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CYBER CRIME AND ITS FORMS

Article · April 2010

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NEPAL BAR ASSOCIATION, NYAYADOOT, YEAR: 2066 B.S. (2010 A.D.) 41,
F.No.187/1, (Bi-monthly)

CYBER CRIME AND ITS FORMS

NARESH KUMAR MAHARJAN

(Advocate, Lalitpur Bar Association)

ABSTRACT

Need for understanding the forms of cyber crimes has become imperative considering the
growing nature of cyber crime in Nepal and abroad. The present article briefly various
forms of cyber crimes, perpetrators of the cyber crime, and reasons for cyber crime and
preventive measures for cyber crimes.

INTRODUCTION generic sense. The user

(unauthorized user) gains the access
Cyber crime is the latest and to computer system.
perhaps the most complicated problem
in the cyber world. Any criminal 2. THEFT OF INFORMATION
activity that uses a computer either as CONTAINED IN ELECTRONIC
an instrumentality, target or a means FORM
for perpetuating further crime comes This includes information stored in
within the ambit of cyber crime. In computer hard disks, removable storage
order words, cyber crime may be media etc, Theft may be either by
defined, as an unlawful acts where in appropriate the data physically or by
the computer is either a tool or target tampering the though the virtual medium.
or both. The computer used as a tool in
the following activities sale of illegal 3. E-MAIL BOMBING
articles, pornography, online This kind of activity refers to
gambling, and intellectual property sending large numbers of mail to the
crime. victim, which may be an individual or a
The computer may be target for company or even mail servers there by
unlawful acts in the following: ultimately resulting into crashing.
E-mail bombing, data diddling,
salami attacks, physically damaging 4. DATA DIDDLING
the computer systems. This kind of an attack involves
altering raw data just before a computer
Forms of cyber crime process it then changing it back after the
processing is completed. The electricity
As we already discussed about board faced similar problem of data
the crime that. diddling while the dept, was being
a. Computer used as a tool computerized.
b. Computer as a target
5. SALAMI ATTACKS
Computer Used As a Tool This kind of crime is normally
prevalent in the financial institution or for
1. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO the purpose of committing financial
COMPUTER SYSTEM / crimes. An important feature of this type
HACKING of offence is that the alteration is so small
This kind of offence is that it would normally go unnoticed.
normally referred as hacking in the

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 CYBER CRIME AND ITS FORMS

6. DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK He/She may even mutilate or change

(DOS) the information on the site. This may
The computer of the victim is be done for fulfilling political
flooded with more requests than it can objectives or for money.
handle which cause it to crash.
Distributed DOS attack is also a type of The following are the crime, which can
denial of service attack, in which the be committed against individuals and
offenders are wide in number and their property and against organization
widespread.
1. HARASSMENT VIA E-MAIL
7. VIRUS ATTACKS Harassment through e-mails is not
A computer virus attaches itself a new concept. It is very similar to
to a program or file, so it may spread harassing through letter.
from one computer to another, leaving
infections as it travels. Some viruses 2. CYBER STALKING
cause only mildly annoying effects while The oxford dictionary defines
other can damage your hard ware, stalking as “pursuing stealthily”. Cyber
software or files. stalking involves following a person’s
Virus affects the computer when movements across the internet by posting
you run the malicious program. It spread messages on the bulleting boards
through e-mails, floppy etc. frequented by the victim, entering the
chat-rooms frequently by the victim,
8. LOGIC BOMBS constantly bombarding the victim with
These are event dependent emails etc.,
programs; this implies that these
programs are created to do something 3. CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
only when a certain event occurs. It is pornography that uses children
in sexual acts or in a lewd manner. It is
9. TROJAN ATTACKS illegal through the United States & in
This term has its origin in the many countries around the world.
word “Trojan horse”. In software field Downloading through the internet
this means an unauthorized program, these matters may cause harm to mind of
which passively gains controls one the adolescent & tend to deprave or
another’s system by representing itself corrupt their mind.
as an authorized program. The most
common form of installing a Trojan is 4. DEFAMATION
through e-mail. It is an act of imputing any person
with intent to lower the person in the
10. INTERNET TIME THEFTS estimation of the right- thinking members
Normally in these kinds of thefts of society generally or to cause his to be
the internet another person uses up shunned or avoided or to expose him to
surfing hours of the victim. This is done hatred, contempt or ridicule. Cyber
by gaining access to the login ID & the defamation is not different as it has the
password. involvement of a virtual medium.

11. WEB JACKING 5. E-MAIL SPOOFING

This term is derived from the A spoofed email may be said to be
term hi-jacking. In these kinds of one, which misrepresents its origin. It
offences the hacker gains access and shows its origin to be from which actually
controlled over the web sites of another. it originates.

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 CYBER CRIME AND ITS FORMS

Professional hackers
6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Their work is motivated by
CRIMES the color of money. These kinds of
Intellectual property consists of a hacker are mostly employed to hack
bundle of rights. Any lawful act by the sites of the rival & get credible,
which the owner is deprives completely reliable & valuable information.
or partially of his rights is an offence.
The common form of IPR violation may Discontented employees
be said to be software piracy, copyright This group includes those people
infringement, trademark and service who have been either sacked by their
mark violation, theft of computer source employer or are dissatisfied with their
code etc. employer. To average, they normally hack
the system of their employee.
7. FRAUD & CHEATING
Online fraud & cheating is one of REASONS FOR CYBER CRIME
the most lucrative businesses that one “The concepts of law” has said
growing today in cyber space. It may ‘human beings are vulnerable so rule of
assume different forms. Some of the law is required to protect them’. Applying
cases of online fraud & cheating that this to the cyber space we may say that
have come to lights are those pertaining computer is vulnerable so rule of law is
to credit card crimes, contractual crimes, required to protect and safeguard them
offering jobs etc. against cyber crime. The reason for the
vulnerability of computer may be said to
Who commits cyber crime (cyber be.
criminals)
Children & adolescents between 1. CAPACITY TO STORE DATA IN
the age group 6-18 years. The simple COMPARATIVELY SMALL SPACE:
reason for this type of delinquent The computer has unique
behaviour pattern in children is seen characteristic of storing data in a very
mostly due to the inquisitiveness to small space. This affords to remove or
know & explore the things. Other reason derive information either through physical
may be to prove themselves to be or virtual medium makes it much more
outstanding amongst other children in easier.
their group. Further the reason may be
psychological ever. 2. EASY TO ACCESS:
The problem encountered in
Organized hacker guarding a computer system from
These kinds of hackers are unauthorized access is that there is every
mostly organized together to fulfil possibility of breach not due to human
certain objective the reason may be to error but due to the complex technology
fulfil their political bias, fundamentalism by secretly implanted logic bomb, key
etc. for example, the Pakistanis are said loggers that can steal access codes,
to be one of the best quality hackers in advanced voice recorders, retina imagers
the world. They mainly target the Indian etc. that cal fool bio-metric systems and y
government sites with the purpose of pass firewall can be utilised to get past
their fulfil their political objectives. many a security system.
Further NASA & MICROSOFT
sites are always under attack by the 3. COMPLEX:
hackers. The computer works on
operating systems and these operating

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 CYBER CRIME AND ITS FORMS

systems in turn are composed of millions
Always keep a watch on the

of codes. Human mind is fallible and it sites that your children
is not possible that these might not be a accessing to prevent any kind
lapse at any stage. The cyber criminals of harassment or depravation in
take advantage of these lacunas and children.
penetrate into computer system.
It is better to use security pro-
grammars that give control over
4. NEGLIGENCE the cookies and send
Negligence is very closely information back to the site as
connected with human conduct. It is leaving the cookies unguarded
therefore very probable that while might prove fatal.
protecting the computer system there
Website owners should watch
might be any negligence, which in their traffic and check any
providers a cyber criminal to gain access irregularity on the site. Putting
& control over the computer system. host based intrusion detection
devices on servers may do this.
5. LOSS OF EVIDENCE
Use of firewalls may be
Loss of evidence is a very beneficial.
common & obvious problem as all the
Web servers running public
data are routinely destroyed. Further sites must be physically
collection of data outside the territorial separate protected from internal
extent also paralysis this system of crime corporate network.
in restoration.
CONCLUSION
Prevention of Cyber Crime As technology develops day today,
Prevention is always better than cyber frauds also rises as with it. These
cure. It is always to take certain frauds cannot be avoided by
precaution while operating the net. A technologies alone but more knowledge
netizen should keep in mind the and awareness should be given to the
following things: users to prevent these cyber crimes.

To prevention cyber stalking

avoid disclosing any information
pertaining to oneself. This is as
good as disclosing your identity
to strangers in public place.

Always avoid sending any
photograph online particularly to
strangers or chat friends as there
have been incitements of misuse
of the photographs.

Always use latest and updated
anti virus software to guard
against virus attacks.

Always keep backup volumes so
that one may not suffer date loss
in case of virus contamination.

Never send your credit card
number to any site that is not
secured, to guard against fraud.

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