1.

INTRODUCTION Over the last fifteen years, the increase in technology and the use of computers in both the personal and business sector has increased remarkably. This increase has bought changes in all areas of society including such areas as banking, the stock exchange, air traffic control, telephones, electric power, health and education. These industries have not only improved but are now largely dependant on information technology for the operation. This rapid technology advance has well and truly ensured that the twenty first century is the information age. The rapid growth of the Internet, not just in terms of users, but also in terms of functionality has allowed entire industries to move their operations, and importantly their money, onto the Internet. This has lead naturally towards a prolific growth in criminal activity conducting solely through virtual means. Although cybercrime is not a new phenomenon, computers have always proved to be valuable targets, the essentialness of the Internet has necessitated a change in our understanding of security, risks and threats. Cybercrime started as an insider job, grew into a threat that came from a determined outsider and has morphed again into an autonomous attack platform aimed at compromising any machine in order to leverage the might of the masses. The story of how targets, defenders, attackers, threats and vulnerabilities have changed is illustrative of the current state of cybercrime. While computers and the Internet have made lives easier in many ways, it is unfortunate that people also use these technologies to take advantage of others.

2. CLASSIFICATION OF CYBER CRIMES

Cybercrime or also known as computer crime is defined as crimes committed on the internet using the computer as either a tool or a targeted victim. Cybercrime includes traditional criminal acts committed with a computer, as well as new offenses that lack any parallels with non-computer crimes. The statistics of this crime occurred also are untrustworthy due to victims' failure to report incidents. The

aggregate annual losses to businesses and governments are estimated to be in the billions in their finances. Cybercrime techniques have characteristics that can vastly enhance the reach and impact of criminal activity, such as the following: a. crime. b. Technology allows criminal actions to easily cross multiple state and national Criminals do not need to be physically close to their victims to commit a

borders. c. Cybercrime can be carried out automatically, at high speed, and by attacking

a vast number of victims at the same time. d. e. Targets often do not realize they have been victimized until much later. Cybercriminals can more easily remain anonymous.

Figure 1 describes and compares cybercrime and traditional criminal techniques.

Cyber crime is a criminal activity committed on the internet. This is a broad term that describes everything from electronic cracking to denial of service attacks that cause electronic commerce sites to lose money. When Internet was developed, the founding fathers of internet hardly had any inclination that Internet could also be misused for criminal activities. Today, there are many disturbing things happening in cyberspace. Cybercrime refers to all the activities done with criminal intent in cyberspace. These could be either the criminal activities in the conventional sense or could be activities, newly evolved with the growth of the new medium. Because of the anonymous nature of the Internet, it is possible to engage into a variety of criminal activities with impunity and people with intelligence, have been grossly misusing this aspect of the Internet to perpetuate criminal activities in cyberspace. The field of Cybercrime is just emerging and new forms of criminal activities in cyberspace are coming to the forefront with the passing of each new day. There can be no one exhaustive definition about Cybercrime. However, any activities which basically offend human sensibilities, can also be included in its ambit. Child Pornography on the Internet constitutes one serious Cybercrime. Similarly, online pedophiles, using internet to induce minor children into sex, are as much Cybercriminals as any other. Cyber crimes can be basically divided into 3 major categories being Cybercrimes against persons, property and Government. Cyber crimes against persons: Cybercrimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography and indecent exposure, constitutes one of the most important Cyber crimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity can hardly be amplified. This is one Cyber crime which threatens to undermine the growth of the younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled. Cyber harassment is a distinct Cyber crime. Various kinds of harassment can and do occur in cyberspace, or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious, or other. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also guilty of cyber crimes. Cyber harassment as a crime also brings us to another related area of violation of privacy of

citizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a Cybercrime of a grave nature. No one likes any other person invading the invaluable and extremely touchy area of his or her own privacy which the medium of internet grants to the citizen. Another Cybercrime against persons is that of Cyber stalking. The Internet is a wonderful place to work, play and study. The Net is no more and no less than a mirror of the real world. And that means it also contains electronic versions of real life problems. Stalking and harassments are problems that many persons especially women, are familiar with in real life. These problems also occur on the Internet, in what has become

known as "Cyber stalking" or "on-line harassment" Cyber crimes against property: The second category of Cyber-crimes is that of Cyber crimes against all forms of property. These crimes include computer vandalism (destruction of others' property), transmission of harmful programmes. Vandalism means deliberately destroying or damaging property of another. Thus computer vandalism may include within its purview any kind of physical harm done to the computer of any person. These acts may take the form of the theft of a computer, some part of a computer or a peripheral attached to the computer or by physically damaging a computer or its peripherals. There is also the threat of intellectual property being stolen through illegal access to systems by people inside or outside a company, leading to a loss of revenue for the patent owners. The protection of intellectual property rights is important to industry as it often represents their net worth. Amongst others, high-tech industry needs to protect designs and software from theft and reuse for which they have invested significantly in many years of research and development. Highly sophisticated crime networks target high-worth information such as this for sale. It is impossible to accurately calculate the cost to industry resulting from unlawful intellectual property rights theft and distribution given that estimates are based on survey data and counterfactual analysis of consumer behaviour. Hacking and cracking are amongst the gravest Cybercrimes known till date. It is a dreadful feeling to know that someone has broken into your computer systems without your knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential data and information. Coupled with this, the actuality is that no computer system in the world is hacking proof. It is unanimously agreed that any and every system in the world can be hacked. Using one's own

programming abilities as also various programmes with malicious intent to gain unauthorized access to a computer or network are very serious crimes. Similarly, the creation and dissemination of harmful computer programs which do irreparable damage to computer systems is another kind of Cybercrime. Software piracy is also another distinct kind of Cybercrime which is perpetuated by many people online who distribute illegal and unauthorised pirated copies of software. The third category of cyber crimes is against government: Cyber terrorism is

one distinct kind of crime in this category. The growth of internet has shown that the medium of Cyberspace is being used by individuals and groups to threaten the international governments as also to terrorise the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself into terrorism when an individual "cracks" into a government or military maintained website. As well as the threat posed to the
general public, cyber crime poses a number of challenges for Government. Government can be the target of attacks from online criminals, who target the services provided by Government for the public with the aim of financial gain, or for gathering data on individuals. The increasing availability of government services online provides opportunities for criminals. Fraudulent applications for services such as benefits / tax credits, and tax repayments may be perceived by criminals to be less well monitored or to offer more anonymity and less human interaction than more traditional fraud would require. There is a risk that the increasing provision of services online by Government will lead to more attempts to defraud Government. The Government strongly supports the use of the internet, and recognises the benefits that it gives to our society, both the public and business. It is clear that crime on the internet is a concern, and has the potential to prevent the full take up of the benefits of the internet. There is also the possibility that some of the benefits already in place would be undermined if crime were to affect many more people than it does. Although the relationship between fear of crime on the internet and the use of the internet needs to be examined further. This may be especially true for consumers and small businesses, who are the targets of attacks from criminals, but who have limited ability to defend themselves. There are also indirect costs to businesses that have invested in online capacity, but do not get a return

on their investment due to the consumers fear of using those services. Cyber Terrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category. The growth of Internet has shown that the medium of Cyberspace is being used by individuals and groups to threaten the international governments as also to terrorise the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself into terrorism when an individual "cracks" into a government or military maintained website.

3. COMPARISON OF CYBER CRIMES IN MALAYSIA AND USA For years, government officials, news articles, and security companies have warned about the dangers and impact of cybercrime. According to the recently released Norton Cyber Crime Report for 2011, 431 million adults worldwide were victims of cyber crime last year. The total cost of those crimes amounts to some $114 billion. This precise statement, however, hides an important problem. 3.1 Cybercrime in Malaysia Cases related to ICT are often reported in local vernacular papers concerning various issues ranging from cyber rime to equal access to the internet .The following are some examples of common news items concerning cybercrime that appeared in Malaysian newspapers: a. Hackers have struck at government websites again, this time targeting the Social Security Organization (Socso) by posting an image of a covered skull on its site at: http://www.perkeso.gov.my (26th June 2001). b. Sixty government websites have been hacked between February 1, 1999 and April 3 this year, with a total of 89 actual hacking incidents taking place. c. December 29, 2001: A hacker intrusion on the Malaysian Parliaments website has reportedly generated criticism from some officials who claim the government has taken a slapdash approach to internet security.

d. 22nd August 2000: A hacker is believed to have tried to dupe internet users into giving away their private financial information by posing as an online executive at Maybank Bhd. In the first six months of 2003, Malaysian NISER recorded 394 incidences of cybercrime as shown in Table 2.1 below. 48.47 percent of the reported incidences were hack threats followed by virus attacks at 28.68 percent. Table A. Incident Statistics in Malaysia JAN-JUN 2003

Source: NISER (http://www.niser.org.my).

3.2 Cybercrime in USA When most people think of dangerous cities, their minds likely focus on violent crime rates. However, there is also the threat of cyber-crime, which is ever-present for those with an Internet connection, and can become greater depending on user behaviour. According to a report by Symantec and Sperling's BestPlaces, the online risk of people living in 50 American cities, with risk being defined as the intersection of cyber-threats. The rankings were calculated based on data such as the number of malicious attacks per capita and the number of

WiFi hot spots and the use of online banking. In this report also stated that the places with some of the highest concentrations of tech minds in the country were also hotbeds for cyber-crime and risky behaviour. Here are the top 10 riskiest online cities in America; Seattle, Boston, The country's capital, Washington DC, San
Francisco, Raleigh, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Denver, Austin, and Portland.

With the increase of cyber crimes in USA , a task force known as Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) was established. This task force is a joint venture between the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau Of Justice Assistance (BJA) . IC3 was formerly known as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. From January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Web site received 336,655 complaint submissions. This was a 22.3% increase as compared to 2008 when 275,284 complaints were received. Of the 336,655 complaints submitted to IC3, 146,663 were referred to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies around the country for further consideration. The vast majority of referred cases contained elements of fraud and involved a financial loss by the complainant. The total dollar loss from all referred cases was $559.7 million with a median dollar loss of $575. This is up from $264.6 million in total reported losses in 2008. Unreferred submissions generally involved complaints in which there was no documented harm, loss or complaints where neither the complainant nor perpetrator resided within the United States. Complaints received by IC3 cover many different fraud and nonfraud categories, including auction fraud, non delivery of merchandise, credit card fraud, computer intrusions, spam/unsolicited email, and child pornography. All of these complaints are accessible to local, state, and federal law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public outreach and awareness efforts. On January 1, 2009, IC3 implemented a new complaint

classification system based on a redesigned questionnaire that generates an automatic classification of the complaint into one of 79 offense-based categories. During 2009, email scams that used the FBIs name was the offense most often reported to IC3, comprising 16.6% of all crime complaints. Non-delivery of merchandise and/or payment represented 11.9% of complaints. Advance fee fraud made up an additional 9.8% of complaints. Other top 10 complaint categories included identity theft (8.2%), overpayment fraud (7.3%), miscellaneous fraud (6.3%), spam (6.2%), credit card fraud (6.0%), auction fraud (5.7%), and destruction/damage/vandalism of computer property, (i.e.,computer damage, 4.5%). Table B. Top 10 Most Common IC3 Complaint Categories.

4. SUGGESTION IN COMBATING CYBER CRIME

Requirements for Holistic Integrated Policy and Framework, Holistic, integrated, and cohesive policies need to be established at international level to ensure effective and beneficial application of ICTs especially in the poorer and inadequately serviced areas. The need for continuous collaboration at international level in general and Asean region is vital for Malaysian government. Given that different countries have expertise in different parts of this new technology, collaboration efforts between countries will bring greater benefits in the application of ICTs for development of the region. The most basic problems and challenges that public policymakers face trying to enhance ICT diffusion and development are the lack of both financial and trained human resources. Recommendation actions in the following four areas are offered for in embracing ICT for achieving competitive advantages between Malaysia and the rest of the world. 1. Adoption of sound education programmes at all levels to foster ICT literacy, establish cyber crime free technology, and provide for a secure information society within the Asean region, 2. Promotion and conduct of human resource development programmes and collaborativeResearch & Development in priority areas of ICTs within each country as a whole; 3. Establishment of up-to-date, common, and mutually supporting cyber-laws for combating crime and protecting intellectual property rights towards the creation of cybercrime free information society, and to encourage further inventions and innovations to generate wealth; and 4. Adoption of ICT standards, regulations, and quality assurance to foster high quality and secure services and products that maintain competitiveness for the benefit of all communities within each country, in the region, and in the world.