Computer Crimes

Computer Crime - Definitions

A computer crime is any illegal action where the data on a computer is accessed
without permission. This access doesn't have to result in loss of data or even data
modifications. Arguably the worst computer crime occurs when there are no
indications that data was accessed.

Computer crime is often attributed to rogue hackers and crackers, but increasingly
organized crime groups have realized the relative ease of stealing data with
relative low-level of risk. Government organizations are also rumored to be
involved with hacking in to computer systems, but the legality of such actions is
far too grey an area to be discussed here.

Types of - Computer Crimes

• Hacking: This involves gaining unauthorized access into a computer system.

Usually hackers are able to get through the security capabilities of a computer
system and once they are in, they have unlimited access to confidential
information and data stored in the computer. Today, hacking of IP addresses is
very common as it allows the hacker to assume a false online identity and conduct
criminal transactions without revealing his true identity.

• Phishing: This is a common computer crime is the United States. Here emails are
sent to gullible users that make them believe that the emails are from authentic
sites. The users are passed onto fake websites where they enter their confidential
data like usernames, passwords and credit card details. The fake websites look
and feel real and that is why many people get fooled into entering sensitive
information.
• Computer Viruses: These are actually computer programs that are capable of
replicating themselves and harming computer systems present in a network.
These viruses work without the knowledge of the users and spread from one
computer to another through the network, Internet or removable devices like CDs
and USB drives. Writing computer virus is a criminal activity and is punishable by
law.

• Identity Theft: This one of the most serious frauds in today's word. It involves
stealing money and getting benefits by using an identity of another person. This
also includes the use of someone else's credit card details to purchase good and
services. It has been seen that blackmail and terrorism often employ identity theft.

• Cyber stalking: This is using the Internet to stalk a person just like someone
world do in the real world. Here the stalker sends emails, spreads false
information or issues threats using the Internet. Cyber stalking is also used to prey
on unsuspecting children and women.

Specific computer crimes

Spam

Spam, or the unsolicited sending of bulk email for commercial purposes, is

unlawful to varying degrees. As applied to email, specific anti-spam laws are
relatively new, however limits on unsolicited electronic communications have
existed in some forms for some time.

Fraud

Computer fraud is any dishonest misrepresentation of fact intended to let another

to do or refrain from doing something which causes loss. [citation needed] In this context,
the fraud will result in obtaining a benefit by:

 altering computer input in an unauthorized way. This requires little

technical expertise and is not an uncommon form of theft by employees
altering the data before entry or entering false data, or by entering
unauthorized instructions or using unauthorized processes;
 altering, destroying, suppressing, or stealing output, usually to conceal
unauthorized transactions: this is difficult to detect;
 altering or deleting stored data; or
  altering or misusing existing system tools or software packages, or altering
or writing code for fraudulent purposes. This requires real 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)

A variety of Internet scams target consumers direct

Obscene or offensive content

The content of websites and other electronic communications may be distasteful,

obscene or offensive for a variety of reasons. In some instances these
communications may be illegal.

Many jurisdictions place limits on certain speech and ban racist, blasphemous,
politically subversive, libelous or slanderous, seditious, or inflammatory material
that tends to incite hate crimes.

The extent to which these communications are unlawful varies greatly between
countries, and even within nations. It is a sensitive area in which the courts can
become involved in arbitrating between groups with entrenched beliefs.

One area of Internet pornography that has been the target of the strongest efforts
at curtailment is child pornography.

Harassment

Whereas content may be offensive in a non-specific way, harassment directs

obscenities and derogatory comments at specific individuals focusing for example
on gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation. This often occurs in chat
rooms, through newsgroups, and by sending hate e-mail to interested parties (see
cyber bullying, cyber stalking, harassment by computer, hate crime, Online
predator, and stalking). Any comment that may be found derogatory or offensive
is considered harassment.

Drug trafficking
Drug traffickers are increasingly taking advantage of the Internet to sell their
illegal substances through encrypted e-mail and other Internet Technology. Some
drug traffickers arrange deals at internet cafes, use courier Web sites to track
illegal packages of pills, and swap recipes for amphetamines in restricted-access
chat rooms.

The rise in Internet drug trades could also be attributed to the lack of face-to-face
communication. These virtual exchanges allow more intimidated individuals to
more comfortably purchase illegal drugs. The sketchy effects that are often
associated with drug trades are severely minimized and the filtering process that
comes with physical interaction fades away. Furthermore, traditional drug recipes
were carefully kept secrets. But with modern computer technology, this
information is now being made available to anyone with computer access.

Cyber terrorism

Cybercrime is defined as crimes committed on the internet using the computer as

either a tool or a targeted victim. It is very difficult to classify crimes in general
into distinct groups as many crimes evolve on a daily basis. Even in the real world,
crimes like rape, murder or theft need not necessarily be separate. However, all
cybercrimes involve both the computer and the person behind it as victims, it just
depends on which of the two is the main target.
Hence, the computer will be looked at as either a target or tool for simplicity’s
sake. For example, hacking involves attacking the computer’s information and
other resources. It is important to take note that overlapping occurs in many cases
and it is impossible to have a perfect classification system

PIRACY

Piracy involves the illegal reproduction and distribution of software applications,

games, movies and audio CDs. (Longe, 2004).
This can be done in a number of ways. Usually pirates buy an original version of a
software, movie or game and illegally make copies of the software available
online for others to download and use without the notification of the original
owner of the software. This is known as Internet piracy or warez.

The term “warez” describes commercial software, movies and games that has
been modified by a cracker and made freely available to the public on the
Internet. The word came from the word “wares” but, as with “phishing”, the
hacker/cracker community altered the original word just enough to claim it as its
own.
Modern day piracy may be less dramatic or exciting but is far subtler and more
extensive in terms of the monetary losses the victim faces. This particular form of
cybercrime may be the hardest of all to curb as the common man also seems to be
benefiting from the crime. A typical Africa person would stop at nothing to
download “free software, musicals, movie” or related items. The reason is that,
the taxation system in most African countries is ineffective and people grow up to
believe paying tax and other bills are a way the government use to oppress the
poor citizens.

Documented cases

 The Yahoo! website was attacked at 10:30 PST on Monday, 7 February

2000. The attack, started by Mafia Boy, lasted for three hours. Yahoo was
pinged at the rate of one gigabyte/second.
 On 3 August 2000, Canadian federal prosecutors charged Mafia Boy with 54
counts of illegal access to computers, plus a total of ten counts of mischief
to data for his attacks on Amazon.com, eBay, Dell Computer, Outlaw.net,
and Yahoo. Mafia Boy had also attacked other websites, but prosecutors
decided that a total of 66 counts was enough. Mafia Boy pleaded not guilty.
 About fifty computers at Stanford University, and also computers at the
University of California at Santa Barbara, were amongst the zombie
computers sending pings in DDoS attacks.
 In 26 March 1999, the Melissa worm infected a document on a victim's
computer, and then automatically sent that document and copy of the virus
via e-mail to other people.
 Russian Business Network (RBN) was registered as an internet site in 2006.
Initially, much of its activity was legitimate. But apparently the founders
soon discovered that it was more profitable to host illegitimate activities
and started hiring its services to criminals. The RBN has been described by
VeriSign as "the baddest of the bad". It offers web hosting services and
internet access to all kinds of criminal and objectionable activities, with
individual activities earning up to $150 million in one year. It specialized in
and in some cases monopolized personal identity theft for resale. It is the
originator of MPack and an alleged operator of the Storm botnet.
Causes of Commuter Crimes

1. The Gullible
There is no doubt that cybercriminals are most fond of people who
are easy to deceive. During the period of this research, I interviewed
some cyber criminals in four cyber cafes in Nigeria and what I was
told was this “yahoo-yahoo business is all about deceipt, if you are
gullible, then you become my mahi..” On a more obvious level,
phishers are best able to fool such people into buying their scams or
being drawn into legal traps. Spammers send multiple e-mail
messages to harvested email addresses and the gullible fall prey to
the contents of the email. Usually older people are prone to being
scammed as they are more trusting and helpful towards others.
On a more dangerous level, however, many especially children
believe that the people they meet on the net are as friendly and
worthy of trust as real people. Almost all victims of cyberstalkers are
prone to trusting people and making friends easily.

2. Desperados and greedy people

Many internet users are desperate for easy ways to make cash.
Hence, they easily fall for emails that say things like “Get rich fast!”,
“CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR LOTTO WINNING” and all of those
stuffs. Come to think of it if you did not take part in any lottery
program, how come someone is telling you congratulations for
winning? Greedy and desperate people will always fall to this level of
scam and follow the instructions in the emails which most others are
likely to treat as junk. They are almost definitely being led to legal
and financial entanglements out of which only the perpetrator will
make profits. There are others who are attracted to advertisements
related to improving one’s physical image. Ridiculous products such...
one’s physical image. Ridiculous products such as “cheap, effective
breast enlargements” etc. claim to boost their self-esteem at
minimum cost. This explains why there are so many of such emails in
circulation these days. These adverts are almost certainly nothing
more than means to extract credit card numbers and render the
reader bankrupt.

3. Unskilled and Inexperienced

There are a lot of people in the world today whose knowledge of the
Net is just enough to chat with their friends and maybe get
information from here and there. They are ignorant of the fact that
most people they meet online are criminals who hide under the
shades of the internet to perpetrate different crimes. Lots of people
have been raped by sex seeking individuals on the internet. That’s
reminds me, I remember an instance during my work in one of the
most populous cyber café in Benin City, the capital of Edo State, a
particular lady would come to the café and request for private
system, when I monitored her activities, I discovered she was just an
unskilled and inexperienced lady who was deceived by an American
guy to always go naked for him and show herself in a web cam and
she always did. What a shame!

4. Unlucky people
There are also people who fulfill none of these categories but are just
unlucky enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, in
cyberspace that is. These categories of victims believe they are
meeting legitimate business associates only to be deceived by the
variants. Also, a full-scale of attack or a self-replicating and highly
advanced virus can cause great damage to networks or PCs and the
individual may not in anyway be blame.

PREVENTION
Apart from his own mentality and the strength of his motivations, the
criminal also needs to see the path of crime ahead of him clear of
obstacles. If every single individual were to put up obstacles of their
own, no matter how small, the crime path will seem to be far less
lucrative in the eyes of even the most desperate criminal. The fight
against cybercrime must start with preventing it in the first place.

Users
The individual should be proactive, not reactive. You do not have to
remain at the receiving end of crime forever. The fight against
cybercrime starts in your very own home. Individuals should not reply
any e-mail from unknown persons, they should learn to report spam
mails to the e-mail server or any know cybercrime research sites. If
there is one thing that makes committing cybercrime lucrative, it is
the fact that victims rarely have the required knowledge or presence
of mind to handle the situation.