Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

Risky Behaviors in the Cyberworld

Several socializing activities in the cyberspace have been mode of

meeting and knowing other persons. These scenarios in the cyberworld have
contributed a greater opportunity of internet predator to attack at any given time.
According to Aparte (2007) in his journal that the majority of users of such social
networking websites are young people who treat these websites as virtual
hangouts that connect them to their friends but as with anything else having to do
with the internet, there are dangers to online socializing activities such as social
networking. As Ms. Aparte added, some people do and say things online that
they may think twice or thrice about doing offline. Whatever information users put
online is not restricted to a particular geographic area and thus it can be seen in
practical way by anynone in the world. On horror story in the United States about
a group of teenage boys uploaded a fake profile of fictitious 15 year old girl on
mySpace.com to cheer up another friend who had b broken up with his girlfriend.
When a man starting to send messages with sexual over tones, the boys were
alerted the police who then showed up at the prearranged meeting place and
arrested the 48 year old man who charges of attempted lewd and lascivious
conduct with a child. As safekids.com (2007) suggests in interacting with social
web especially with teens that they must think about what they have to post on
the net. Sharing provocative photos or intimate details online even in private
emails, can cause them problems later on. Even people they consider friends
can use this info against them, especially if they become ex-friends. It may be fun

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to check out new people for friendship or romance, but be aware that, while
some people are nice, others act nice because they’re trying to get something.
Flattering or supportive messages may be more about manipulation than
friendship or romance. Be cautious when communicating with people you don’t
know in person, especially if the conversation starts to be about sex or physical
details. Don’t lead them on - you don’t want to be the target of a predator’s
grooming. The only way someone can physically harm you is if you’re both in the
same location, so – to be 100% safe – don’t meet them in person.

Forms of Threats against Individual

Cyber threats have found its way into the unethical way of doings human
predator in the cyberspace that always tries to flourish its perilous behavior
against its target in the cyberworld that resulted into committing cybercrimes.
According to Carter (2002) in his article about forms of cybercrime that the term
cybercrime is such a broad one and is usually applied to a broad range of crimes
in which computers are, in some manner, involved. The article has divided into
two parts such as nature of cybercrime and the types of persons who perpetrate
cyber offenses and briefly discusses the types of statutes used to prosecute
them. In the nature of cybercrime, include computer as target of crime, Computer
as Tool to Commit an Offense, and Computer as Repository of Evidence of a
Crime. The article examines the differences between each of these groups.
Computer as target of crime, in this type of offense the perpetrator’s purpose is
not to steal data or software, but is, instead, to alter the data or the software
contained in the victim’s computer. A common example of a computer as target
offense is where the perpetrator accesses the victim’s computer for the purpose
of planting a destructive virus. For computer as tool to commit an offense, in
some instances the crime committed with the computer may not, for technical or

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other reasons, fit within the statutory definition of a traditional offenses even
though the result brought about by the use of the computer is clearly within the
concept of a traditional criminal statute. Finally the last one, repository offenses
pose several challenges for law enforcement, the most important of which is how
to acquire the electronically stored evidence.

In another article, according to Fontelera (2008) that many people rely on

the Internet to carry on personal relationships as well as financial and business
affairs. Not nearly enough have sufficient password protection. A recent survey
by consultancy Accenture showed that nearly half of the Internet users
questioned use only one password for all their online accounts in an article
“Survey: Most users repeat passwords” of Robertson (2008). In San Francisco,
USA, researchers say the findings suggest that many users underestimate the
growing threat from organized cyber criminals who can reap big profits from
selling stolen identities. This becomes alarming threat against users and may be
lack of awareness of about the current situation of threats in the cyberworld.

According to Mandal (2008) that for many involved in a criminal opaque,

cyber crime is a curse in the 21st century. Several large criminal networks
straddling the world are at present keenly involved in cyber crimes of one type or
the other. The possibilities of potential earnings over the internet are roughly
unlimited and the reasonable securities which the Internet sources provide are
not sufficient to catch these criminals. Victims increase daily, but things were not
like this always. During the ancient days of cyber crimes the universe of cyber
crime was observed as a harmless trick by computer geeks presenting how
much they understood about the workings of all the computer networks. Well,
everyone will not believe it but cyber crime was rising rapidly till recently. Earlier
reasonably little damage was done and the criminal defense attorneys did not

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possess much information about the same. However, some of the criminal laws
were on the order which regulated cyber crimes in the ancient days and some of
the criminal barricades were bog-standard. But as times changed, so did the
environment of cyber crime. Additional technological developments and cheaper
access to the software and hardware meant that the Net became the area where
anyone could access data and more threatening frauds came to the notice of the
system. Another threat against person is On-Line ID Theft Threat and according
to Carey (2008) in her article that Pop Ups at Gaming Sites- You've Just Won!,
and Spearphishing in E-mails- Important Notices are just other types of On-Line
Identity Theft Threats. Law enforcement officials have entered on line chat
groups and showed up at ball parks to show young kids how something as
simple as a photo with a team uniform can lead child stalkers right to their ball
field. The public has a heightened sense of protecting children on-line but adults
are often just as easy prey when it comes to fraud and identity theft.

Assess of Internet Users to Cyber Threats

According to cs.auckland.ac.nz (2008) that there clearly are a number of

dangers or risks involved in utilizing the Internet such as Invasions of privacy;
Fraud and theft, including the potential use of your credit card details by others to
purchase goods and services, and the possibility of identity theft, a fast growing
crime; Harassment, including spamming, stalking etc; exposure to material
considered to be pornographic, violent, hate-filled, racist or generally offensive;
ready availability of information to assist people with bomb-making and other
dangerous activities; temptation and ability to participate in on-line gambling;
vulnerability to exploitation, such as the physical or emotional abuse of children;
loss of business and reputation, due to denial of service attacks, web graffiti etc.;

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and loss of data and damage to systems, through malicious code, such as
worms and viruses. According to www.stmargaretssec.moe.edu.sg(2008) that
the Internet can spark imaginations and open young minds. It’s also loads of fun.
However, there are certain places in the digital world children shouldn’t go,
certain people and kinds of information they aren’t prepared to encounter.
Children can easily stumble across sexual, violent, or otherwise offensive Web
sites. They may receive unwanted attention from adults in chat rooms or over
email. They’re the unwitting targets of deceptive online advertising and marketing
campaigns, some of which attempt to elicit private, family information.

According to www.louisville.sparcc.org (2008) in USA that there are 63

million U.S. students between the ages of 2-17 are online today, over 70% of
students go online at least once per week, and nearly 85% spend at least one
hour on the Internet on a weekly basis. Risky behaviors of the student has drawn
into percentage; 53% like being alone when “surfing” the Internet, 12% have
unsupervised access to the Internet at school, 10% chat, e-mail or Instant
Message (IM) while at school, 39% have given out personal information (name,
e-mail address, age, gender) online (when entering a contest, playing online
games or signing up for websites), 31% have chatted or used IM with someone
on the Internet that they have not met “face to face”, 12% have met a new person
from the Internet “face to face.”, 13% are willing to meet “face to face” with
someone new they meet on the Internet, 8% say that, while on the Internet,
someone has asked them to keep their friendship a secret, 53% have seen
something on the Internet that shouldn’t be on the Internet, and 64% know of or
have heard about other students who have done something on the Internet that
shouldn’t be done. Another points have been pointed out in an article at
www.netsmartz.org (2008) that risks include providing too much personal
information, and the anonymity, access, and opportunity for people who would

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harm children to search for and contact potential victims. Online diaries and
social networking sites are a popular way teens connect with one another. There
are several benefits to social networking, but the reality is that there are also
risks.

Engagement of Users to Perilous Websites

According to Field (2007) that by most measures New Zealand's remote

colony of Tokelau is paradise but on the internet it has become the world's most
dangerous domain for surfers. Many of the fake websites and emails offering
"security alerts" from banks around the world arrive via a Tokelau or Niue top
level domain (TLD) address. They found that 4.1 per cent of all the sites had red
or yellow warnings but it ranged from a low 0.1 per cent for Finland and 0.6 per
cent for New Zealand to 10.1 per cent for Tokelau. World ranking for percentage
of dangerous websites; place at number one is Tokelau, .TK, 10.1 per cent, at
number three is Samoa, .WS, 5.8 per cent, in the 13th place is Tuvalu, .TV, 3 per
cent 14. Tonga, .TO, 3 per cent, in the 21th place is Niue, .NU, 2.1 per cent, in
the 48th is the New Zealand, .NZ, 0.6 per cent, and at the 65 th place is
Australia, .AU, with 0.2 per cent. In another report pertaining to dangerous
website, according to geek.com team (2000) that a 16-year-old high school junior
in Utah is being ordered to move to California for his own protection until a court
hearing takes place. The student created a “profanity-laced” website targeting the
203-student school's faculty and his schoolmates; he will be tried for “computer
crimes,” including libel. The boy's computer was seized by the police and sent to
Salt Lake City for analysis. Concerning to this growing serious matter in the
Internet, that Google is warning Web users of the increasing threat posed by
malicious software that can be dropped onto a computer as a Web surfer visits a
particular site and its published report said that Web-based malicious software

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has been aided by the increasing role that the Internet plays in everyday life,
along with the ease in setting up Web sites, according to Ferguson (2007) in
news.cnet.com.

Assess of Internet Users to the State of Cybercrime Law Issues

In the global state of Cybrecrime act law, Cybercrime has become a huge
challenge for every e-country in the world especially in the international
Information and Communications Technology. Every concerned country has its
respective initiatives in addressing this global issue in the information technology
however this problem still remain never ceased issue because of the wideness of
the cyberspace that enable cybercriminals to hide. According to Sharma (2007)
that the cyber world today is facing the most complicated problem of fighting a
crime which is hard to detect and curb in the borderless world. Cyber crime
though has its origin in the conventional crime, it is hard to detect because of the
highly technical mode of committing it. It is ironical that the advancement in the
computer network worldwide, which has brought all the nations together on a
global stage, has given rise to such an alarming situation. The law enforcement
agencies, unaware of the technological know-how find it hard to nab the criminals
involved in the offences related to cyber space. The main categories of cyber
crime include hacking, theft of information, data diddling, virus attacks, web
jacking, Trojan attacks etc…The Federal Bureau of Investigation has set up the
National Infrastructure Protection Center which is trying hard to enhance
communication levels between different government agencies for curbing cyber
terrorism. The principle behind the U.S.A Patriot Act is to detect and scrutinize
cyber crimes. This act has given the authority to probe the activities regarding
cyber terrorism to Secret Service. Like this scenario in Kuwait City, according to
Cardozo (2008) that Internet-related crimes are on the rise in Kuwait and the lack

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of Cyber laws makes it impossible to tackle such fraudulent practices and
hackers are increasingly targeting Kuwait and many other countries, knowing full
well that they can get away with their crimes. On the other hand, according to the
article of Harsh (2008) in articlebase.com that though there are many techniques
evolved to curb the criminal activities by cyber terrorists but still the problem
persists in legal structure and has failed to produce a deterring effect on the
criminals. If the suggestions are undertaken in light of conclusion there can be a
better co-ordination among various national and international agencies to make
the system more efficient, and Information Technology Act 2000 more secured
and trustworthy. It can still be held good for the objects it had existed to provide
the benefits to the society. This paper is contributive of the fact that the till the
crime rate is not curbed technology cannot produce adequate benefits for which
it’s been created.

Here in the Philippines, according to Oliva (2008) of Inquirer.net that the

top official of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology
(CICT) in Quezon City, CICT chairman Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III, said that
the long-overdue draft of a cybecrime bill being put together by various
stakeholders in government and the private sector will be ready before Congress
resumes sessions. The bill will specifically promote international cooperation
among countries, which is crucial in prosecuting cybercrime. Cybercrime is
increasingly becoming committed by individuals or groups with criminal content
from different geographic locations. The Department of Justice (DoJ) and the
CICT are part of the Technical Working Group (TWG) that has been working on
the cybercrime bill, which incorporates provisions set during the Budapest
convention on cybercrime. The cybercrime bill would contain definitions of
cybercrime, punishment of such crimes and provisions on cooperation with the
international community, among others.

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 In the local situation of Cybercrime law or IT Act Law, according to
Regalado (2007) that the United States is helping enhance the capabilities of
policemen in Southern Mindanao in the fight against cyber-terrorism, which has
been widely used by terrorists in their operations. The training and skills that
policemen will gain will help them follow proper evidence procedures to ensure
that criminals who utilize computers and digital devices are prosecuted to the full
extent of the law as stressed by Schlachter, manager of the US Embassys ATA
program,to the over 40 participants in the five-day cyber crime incident response
course. This coordination among other country like USA has became a
significant initiative in addressing the local and national problem in cybercrime.
This problem has to be addressed together with the local, national, and
international both private and public sectors to condemn all the unethical and
illegal way of utilizing the technology in this modern era. According to
infotech.indiatimes.com (2008) that the growth of Internet users, broadband
capacity and number of Internet-enabled devices has created an opportunity for
hackers, organised criminals and even terrorists to attack our networks through
Spam, spyware, identity theft, viral attacks, and denial of service exploits. Some
do so for technical trophies, some for political objectives, but today, most attacks
on the Internet are done for financial gain.

Risky behaviour in the cyberworld seems to be inevitable and becomes

nature of engaging to internet as what most scenarios in the internet found.
According to report, the major percentage of the population of US students who
are using internet are liked to surf the net alone (louisville.sparcc.org, 008). There
are reports that most prone to internet threats are the children (safekids.com).
This only shows that wide addiction to internet especially to the young ones is
prevalent due to its surmountable benefits. Linking and surfing to dangerous

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internet sites, lack of self awareness and discipline in utilizing the internet are
another way to be exposed in internet predators. In helping to address this global
issue, the local and international governments have to initiate further and strong
IT Act laws against these cybercrimes.

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