a workshop devoted to issues of
crimes related to computer networks, cyber
crime was broken into two categories.
– Cybercrime in a narrow sense (computer
crime): Any illegal behavior directed by means of
electronic operations that targets the security of
computer systems and the data processed by
them.
Two categories of cybercrime
– Cybercrime in a broader sense (computer-
related crime): Any illegal behavior committed by
means of, or in relation to, a computer system of
network, including such crimes as illegal
possession and offering or distributing information
by means of a computer system or network.
Two elements of cybercrime
• Computer
• Crime

• The relationship could involve the direct usage

of a computer by the criminal as one of the
first famous computer criminals did.
• It could also be indirect, the criminal can not
only use a computer to commit his crime but
can also use someone to make changes in a
computer system, by manipulating a key
computer user.
Cybersecurity
• Cybersecurity is the collection of tools,
policies, security concepts, security
safeguards, guidelines, risk management
approaches, actions, training, best practices,
assurance and technologies that can be used
to protect the cyber environment and
organization and user’s assets.
• Cybersecurity involves protection of sensitive
personal and business information through
prevention, detection and response to different
online attacks.
• Cybersecurity actually preventing the attacks.
Cybersecurity – Privacy Policy
• Before submitting your name, e-mail, address,
on a website look for the sites privacy policy.
• Keep software up to date.
• If the seller reduces patches for the software
operating system of your device, install them
as soon as possible.
• Installing them will prevent attackers from
being able to take advantage.
• Use good password which will be difficult for
thieves to guess.
• Do not choose option that allows your
computer to remember your passwords.
Disable Remote Connectivity

• Some devices and

phones are equipped with
wireless technologies,
such as Bluetooth, that
can be used to connect to
other devices or
computers. You should
disable these features
when they are not in use.
Advantages of Cybersecurity
• The cybersecurity will defend us from critical
attacks.
– It helps us to the browse the site, website
– Internet security process all the incoming and
outgoing data on your computer
– It will depend us from hacks and virus
– Application of cybersecurity used in our Pc needs
update every week
Safety tips to Cybercrime
• Use antivirus software (ex. Kaspersky)
• Insert Firewalls
• Uninstall unnecessary software
• Maintain backup
• Check security settings
Typology of Cybercrime
• In a traditional means, a term crime covers a
broad range of offenses.
• It is from this broad range the typology or
classification of cybercrime can be difficult.
• A good example of an international instrument
which tried to categorize types of cybercrime
is the Council of Europe the History of Global
Harmonization on Cyber Crime Legislation –
The Road to Geneva, December 2008.
Typology of Cybercrime
• The Convention on Cybercrime distinguishes
between four different types of offenses:
– Offenses against the confidentiality, integrity
and availability of computer data and systems
– Computer-related offenses
– Content-related offenses
– Copyright-related offenses
TYPES OF CYBERCRIME
Financial Crimes

• Credit Card Frauds;

Money Laundering
Cyber Pornography

• Pornographic websites;
Online distribution,
Exploiting of children
Email Spoofing

• A spoofed email is one

that appears to originate
from one source but
actually has been sent
from another source.
Cyber Defamation

• This occurs when

defamation takes place
with the help of
computers and Internet.
E.g. someone post
defamatory matter about
another person
Cyberstalking

• This involves following a

person’s movements
across the Internet by
following the online
activity to harvest info
about the victim and use
it to harass and make
threats using verbal
intimidation.
Unauthorized Access

• Also known as Hacking.

Involves gaining access
illegally to a computer
system or network and in
some cases making
unauthorized use of this
access.
Cyber Theft

• Theft of any information

contained in electronic
form such as that stored
in computer hard disk,
removal storage media,
etc. Can extend to
identity theft.
Email Bombing

• This refers to sending

large number of emails to
the victim resulting in the
victim’s email account or
mail servers crashing.
Salami Attacks

• These attacks often used

in committing financial
crime and are based on
the idea that an
alteration, so insignificant,
would go completely
unnoticed in a single
case.
Denial of Service (DNS) Attack

• This involves flooding a

computer resource with
more requests than it can
handle, causing the
resource to crash thereby
denying authorized users
the service offered by the
resource.
Virus/Worm

• Viruses are programs that

attach themselves to a
computer or a file and
then circulate themselves
to other files and to other
computers on a network.
Logic Bombs

• These are dependent

programs where
programs kick into action
only when a certain event
occurs. Some viruses
may be termed logic
bombs because they lie
dormant throughout the
years and become active
only on a certain date.
Trojan Attacks

• An authorized program
which functions from
inside what seems to be
an authorized program,
thereby concealing what
it is actually doing.
Web Jacking

• This occurs when

someone forcefully takes
control of a website (by
cracking the password
and later changing it).
Cyber-Terrorism

• Hacking designed to
cause terror. Like
conventional terrorism, ‘e-
terrorism’ is utilizes
hacking to cause violence
against persons or
property, or at least cause
enough harm to generate
fear.
CLASSIFICATION OF
COMPUTER CRIMES
Financial fraud crimes
• Financial fraud can be broadly defined as an
intentional act of deception involving financial
transactions for purpose of personal gain.
• Fraud is a crime, and is also a civil law
violation.
Internet fraud
• Means trying to trick or scam someone else
using the Internet.
• This usually means that the person who is
being tricked loses money to the people
scamming them.
• Internet fraud can take place on computer
programs such as chat rooms, e-mail,
message boards, or Web sites.
Computer fraud
• Is any dishonest misrepresentation of fact
intended to let another to do or refrain from
doing something which causes loss.
• In this context, the fraud will result in obtaining
a benefit by:
– Altering in an authorized way.
– Altering, destroying, suppressing, or stealing
output, usually to conceal unauthorized
transactions.
– Altering or deleting stored data;
Other forms of fraud using computer
• Bank fraud – is the use of potentially illegal
means to obtain money, assets, or other
property owned or held by a financial
institution, or to obtain money from depositors
by fraudulently posing as a bank or other
financial institution.
• For this reason, bank fraud is sometimes
considered a white-collar crime.
Other forms of fraud using computer
• Carding – is a form of credit card fraud in
which a stolen credit card is used to change
pre-paid cards.
• Carding typically involves the holder of the
stolen card purchasing store-branded gift
cards, which can then be sold to others or
used to purchase other goods that can be sold
for cash.
Other forms of fraud using computer
• Identity theft – also known as identity fraud, is
a crime in which an imposter obtains key
pieces of personally identifiable information,
such as Social Security or driver’s license
numbers, in order to impersonate someone
else.
Other forms of fraud using computer
• Extortion – (also called shakedown,
outwrestling and exaction) is a criminal
offense of obtaining money, property, or
services from an individual or institution,
through coercion
Other forms of fraud using computer
• Theft of classified information
– Classified information is sensitive information to
which access is restricted by law or regulation to
particular classes of people.
– A formal security clearance is required to handle
classified documents or access classified data.
– The operation of assigning the level of sensitivity to
data is called classification.
Categories of Cybercrime
• We can categorize cybercrime in two ways.
• The computer as a target - using a computer
to attacks other computer, e.g. Hacking,
virus/worms attacks, Dos attack etc.
• The computer as a weapon – using a
computer to commit real world crime e.g.
cyber terrorism, credit card fraud and
pornography etc.
Computer as a target
• These crimes are committed by a selected
group of criminals.
• Unlike crimes using the computer as a tools,
these crimes require the technical knowledge
of the perpetrators.
• Crimes that primarily target computer
networks or devices include:
– Computer viruses
– Denial-of-service attacks
– Malware (malicious code)
Computer as a tool
• When the individual is the main target of
cybercrime, the computer can be considered
as the tool rather than the target.
• These crimes generally involve less technical
expertise. Human weaknesses are generally
exploited.
• These are the crimes which have existed for
centuries in the offline world.
• Scams, theft, and the likes have existed even
before the development in high-tech
equipment.
What does Spamming mean?
• Spamming is the use of electronic messaging
systems like e-mails and other digital systems
and broadcast media to send unwanted bulk
messages indiscriminately.
• The term spamming is also applied to other
media like in internet forums, instant
messaging, and mobile text messaging, social
networking spam, junk fax transmissions,
television advertising and sharing network
spam.
Phishing
• Phishing is mostly propagated via email.
• Phishing emails may contain links to other
websites that are affected by malware. Or,
they may contain links to fake online banking
or other websites used to steal private account
information.
• Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain
sensitive information such as usernames,
passwords and credit card details by
disguising oneself as a trustworthy entity in an
electronic communication.
Obscene or offensive content
• The content of websites and other electronic
communications may be distasteful, obscene
or offensive for a variety of reasons.
• One area of Internet pornography that has
been the target of the strongest efforts at
curtailment is child pornography, which is
illegal in most jurisdictions in the world.
Drug trafficking
• Darknet markets are used to buy and sell
recreational drugs online.
• Some drug traffickers use encrypted
messaging tools to communicate with drug
mules.
• The dark web site Silk Road was a major
online marketplace for drugs before it was
shut down by law enforcement.
• After Silk Road 2.0 went down, Silk Road 3
Reloaded emerged.
Effects of Cybercrime on society
• Cybercrime against people: This includes a
wide variety of offenses. Criminals will hide
behind fake promotions, offers, giveaways etc.
while giving you the illusion of security to get
you to give up your personal information.
• Cybercrime against property: basically
involves the infiltration of computers with
malicious software through websites, email or
personal chats. These malware attacks could
be just to destroy someone’s computer or to
steal information from them.
Effects of Cybercrime on society
• Cybercrime against businesses: These
happen when the perpetrators hack into the
systems of the companies in question. Most
businesses store their sensitive information on
servers and the data may or may not be
financial in nature. Hackers who can gain
access into the systems of these companies
get access to all the information available in
these files. They can choose to destroy or leak
them, or where money is concerned transfer
funds from an organization to someone else’s
account.
Effects of Cybercrime on society
• Cybercrime against governments: Cyber
criminals can attack organizations of any kind
and government organizations are not an
exception the secure database of a
government agency can be hacked with the
intension to misuse sensitive information and
the term “cyber-terrorism” is often used in this
context.
Remember!

• “The only way of

getting somewhere
is to leave
something behind.”
• -Interstellar (2014)