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Pakistan and cyber crimes: Problems and preventions

Conference Paper · November 2015

DOI: 10.1109/Anti-Cybercrime.2015.7351951

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 Pakistan and Cyber Crimes: Problems and
Preventions

Sultan Ullah, Muhammad Amir, Mudasser Khan Hamid Asmat, Kamran Habib
Department of Information Technology Department of Information Technology
The University of Haripur The University of Haripur
Haripur, Pakistan Haripur, Pakistan
{sultan,aamir,[email protected]} {hamid.asmat,[email protected] }

Abstract—The growth of internet in Pakistan is exceptional; it development of ICT which eliminated the concept of
reached to the heights of popularity for an ever changing geographical boundaries [4].
medium of information and communication in a major
conservative society. This brings freedom of expression, The governments are encouraging its people to use ICT
communication and information across the country which since its inception, but they are constantly working to
struggled to provide free speech and information access to its counteract the dark side of the technology as well and doing it
people. The internet penetration is increasing very rapidly; it is simultaneously. Legal and technical measures are taken to
very important to observe the impact of it on the society; protect and prevent ICT from catastrophes along with
especially when the government is constantly trying to formulate discouraging criminal behavior [4].
the regulation for controlling the cyber space. A well regulated
cyber space leads to the expansion of information technology Pakistan is also facing the problem of cyber security and is
services speedily. This paper focuses on the prevailing not free from this dilemma. In Pakistan the extraordinary
development of governance policies for cyber space and defies growth, accessibility of computer equipments and growth in
among the agencies and information technology venders. internet service providers leads to learn and communicate. On
Moreover, the case study of national bank of Pakistan and other the other hand, a few folks do utilize this powerful technology
cyber crime survey shows that a lot of law making is needed in for unlawful purposes too. In this paper it is tried to explore the
order to reduce the chances of cyber crime. problems that are faced and some of the laws that are already
available to counter these issues and suggestion which are
Keywords—Cybercrimes, Policies, Trends, Challenges, needed to strengthen these laws.
Preventions

I. INTRODUCTION
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The growth of information and communication
technologies (ICT) is unprecedented and overwhelming during The emerging technologies of mobile and cloud computing,
the past decade. The expansion growth for internet users electronic commerce and social applications are primarily
increased at a rate of 5, 5001.2 percent during 2000 – 2005. changing the world’s perspective of business. The business
The adoption is slow as compared to early rise but still it is organizations are developing strategies to gain the unfold
increasing at a rate of 4.62 percent, and still it needs to be benefits of this latest technology in information sharing and
standardized according to internal standards [1]. conducting commerce on the internet [4, 5]. The total volume
of business transaction perform online is approximately eighty
This insurrection in information technologies have changed
the social order primarily and will possibly go on with it in the percent of the total transactions. Therefore, the requirement for
near future. Earlier only a few groups of the economic sector high level security is augmented to reduce the chances of
had changed its operational procedures due to the advent of transaction failure and customer dissatisfaction. Cyber Security
ICT, but merely any group of the economic or social society is is not limited to securing the local information technology
unaffected with this technology at the moment. It has intensely infrastructure of the organization; rather it is extended to much
changed the social structure of today’s world [2] [3]. more border network and information technology
infrastructure[6]. The role of cyber security cannot be ignored
The social and economical changes due these technologies in the current development and deployments of critical
are unparalleled on one hand but as every picture has two
computing and communication infrastructure [7]. National
sides, the technologies also have a darker side on the other
security and economical development are the key players for
hand as well. It leads to the appearance of new categories of
crimes in addition to commit the conventional crimes using the improvements in cyber security and protection of vital
emerging technologies. Furthermore, the effects of immoral digital infrastructures. It is essential to make the internet more
behavior can be broader as compared to earlier due to secure and protect the user of internet from cyber attacks in

978-1-4799-7620-1/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

order to strengthen the services and government policies as most of the users don’t care much about what they are sharing
well [8]. on social networks and the privacy of their post, it can be quite
troublesome for them. On top of all benefits of online social
It is essential to include deterring of cyber crimes as a part networks, there are many disadvantages. Identity theft is one of
of national strategy for protection of computer and the biggest concerns of online social networks [14]. There are
communication infrastructure and cyber security. A millions of fake profiles, which maliciously manipulate or
comprehensive approach is thus needed for the development harm other people and the reason for this matter is that it is
and implementation of strategies on national scale for cyber very simple and quite fast to create and form a fake profile by
security [9]. For instance, the strategies for cyber security using other’s information or picture and use social engineering
including technical protection system implementation or techniques to steal information.
educating the users to protect them against victimization of
cyber crime help in the reduction of cyber crimes [10]. These The devices which work on android operating system will
national or individual strategies are essential player in the face more attacks, but not on major scale. As it is a known fact
struggle against the cybercrime. A comprehensive approach is that tablets running the same system like smart phones and will
needed to stand against cybercrimes; providing technical also be beleaguered soon by the same kind of malware. Mac
solution only, are not enough to avert any crime. The law would face less malware attacks as compared to window based
enforcement agencies should be allowed to effectively and personal computers. The new window operating system i.e
efficiently probe and arraign cybercrime [2, 5, 11]. Windows8 facilitates the application developer to virtually
develop any application for any devices running Windows8.
Cyberspace is the juncture for the criminal groups in the era The possibility of developing malevolent applications is
of organized crime and terrorism; the groups of these kinds are increased as compared to android applications [15, 16]. The
the Russian Mob, Internet Tamil Black Tigers, and Mafia above mentioned technologies brought with it; great
Internet Securities. Cyber terrorism is considered and opportunities and at the same time challenges as well.
recognized as cyber crimes. The first terrorist attack of its kind
as reported by the intelligence authorities is against computer The broad distribution of On-line Social Networks, the
systems in Sri Lanka. The ethnic guerrillas flooded Sri Lankan privacy and confidentiality of the users involved in such
embassies emails with over 800 emails in a single day for two services is going to be a key distress. Numerous researchers
week period. The email messages contain the text, “We are the proposed solutions to lessen the threats on confidentiality and
Internet Black Tigers and we are doing this to disrupt your privacy for those group obtaining profiles in online social
communications”. It was a great cause of fear for the diplomats networks previously (as an instance, count up more than 800
as the rebel group was known for killing people[12]. million for Facebook, one of the mainly well-liked online
social network). As a case in point of such solutions for
Anti Cybercrime laws as developed by the international privacy-threat mitigation, the concept of Virtual Private Social
community divided the cybercrimes into nine broad categories. Network (VPSN) was planned. VPSN fundamentally is a sign
These categories include; privacy protection, harming of the concept of Virtual Private Network contained by online
intellectual property, criminal / procedural laws, internet social networks: only friends surrounded by the VPSN are
economic crime, forgery, internet fraud, adolescent capable to observe the valid and actual information of an
pornography, illegal access, illegal / harmful contents. individual [3, 13, 15].

Despite laws making, a few countries e.g. China and Saudi A lot of new apps and devices are developing, which
Arabia have implemented technical procedures of internet brought with them new security threats. The organization are
filtering. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia established internet service moving towards paper less economy where everything will be
unit (ISU), 2010. ISU is responsible for filtering the web traffic digital. They want to safe guard the sensitive information
allowing the user to access only the legitimate (the website rather than the physical security of the system only. The
which are not on the “Black List”) web sites [13]. companies are trying to get advantages from the cutting edge
technology of cloud rather mobile cloud computing but still
hesitant to migrate to it because of the security issues relating
III. EMERGING TRENDS AND CHALLENGES the privacy and availability [15, 17].

The main focus of organizations these days is on

developing mechanism for protecting the identity of the user IV. ANTI – CYBERCRIME POLICIES OF THE GOVERNMENT
and theft of sensitive data. The world is moving towards digital
economy and most of the information is in digital form. Social The cyber security policies of the government should cover
applications of the ICT’s in the form of websites for interacting the requirements of all citizens (corporate and domestic
with friends and family where the users feel safe but in reality citizens) not just the government only. To address cybercrimes
this is more open to cyber criminals to gain access and steal a legal framework is present in Pakistan. In 2002 Pakistan
personal data of the users especially home users. Although government has passed the Electronic Transaction Ordinance
(ETO). The main objective of this ordinance is to identify and The questionnaire was distributed among 3000 users
assist documents, reports, information, and communications, through emails and on spot distribution in different parts of the
electronic transaction and to provide for accreditation of country i.e majorly in the cities of Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi,
certification service providers. This legal framework provides Islamabad, Faisalabad, Abbottabad etc. The questions were
legal support for electronic transactions (Information sharing related to the incidents of abuse / privacy, scams, malware,
and communication), as a written and singed document. defacements, hate/ threat mails, unauthorized access, DoS
Pakistan is among those countries that have legal framework of Attacks, Fake Accounts, and Intellectual Property Violations.
this kind which provide essential structure and an impetus for Out of 3000 users, 1895 have responded and the data were
expansion of e – commerce in the country. The ETO is the analyzed. The contributors of this study were teachers, college
indispensable prerequisite for electronic commerce expansion and university students, public servant including police and
and as termed as “a Landmark decision for Information federal investigation agency officials, researchers and
Technology development in the country”. The main aim of this businessmen.
document was to achieve the unprecedented economic impact,
promotion of e – commerce while projecting Pakistani B. Face to Face Interviews
products in the global markets, increasing online transaction to
greatly reduce the cost of transaction for SME’s, and to protect In order to know more about the actual situation of
the buyer and seller interest in e – transactions [18]. cybercrime records; interview with the official of police
department and federal investigation agency (cybercrime wing)
The government of Pakistan notified through official were conducted. These interviews are not structured and the
gazette, implantation of rules and purpose of the ordinance. purpose of these interviews was to validate the data collected
The main clauses laid down in the ordinance for offenses during the survey. The officials pointed out that very less
related to e – transactions include; provision of false number of the cyber crimes are reported.
information, false certificate issuance, and damaging
information system. In addition to ETO 2002, the ministry of VI. RESULT ANALYSIS AND CASE STUDY
information technology in consultation with the ministry of
interiors prepared the Electronic Transaction Act 2004. The It is confirmed through this study that some people using
ETA (2004) addresses cybercrimes i.e Criminal access, internet in Pakistan are the direct or indirect victims of
Criminal data access, Data damage, System damage, Electronic cybercrimes but most of the cases are not reported to the
fraud, Electronic forgery, Misuse of devices, Misuse of police. Another case is the case study of National Bank of
encryption, Malicious code, Cyber stalking, Spamming, Pakistan which is a victim of cybercrime itself.
Spoofing, Unauthorized interception and Cyber Terrorism [19].
A) Specific Case of Cybercrime
The other steps initiated by Government of Pakistan are the
formation of National Response Center and Accreditation National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) was established in 1949
Council. The National Response Center is responsible for as the major financial institution of country. The objective of
stopping internet misuse and tracing any involvement in its establishment was to provide all kind of banking services to
cybercrimes. The accreditation council was formed for public and private organization of the country. This bank also
Certificate Authorities keeping in view the national policies on serves to cater the treasury transaction on behalf of the govt. as
information technology ETO 2002. The purpose of licensing an agent of state bank of Pakistan.
program is to promote integrity, honesty, trustworthiness for
the licensed certificate authorities [1, 20]. But on the broader The NBP independently suspended its One-Link service
picture, these policies are still not mature to counter all the with 14 other banks when it find out that a cyber gang had
terrorist attack on the cyberspace of the country. breached the hardware security modules and PIN codes of the
ATM machines in 2008. The NBP called the FIA for legal help
and investigation to find out that how the gang is misusing
V. DATA COLLECTION some “zero balance” accounts of the employees among whom,
one is already retired.
The common methods of data collection used in this
research were case studies, questionnaire, emails, phone based The official of police arrested Amir Abbas employee of the
and face to face interviews. After collecting the data it was then other bank in Lahore and suspected culprit. This one of the 14
analyzed using SPSS. The objective of this research was to other banks which share the same ATM service. Again in
explore if any or being the victim of cybercrimes and whether Multan and Lahore the officials of NBP had discovered a
they have reported any such incident. “cyber theft” exceeding rupees three (3) millions from its
ATMs. This was surprisingly the same incidence as the
A. On Spot Questionnaires and Emails previous and the NBP management found that similar cases
were seen in branches which were operating in the industrial
belt of Punjab. During the process of investigation the bank’s
management found that another theft of more than rupees eight reported to be 10 percent of the total. Fake facebook and
(8) millions were detected. This case study shoows that Pakistan emails are reported to be 5 percent.. These results are depicted
is facing the great issue of cybercrimes. in the figure 2.

B) Results from the Survey

Victim's Response Regading Cyber
After collected the data it was reported thhat more that 80 Threatt
percent of the respondent faced one the cybercrime incident. 800
Most of the victims are complaining about thee abuse on social 700
media, fake accounts, virus attacks, defacem ments and hate / 600
500
threat emails. All of the internet crimes are noot reported as due 400
to non – awareness to the people about the ccyber laws in the 300
200
country. The people are not aware about suchh kinds of issues 100
and its consequences. The details that were eemerged from the 0
user were as follows:

1) The respondent of the survey in responnse to the use of

internet responded that 100 percent of th them use it for
communication purposes. Another 28 percent of the user’s uses
internet in Pakistan use the internet for researrch. 16 percent of
the users use internet for business purposes. T Thus it is evident
that the leading activity on the internet is e-m
mail and research. Fig.2. User Response to Cyber Threat
The detail of most users’ activities on the intternet is given in
the figure 1. 3) In response to the study only 63 percent of the
respondent claimed that they are not aware to check any
incidence of cybercrimes and mostt of them don’t check their
systems for regularity.
User Response to Use of Inteernet
2500 The above statistics reveal thaat the user of internet in
Pakistan in one way or the otheer facing this dilemma of
2000
cybercrimes. Even though, publiic is not reporting these
1500 incidence to the concerned authorities due to unawareness
1000 about the prevailing cyber laws.
500
0
ND SUGGESTIONS
VII. RECOMMENDATIONS AN

After analyzing the results it is believed that prevention is

better than cure i.e restricting the number of cyber security
violations. Although, it is practicaally impossible to prevent
these incidents completely unless, experience and knowledge
in forensic and cyber laws for prottecting the victim rights in
Fig.1. User Response to Use of Intternet case of infringements. In this sectioon a few recommendations
are presented for the policy makers
2) Majority of the respondent responded that they fall the
victim of atleast one cybercrime. The mostt common cyber A) Sensitization of the Phenomen
non of Cybercrimes
crimes investigated in this study are SPAM, defacement, fake
accounts, virus attacks, hate / threat emailss being the most This issue should be sensitizedd. The government should
reported cybercrimes. 58 percent of the victim
ms responded that established public awareness prrogram regarding anti –
they never shared it with anybody, 28 perceent of respondent cybercrimes activities. The people need to be trained on the
reported these to system administrators and onnly 14 percent of knowledge of internet and computeer crimes. The trained user
the victims reported it to the law enforcement authorities. Most should be able to detect, prevent, minimize and report these
of the victims would prefer to not tell anyonne due to lack of incidences. The government should establish; possibly develop
knowledge about the physical evidence and laws relating to facility for the reporting of cybercrimes preferably on the
these crimes. 35 percent of the responded cclaimed that they internet. The official of police department
d should also be
faced hate / threat emails while 23 perceent reported the trained on investigation process annd unified record keeping.
violation of privacy. Defacement and unauthoorized access are
Eforensic is a relatively new field and proper training should beyond the border so it is hard to bring the cyber criminal
be conducted for all the concerned [14, 21]. under justice system. The laws needed to be modified and
cooperation with international community in this regard should
B) Internet Traffic Filtering be established. It is also hard to obtain facts from internet or
computer crime that are needed to prove someone a culprit in a
Some countries like China and Saudi Arabia has court of justice. Computer forensic is still a new area and
implemented internet filtering for the clients at the ISPs and mostly the countries are lacking the expertise and literature. It
government level. The government should prevent illegal is an eminent threat and the countries like Pakistan should
access to block website. The websites promoting or having adopt the proper laws and procedures of anti – cybercrimes
keywords like terrorism, bomb making recipes and effectively.
pornography should be blocked. Proper legislation is needed
for filtering the incoming internet traffic prior to its access by
the internet user. The government should block the website ACKNOWLEDGMENT
which posed to be an eminent threat to the country. The ISPs We are thankful for the support we got from the official of
should be directed to install preventive measures against the police department and federal investigation agency. We are
DDoS, and spamming [13]. also thankful to all the respondents who took part in the survey.

C) Enforcement of Cyber Security Laws

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