CYBER CRIME

INTRODUCTION
When we want to talk about cybercrime, what has crossed our mind are hacking,
copyright infringement and so on and so forth. Actually there are so many types of
cybercrime in this world that might surprise us without us knowing it. According to
Wikipedia, computer crime, or cybercrime, refers to any crime that involves
a computer and a network1. The computer may have been used in the commission of a
crime, or it may be the target. It means that the owner of the computer has detected some
changes in his or her computer especially when it involves data or password. Net
crime refers to criminal exploitation of the Internet. Such crimes may threaten a nations
security and financial health. These issues become high profile, especially in those
cracking, copyright infringement, child pornography so on and so forth. There are also
problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or
otherwise.
According to Parthasarathi Pati , one of the professors in India refers the cyber crime as a
generalized as unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or target or both 2.
The computer may be used as a tool in the following kinds of pornography, online
gambling, forgery, cyber stalking. The computer may however be target for illegal acts in
the following cases- unauthorized access to computer/ computer system/ computer
networks, theft of information contained in the electronic form, e-mail bombing, logic
bombs and so on. Usually the Trojan attacks, internet time thefts, web jacking, theft of
computer system, physically damaging the computer system without the user knowing it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime

Moore, R. (2005) "Cybercrime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi:

Anderson Publishing.
2

http://www.naavi.org/pati/pati_cybercrimes_dec03.htm

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There are also definitions of cyber crimes and according to Davis and Hutchison: 1997,
there

are

two

kind

categories

of

cyber-crime

that

have

been

created.

The first category of cyber-crime is defined where the computer is the tool of the crime.
The crimes include child pornography, criminal harassment, fraud, intellectual property
violations and illegal sales. The second category is defined where the computer is the
object of the crime. Cyber-crime consists of specific crimes dealing with computers and
networks all around the world. These are new crimes that are specifically related
to computer technology and the Internet. For example, hacking or unauthorized use
of computer systems, creation and malicious dissemination of computer viruses.
As we have gone through with these definitions of cyber-crime , the best definition for
cyber crimes that suits our topic is that cyber crime is an illegal acts that done by an
individual or groups of people to hack or access others computer without permission . It
can

be

dangerous

to

our

security

nationally

or

internationally.

Cyber-crime is a national and international concern that is having a really serious impact
on law enforcement at all levels. Cyber-crime should have received increased attention
from federal, provincial and territorial governments, as well as the police in the
community. Until now, there are no national data on this important issue. We will discuss
more about

cybercrime in Malaysia and U.S.A in comparison in facts and statistically.

Cybercrime is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. Most of the
internet users have gone through with this without knowing it. This includes anything
from downloading illegal music files to stealing millions of dollars from user online bank
accounts. Cybercrime also includes such as creating and distributing viruses on other
computers

or

posting

confidential business

information

on the

Internet.

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THE CLASSIFICATION OF CYBER CRIME

The computer is one of the most important discoveries in the development of the
technical-technological civilization. In only 50 years time many devices for storage and
processing of massive data have been discovered and improved. By comparison, other
scientific branches took decades to reach the same level of knowledge. Apart from all
advantages and benefits that the computer has brought about very soon it has also become
a device for misuse in the hands of individuals, groups or even organizations.
That is how the computer crime appeared as a specific model of present-day
crime in regard of its structure, scope and characteristics. If we take into account the
dangers and damages to the society that can be caused by this crime, this super modern
crime needs special attention to be paid both by state governing organs and the
international community as well. Because of these great possibilities for memorizing data
and fast processing of huge data bases in very short time the number of automatic
information systems goes up every day as they become an indispensable part of the work
of all social subjects, both physical and legal, at all levels. So the computer has become
an indispensable gadget of modern living, its purpose ranging from private use,
manufacturing use, traffic, services to national security and defense. But this various and
far stretching use of computers was recognized by irresponsible individuals who stop at
nothing to get material benefit in illegal ways. To put it briefly to the term computer
crime refers to all forms of crime connected with abuse of computers and informatics
systems in general.
The characteristics of the computer crime are:
* Socially dangerous illegal behavior that can be punished by the law.
* Specific way and device for committing crime using computer.
* Special object for protection, security of stored data of information
system in segments, or globally (entirely).

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The aim of the perpetrator to gain benefit (material or immaterial) and

cause damage to other person.
The subject of cyber crime may be broadly classified under the following four major
categories as they are:
(1) Cyber crime against Individual
(2) Cyber crime Against Property
(3) Cyber crime Against Organization
(4) Cyber crime Against Society
There are a few types of cyber crimes if we really want to discuss in details. The cyber
criminals constitute of various groups/ category. This division may be justified on the
basis of the object that they have in their mind. The following are the category fall under
cyber criminals1 ) Children and adolescents between the age group of 6 18 years
There are no surprising to know that children and teenagers are the one that do most
of the cyber-crime offences. The simple reason for this type of behaviour pattern in
children is seen mostly due to explore the things. Other reason may be to prove
themselves to be outstanding among other children in their group. Further the reasons
may be psychological even. Example is the Bal Bharati (Delhi) case was the outcome
of harassment of the delinquent by his friends.
Examples of crimes done under this category are downloading music illegally, email
spoofing and so on.
(i) Email spoofing
A spoofed email is one in which e-mail header is forged so that the mail appears to
originate from one source but actually has been sent from another source. Recently
spoofed mails were sent on the name of Mr. Ravi which contained virus.
Rajesh Manyar, a graduate student at Purdue University in Indiana, was arrested for

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threatening to detonate a nuclear device in the college campus. The alleged e- mail was
sent from the account of another student to the vice president for student services.
However the mail was traced to be sent from the account of Rajesh Manyar
(ii) Spamming
Spamming means sending multiple copies of unsolicited mails or mass e-mails such as
chain letters.
(iii) Cyber Defamation
This occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and / or the
internet. For an example someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a
website or sends e-mails containing defamatory information.
(iii) Harassment & Cyber stalking
The Oxford dictionary defines stalking as "pursuing stealthily". Cyber stalking involves
following a person's movements across the Internet by posting messages (and mostly
threatening) on the bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering the chat-rooms
frequented by the victim, constantly bombarding the victim with emails etc.
2) Organised hackers
These kinds of hackers are mostly organised together to fulfil certain objective. The
reason may be to fulfil their political bias, fundamentalism, etc. The Pakistanis are
said to be one of the best quality hackers in the world. They mainly target the Indian
government sites with the purpose to fulfil their political objectives. The NASA as
well as the Microsoft sites is always under attack by the hackers.
Examples of crimes done under this category are unauthorised access, email spoofing,
Trojan , viruses and so on.

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(i) Unauthorized Accessing of Computer

Accessing the computer/network without permission from the owner.
it can be of 2 forms:
a) Changing/deleting data
Unauthorized changing of data.
b) Computer voyeur
The criminal reads or copies confidential or proprietary information,
but the data is neither deleted nor changed.
(ii) Denial Of Service
When Internet server is full with continuous bogus requests so as to denying legitimate
users to use the server or to crash the server.
(iii) Computer contamination / Virus attack
A computer virus is a computer program that can infect other computer programs by
modifying them in such a way as to include a (possibly evolved) copy of it.
Viruses can be file infecting or affecting boot sector of the computer.
Worms, unlike viruses do not need the host to attach themselves to.
(iv) Email Bombing
Sending large numbers of mails to the individual or company or mail servers thereby
resulting into crashing.
(v) Salami Attack
This kind of crime is normally prevalent in the financial institutions or for the purpose of
committing financial crimes. An important feature of this type of offence is that the
alteration is so small that it would normally go unnoticed. Example is the Ziegler
case wherein a logic bomb was introduced in the banks system, which deducted 10 cents
from every account and deposited it in a particular account.

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(vi) Logic Bomb

These are event dependent programs. This implies that these programs are created to do
something only when a certain event (known as a trigger event) occurs. E.g. even some
viruses may be termed logic bombs because they lie dormant all through the year and
become active only on a particular date (like the Chernobyl virus).
(vii) Trojan Horse
This term has its origin in the word Trojan horse. In software field this means an
unauthorized programme, which passively gains control over anothers system by
representing itself as an authorised programme. The most common form of installing a
Trojan is through e-mail. Example is a Trojan was installed in the computer of a lady film
director in the U.S. while chatting. The cyber criminal through the web cam installed in
the computer obtained her nude photographs. He further harassed this lady.
(viii) Data diddling
This kind of an attack involves altering raw data just before it is processed by a computer
and then changing it back after the processing is completed.
3) Professional hackers / crackers
Their work is motivated by money. These kinds of hackers are mostly employed to hack
the site of the rivals and get credible, reliable and valuable information. Further they are
employed to crack the system of the employer basically as a measure to make it safer by
detecting the loopholes.
Examples of crimes done under this category are credit card fraud
(i) Credit Card Fraud
This credit card fraud has been a major offence in the internet in the moment. The
irresponsible people know that the lifestyle sometimes makes us crazy. Spending money
through credit card becomes a really common now.

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(ii) Intellectual Property crimes

Intellectual property consists of a bundle of rights. Any unlawful act by which the owner
is deprived completely or partially of his rights is an actually offence. The common form
of IPR violation may be said to be software piracy, copyright infringement, trademark
and service mark violation, theft of computer source code, etc.
(iii) Internet time theft
The usage of the Internet hours by an unauthorized person which is actually paid by
another person which can be either neighbor or friends.
4) Discontented employees
This group include those people who have been either sacked by their employer or are
dissatisfied with their employer. To avenge they normally hack the system of their
employee.
(i) Forgery
Currency notes, revenue stamps, mark sheets etc can be forged using computers and high
quality scanners and printers.
(ii) Cyber Terrorism
The use of computer resources to intimidate others. Cyber terrorism in general, can be
defined as an act of terrorism committed through the use of cyberspace or computer
resources (Parker 1983). As such, a simple propaganda in the Internet, that there will be
bomb attacks during the holidays can be considered cyberterrorism. As well there are also
hacking activities directed towards individuals, families, organized by groups within
networks, tending to cause fear among people, demonstrate power, collecting information
relevant for ruining peoples' lives, robberies, blackmailing etc.
(iii) Web Jacking
Hackers gain access and control over the website of another, even they change the
content of website for fulfilling political objective or for money.
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Comparison of cyber crimes in Malaysia and USA.

If we want to compare of cyber crimes in Malaysia and USA, it would be slightly
unfair due to the population between these two countries. Malaysia is much smaller
compared to USA which consists of at least four times bigger population than Malaysia
and not to mention the computer users in USA is larger than in Malaysia. If we really
want to compare then some of the aspects should be taken out because some areas in
Malaysia still not covered by network. As for cyber-crimes in Malaysia, the crime has
increased tremendously in 2008. The total number of cyber crimes reported in 2008 had
grown more than twice than the previous year. Moreover the situation might get worse in
2009 when the number of crimes increased. According to CyberSecurity Malaysia, cyber
security specialist, there is need for a dedicated "cyber court" in the country given that
cyber crimes increased tremendously during 2008.Lt. Col. (retired) Husin Jazri, Chief
Executive Officer of CyberSecurity, said that the total number of Internet crimes reported
in 2008 by the security firm had grown more than twice the previous estimates.
Moreover, the situation might get worse this year (2009), as reported by the star online on
January 16, 2009.According to Jazri, in 2008, the organization dealt with 2,123 incidents
of cyber crime, more than 100% increase in comparison to 2007 when the company dealt
with 1,038 incidents. The reports received from the organization revealed that nearly 50%
of the incidents reported were related to fraud, while the rest to malicious code and
intrusions like malware infections, spam, online harassment, malicious websites,
intrusions and so on. Moreover, over 4,000 cyber complaints, majority of them relating to
cyber-crimes, were filed with CyberSecurity Malaysia between 2007 and 08. The
complaints comprised fraud, hack threats, Denial-of-Service conditions and other PC
problems like viruses corrupting files or data getting exposed. Further, as the Internet
usage in the country grows, the total number of online transactions along with other
activities is likely to increase, which, in turn, increase the number of online crime
incidences. Besides, growth in broadband and wireless capacity makes the Internet more
convenient and quicker to use. But unfortunately, these utilities could be used as means
for Internet crimes.
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In addition, the ongoing economic crisis across the world will also boost cyber crimes.
The problem of insufficient awareness about cyber security or Internet-safety practices
among Malaysians surfing on the Web continues to pose a big challenge. For example,
some users do not own a distinct password while many are not updating their security
software. Commenting on this, Malaysian Police said that to an unwary person, a
fraudulent website appears to be the bank's real website. Similarly, an innocent recipient
thinks that an e-mail announcing a 'prize win' is genuine. Therefore, it is hardly surprising
that online crimes involving banking fraud and as in US the cyber-crime offences also
increases a lot lately. There are a lot of complaints have been filed to offender. As we
know that it is very hard to find the offender, so some cases consume time and some
never solved. According to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) cases in US are
getting worse every year as the offender still doing their job very well by covering tracks
that they did.

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SUGGESTIONS
Prevention methods:
1. Firewalls
2. Frequent password changing
3. Safe surfing
4. Frequent virus checks
5. Email filters
Firewalls
These are programs, which protect a user from unauthorized access attacks while on a
network. They provide access to only known users, or people who the user permits.
Frequent password changing
With the advent of multi-user systems, security has become dependent on passwords.
Thus one should always keep passwords to sensitive data secure. Changing
them frequently, and keeping them sufficiently complex in the first place can do this.
Safe surfing
This is a practice, which should be followed by all users on a network.
Safe surfing involves keeping ones e-mail address private, not chatting on open systems,
which do not have adequate protection methods, visiting secure sites. Accepting data
from only known users, downloading carefully, and then from known sites also
minimizes risk.
Frequent virus checks
One should frequently check ones computer for viruses and worms. Also any external
media such as floppy disks and CD ROMS should always be virus checked before
running.
Email filters
These are programs, which monitor the inflow of mails to the inbox and delete
automatically any suspicious or useless mails thus reducing the chances of being bombed
or spoofed.
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CONCLUSIONS
As we have talked and discussed about definition of cyber crime, types of cyber crime,
comparison between Malaysia and USA, it comes to conclude that these offences
happening because our lifestyles. We must accept that this world without barrier has
made some people in this world think that they can do anything. Just like normal crime,
but they do that through computers. For them as long as no action taken, it is going to be
fun for them. With the information highway having entered our very homes, we are all at
increasing risk of being affected by Cybercrime. Everything about our lives is in some
manner affected by computers. Under the circumstances its high time we sat up and took
notice of the events shaping our destinies on the information highway. Cybercrime is
everyones problem. And its time we did something to protect ourselves. Information is
the best form of protection. We can get a lot of information through internet, books,
journal and mass media. So do not wait until the last minute to prevent these cybercrime
from invading your private and space.

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REFERENCES
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime
Moore, R. (2005) "Cybercrime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime,"
Cleveland, Mississippi:
Anderson Publishing.
2) http://www.naavi.org/pati/pati_cybercrimes_dec03.htm
3) http://arjunvenkatraman.com/work/techno/cybercrime.html#_Toc139026714

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