Introduction
Cybercrime is an illegal activity in which individuals like cybercriminals, black hat operators and hackers etc. commits a crime using the computer as a mode to get:
- Unpermitted access,
- Manipulation or,
- Transmission of data compromising the privacy of sensitive contents threatening any person, company, nation’s security & financial health.
With the advent of the modern age, the evolution of Information Technology gave birth to cyberspace with a lot of facilities through the internet like we can get access to any information regarding any topic, we can store our important information, files & data in data storage facilities like Google Drive, & Office 365 etc., analyze weather reports, newspaper articles & economic conditions of any country with the use of highly advanced technology that is available to us through the rise of the cyber era. As we know everything has its advantages & disadvantages with the advancement of technology came tech legends like Steve Jobs & Bill Gates etc., who found out new means through which technology can lead to the development of any nation & its economy. Due to the increase in the number of netizens, misuse of the technology started taking place in cyberspace giving birth to cybercrimes at both domestic & international levels. Cybercrime is also known as Computer Crime.
Defination of Cybercrime [1]:
“The growing number of mobile devices, such as phones, tablets & laptops, and the popularity of social networks give them new avenues in which to expand their cybercrime”. – Eric Geier
“Cybercrime is taking a bottom-line toll on the corporate workplace. Last year, losses exceeded $100 million & that figure continues to skyrocket as security breaches pose an increasing threat to U.S. corporations, banks, & even the government”. – Beth Wilson
“The increasing prevalence of cloud computing…has made storing & accessing important electronic data easier & less expensive than ever. However, the expanding number of documents & other information being stored electronically has increased the threat of cybercrimes, including data breaches”. – John Squitero
“More small businesses are falling victim to ‘ransomware’, to which malicious code locks up computer files & cybercriminals demand a ransom to free them”. – Ruth Simon
Mode & Manners Of Committing Cybercrime:
i. Hacking-
A method through which the cybercriminals get illegal unapproved access to any individuals or group of computer systems or networks to extract or get any individuals or companies or institutes personal details to commit financial fraud, cheating etc.
ii. Email Bombing-
It refers to mailing a huge number of emails to the receiver’s email account resulting in the mails server crashing and giving the cybercriminal the opportunity to get the information he or she requires from the victim’s account or copy all data from the victim’s device to cybercriminals device.
iii. Data Diddling-
This sort of assault includes adjusting crude information not long before it is handled by any computer and afterward transforming it back after the preparation is finished. Power Boards in India have been casualties to information diddling programs embedded when private gatherings were mechanizing their frameworks.
iv. Salami Attacks-
These assaults are utilized for the commission of monetary violations. The key here is to make the change so inconsequential that in a solitary case it would go totally unseen, for example, a bank representative embeds a program, into the bank’s workers, that deducts a modest quantity of cash, say Rs. 10 per month, from the record of each client. No record holder will presumably see this unapproved charge, yet the bank worker will make a sizable measure of cash each month.
v. Denial of Service (DoS) Attack-
This includes flooding a PC asset with a larger number of solicitations than it can deal with. This causes the asset, for example, a web worker, to crash along these lines denying approved clients the help offered by the asset. Another variety to an average Denial of Service assault also known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assault wherein the culprits are numerous and are geologically far and wide. It is hard to control such assaults. The assault is started by sending exorbitant requests to the victim’s computer, surpassing the cut-off that the casualty’s workers can support and making the workers crash. Refusal of Service assaults has had a great history having, previously, cut down sites like Amazon, CNN, Yahoo, and eBay.
vi. Infection/Worm Attacks-
Viruses are programs that append themselves to a computer or a record and afterward circle themselves to different documents and to different computers on an organization. They generally influence the information on a computer, either by modifying or erasing it. Worms, dissimilar to infections need not bother with the host to connect themselves to. They only make useful duplicates of themselves and do this over and over till they gobble up all the accessible space on computer memory. The VBS_LOVELETTER infection also called the Love Bug or the ILOVEYOU infection was purportedly composed by a Filipino undergrad. In May 2000, this lethal infection beat the Melissa infection empty and turned into the world’s most common infection. It struck one in every five computers on the planet. At the point when the infection was brought under check, the genuine extent of the misfortunes was boundless. Misfortunes brought about during this infection assault were fixed at US $ 10 billion.
vii. Logic Bombs-
These are occasion subordinate projects, made to accomplish something just when a specific occasion, known as a trigger occasion, happens. Indeed, even some infections might be named rationale bombs since they lie torpid all during that time and become dynamic just on a specific date.
viii. Trojan Attacks-
A Trojan, as this program is appropriately called, is an unapproved program that capacities from inside what is by all accounts an approved program, along these lines covering what it is really doing. This term has its opening point in the word ‘deception’. In the programming field, this implies an unapproved program, which latently deals with another’s framework by addressing itself as an approved program. The most well-known type of introducing a Trojan is through email.
ix. Web Time Theft-
This means the utilization by an unapproved individual of the Internet hours paid for by someone else.
x. Web Jacking-
This happens when somebody strongly assumes responsibility for a site by breaking the secret key and later evolving it. The genuine proprietor of the site does not have any more command over what shows up on that site.
xi. Robbery of Computer System-
This kind of offense includes the burglary of a computer, some piece of a computer or a fringe connected to the computer.
xii. Genuinely Damaging a Computer System-
This wrongdoing is perpetrated by impairing a computer or its peripherals.
xiii. Identity Theft-
The United States Department of Justice depicts discount misrepresentation and character distortion as “terms used to suggest a wide scope of bad behavior where someone shamefully gets and uses another person’s own special data to a great extent that incorporates coercion or misleading, ordinarily for money related increment.”
Conclusion:
In the realm of cyber-crime, underhanded bytes are quickly supplanting zooming slugs. The Indian specialists know about the battle ahead. In any case, the future does not look idealistic, according to specialists. Life is about a blend of good and malevolence. So is the Internet. For all the great it does us, the internet has its dim sides as well. In contrast to regular networks, however, there are no cops watching the data interstate, leaving it open to everything from Trojan ponies and infections to digital following, brand name forging and digital illegal intimidation. Mindfulness is significant, and any matter ought to be accounted for on the double. More critically, clients should attempt to save any electronic data trail on the computers. That is each of the ones can do, at that point, until laws become more severe, or innovation further developed. Digital wrongdoing turns into a most concerning issue in this entire world and is expanding.
Numerous nations on the planet have concocted new law to manage digital wrongdoing also, India has made Information Technology Act, 2000. Notwithstanding coming to this compelling law, the cybercriminals are far from the police as it is submitted online by essentially sitting on the net. Our nation’s police deal with such countless issues to follow the wrongdoers and eventually in an enormous number of cases they neglected to get the guilty party. The purpose for such disappointment is the absence of ability among the cops and obliviousness of digital wrongdoing and the digital world. They are accomplished in this field due to which all such issue comes.
[1] Cybercrime | Definition of Cybercrime by Merriam-Webster
[2] OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY.
[3] A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER OBSESSED WITH PHONE NETWORKS.
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/23/archives/chief-teller-is-accused-of-theft-of-15million-at-a-bank-here-teller.html
[5] Feb. 16, 1978: Bulletin Board Goes Electronic | WIRED
[6] Ian Arthur Murphy “Captain Zap” – Security Threat Profile (attrition.org)
[7] What is Elk Cloner? – Definition from Techopedia
[8] War Games was based on a TRUE STORY! (selectsmart.com)
[9] Robert Tappan Morris – Crime Museum
[10] Relating to, concerned with, or involving both mind and body, or concerned with bodily symptoms caused by mental or emotional disturbance.
This article has been written by Arijit Chowdhury, 1st Year LL.B student at Reva University, Bangalore.
Also Read – How To File Cyber Crime Complaint?
