1
INTRODUCTION Cyber crime is the latest and perhaps the most complicated problem in the cyber world. Cybercrime is defined as: “Any criminal activity that uses a computer either as an instrumentality, target or a means for perpetuating further crimes comes within the ambit of cyber crime.” Computer mediated activities which are either illegal or considered illicit by certain parties and which can be conducted through global electronic networks. Cybercrime is a form of crime where the internet or computers are used as a medium to commit crime.Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright and child grooming. The Department of Justice categorizes cyber crime in three ways: 1. The computer as a target - attacking the computers of others (spreading viruses is an example). 2. The computer as a weapon - using a computer to commit "traditional crime" that we see in the physical world (such as fraud or illegal gambling). 3. The computer as an accessory - using a computer as a "fancy filing cabinet" to store illegal or stolen information. Cybercrime is a growing concern for both law enforcement officials and consumers as a result of the rapid expansion of the Internet into all forms of business and commerce. Cybercrime can be directed toward persons, property, companies, or government authorities.
2
HISTORY OF CYBER CRIME The first recorded cyber crime took place in the year 1820! That is not surprising considering the fact that the abacus, which is thought to be the earliest form of a computer, has been around since 3500 B.C. in India, Japan and China. The era of modern computers, however, began with the analytical engine of Charles Babbage. In 1820, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile manufacturer in France, produced the loom. This device allowed the repetition of a series of steps in the weaving of special fabrics. This resulted in a fear amongst Jacquard's employees that their traditional employment and livelihood were being threatened. They committed acts of sabotage to discourage Jacquard from further use of the new technology. This is the first recorded cyber crime!
1970s: Rootkits Came out of the UNIX era in the 70‟s but the most famous episode was in 2005 it was
discovered that Sony BMG Music Entertainment had used rootkit techniques to disguise digital rights management software that installed itself on consumers' computers when they played a Sony CD. Rootkits are software that enables continuous, privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence from administrators. Typically, an attacker installs a rootkit on a computer after first obtaining root-level access, either by exploiting a known vulnerability or by obtaining a password
1978: Spam The first spam e-mail was sent in 1978 over the ARPAnet, the US Defense Department network by a Digital Equipment Corp. marketing executive. Today mass mailings are sent via a vast array of channels - email, newsgroups, instant messaging, mobile phones - to recipients who have not requested them and cannot remove themselves from the mailing list. Spam has grown more malevolent, as criminals have made it the carrier for a host of scams. s cams.
3
1982: Viruses A high school student named Rich Skrenta wrote Elk Cloner for Apple II computers. Hidden on a floppy disk necessary to load the operating system on the computer, it spread when users unknowingly used an infected disk to boot up. A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer. A true virus can spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer. Thus, viruses are spread when a user sends it over a network or the Internet, or carries it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive.
1988: Worms Robert T. Morris, a graduate student at Cornell University, created software that would automatically replicate itself on computers hooked up to the government's ARPAnet (the precursor to the Internet). A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, which sends copies of itself to other nodes over a network. Unlike a computer virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms almost always cause at least some harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.
1989: Trojan horse software In 1989 (or ‟87, depending who you speak to), a diskette claiming to be a database of AIDS
information was mailed to thousands of AIDS researchers and subscribers to a UK computer magazine. A Trojan is a destructive program that masquerades as a benign application and is named after the Trojan Horse of Greek mythology. The software initially appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to installation and/or execution, but steals information or harms the system. Unlike viruses or worms, Trojans do not replicate themselves.
4
1990s: Crimeware This evolved from prankware, the kind of software that would install a daft message on your computer screen if you opened an infected email. Demand from organised online criminals has created a supply of easily downloadable malware packages.
1996: Phishing The term is coined although activity predates this. Phishing attempts to trick Internet users into divulging their personal information for use or resale by criminals. Also known as social engineering, phishing typically cons users through authentic-looking emails, which link to websites that mimic those of respected financial institutions or retailers. Spear-phishing was coined a decade later and refers to a more sophisticated online con act that targets an individual or an organisation
1998: Man-in-the-middle attack A man in the middle attack was reported by the National Security Agency in 1998, but more famous attacks occurred in October 2005, when global banks were targeted. Man-in-the-middle depends on interception and has been around since espionage began. However technology has given it a whole new momentum. It can be a as simple as snooping on someone‟s emails over unencrypted wi-fi in an Internet cafe. More malicious attacks use
sophisticated Trojans to interrupt banking deals in order to siphon off billions of dollars. MITM has recently morphed into the more invidious man – in-the-browser. The pernicious malware lurks within the victim‟s browser, waits until authenticated procedures have been
successfully negotiated, before redirecting funds into an illicit bank account. Zeus is the most notorious MITB used to circumvent banks‟ multi-factor The 00’s: S ocial
networking sites take off
5
My Space launches in 2003 and Facebook in 2004, heralding a new era of social networking. The medium is also rapidly colonised by criminals and is now a primary conduit for the proliferation of malware, and also of social engineering attacks.
2000: Denial-of-service and distributed denial-of-service attacks Canadian hacker MafiaBoy launched a distributed denial-of-service attack that took down several high-profile Web sites, including Amazon, CNN and Yahoo! A D(D)oS attack makes a computer resource, often a website, unavailable to its intended users. A common method of attack involves saturating the target machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable
2003: Botnets The SoBig email worm is thought to be the first organised attempt to create large-scale botnets. A botnet is a collection of infected computers or bots that have been taken over by hackers and are used to perform malicious tasks or functions. A computer becomes a bot when it downloads a file that has bot software embedded in it. A botnet takes action without the hackers having to log in to the client's computer.
July 2010: Stuxnet A Microsoft Windows computer worm was discovered in July 2010 that targets industrial software and equipment. It is the first discovered malware that spies on and subverts industrial systems.
2011: Advanced persistent threat (APT) Is the acronym on every cyber security professional‟s lips. APT usually refers to a group, such as a foreign nation state government, with both the capability and the intent to persistently and
6
effectively target a specific entity. The aggressor uses every kind of malware at their disposal in a sustained attack on a target that can last months in order to achieve their criminal ends.
WHY WE HAVE TO LEARN ABOUT CYBER CRIME? BECAUSE:
Everybody is using computers.
From white collar criminals to terrorist organizations and from teenagers to adults.
Conventional crimes like forgery, extortion, kidnapping etc. are being committed with the help of computers.
New generation is growing up with computers.
MOST IMPORTANT – Monetary transaction are moving on to the internet
7
REASONS FOR CYBER CRIME 1. Capacity to store data in comparatively small space: The computer has unique characteristic of storing data in a very small space. This affords to remove or derive information either through physical or virtual medium makes it much more easier.
2. Easy to access: The problem encountered in guarding a computer system from unauthorised access is that there is every possibility of breach not due to human error but due to the complex technology. By secretly implanted logic bomb, key loggers that can steal access codes, advanced voice recorders; retina imagers etc. that can fool biometric systems and bypass firewalls can be utilized to get past many a security system.
3. Complex: The computers work on operating systems and these operating systems in turn are composed of millions of codes. Human mind is fallible and it is not possible that there might not be a lapse at any stage. The cyber criminals take advantage of these lacunas and penetrate into the computer system.
4. Negligence: Negligence is very closely connected with human conduct. It is therefore very probable that while protecting the computer system there might be any negligence, which in turn provides a cyber criminal to gain access and control over the computer system.
8
5. Loss of evidence: Loss of evidence is a very common & obvious problem as all the data are routinely destroyed. Further collection of data outside the territorial extent also paralyses this system of crime investigation.
9
CYBER CRIMINALS 1. Children and adolescents between the age group of 6 – 18 years: The simple reason for this type of delinquent behaviour pattern in children is seen mostly due to the inquisitiveness to know and explore the things. Other cognate reason may be to prove themselves to be outstanding amongest other children in their group. Further the reasons may be psychological even. E.g. the Bal Bharati (Delhi) case was the outcome of harassment of the delinquent by his friends.
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. Further the NASA as well as the Microsoft sites is always under attack by the hackers.
3. Professional hackers / crackers: Their work is motivated by the colour of 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 ven employed to crack the system of the employer basically as a measure to make it safer by detecting the loopholes.
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.
10
CATEGORIES OF CYBER CRIME Cyber crimes can be basically divided into 3 major categories: 1. Cyber crimes against persons. 2. Cyber crimes against property. 3. Cyber crimes against government.
1. Cyber crimes against persons: 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 racial, religious or other.
2. Cyber crimes against property:
These crimes include computer vandalism (destruction of others' property), transmission of harmful programs.
3. Cyber crimes 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 terrorize the citizens of a country.
11
TYPES OF CYBER CRIME There are various types of cyber crime, some of which are as follows: 1. Hacking 2. Virus Dissemination 3. Spoofing 4. Online Fraud 5. Cyber Stalking 6. Software Piracy 7. Salami Attack 8. Denial Of Service
1. HACKING: In the truest sense of the word, a "hacker" is a dedicated
programming expert who
believes in sharing his expertise and experiences with other hackers. A hacker does not believe in vandalizing or maliciously destroying data, or in stealing data of any kind. A "cracker" is a cyber burglar or vandal - an individual or group intent on causing malicious harm to a network or computer, or to steal information beneficial to themselves like passwords, credit card numbers and the like. For ease of use, the term "hacker" is used here to refer to either a hacker or cracker, as someone who enters or tries to enter your computer or network without authorization.
Personal information, names address, financial information, even the account information for your ISP and passwords, in short anything stored on your computer can be obtained by a hacker. A Trojan may record each and every keystroke you make, save the information to a hidden file, and automatically upload it to the hacker's computer.
Purposes of hacking
Greed
12
Power
Publicity
Revenge
Adventure
Desire to access forbidden information
Destructive mindset
Hackers write or use ready-made computer programs to attack the target computer. They possess the desire to destruct and they get the kick out of such destruction. Some hackers hack for personal monetary gains, such as to stealing the credit card information, transferring money from various bank accounts to their own account followed by withdrawal of money. They extort money from some corporate giant threatening him to publish the stolen information, which is critical in nature. Government websites are the hot targets of the hackers due to the press coverage they receive.
2. VIRUS DISSEMINATION: A computer virus is a program that can „infect‟ other legitimate programs by modifying them to include a possibly „evolved‟ copy of itself. Viruses can spread themselves,
without the knowledge or permission of the users, to potentially large numbers of programs on many machines. A computer virus passes from computer to computer like a biological virus passes from person to person. Viruses can also contain instructions that cause damage or annoyance; the combination of possibly damaging code with the ability to spread is what makes viruses a considerable concern. Typical action of a virus 1. Display a message to prompt an action which may set of the virus 2. Erase files 3. Scramble data on a hard disk 4. Cause erratic screen behavior
13
5. Halt the PC 6. Just replicate itself!
3. SPOOFING: Spoofing is an illegal practice of using someone else‟s domain name or email address as
the sender or reply to address on an email note. Spoofing means a hacker logs-in to a computer illegally using a different identity than his own. He is able to do this by having previously obtained actual password. He creates a new identity by fooling the computer into thinking he is the genuine system operator. Hacker then takes control of the system. The process of deception by which an individual or system alters its identity or creates additional identities, thereby causing another person or system to act incorrectly. Getting one computer on a network to pretend to have the identity of another computer, usually one with special access privileges , so as to obtain access to the other computer on the network. If you start getting a large amount of returned mail in your inbox, and we mean large, you may be a victim. Our mail spiked to over 1200 returned emails per day. Another signal is email from people you do not know asking you to remove them from your list. At first we were confused by this, but these notes must be taken seriously. Take a moment and look closely at some of the returned mail that you receive. Is your domain name listed as a sender?
Out of the thousands of returned mail that we received, we saw sender‟s names like
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]. There were permutations of every name possible, but what was most disturbing was that our domain name was used with every name and was listed as the sender and reply to address.
4. ONLINE FRAUD: The net is a boon for people to conduct business effectively, very quickly. It saves businesses a lot of time, money and resources. Unfortunately, the net is also an open
14
invitation to scamsters and fraudsters and online frauds are becoming increasingly rampant. Fraudsters create authentic looking websites that are actually nothing but a spoof. The purpose of these websites is to make the user enter personal information. This information is then used to access business and bank accounts. Fraudsters are increasingly turning to email to generate traffic to these websites. A lot of customers of financial institutions recently received such emails. Such emails usually contain a link to a spoof website and mislead users to enter User ids and passwords on the pretence that security details can be updated, or passwords changed. If you ever get an email containing an embedded link, and a request for you to enter secret details, treat it as suspicious. Do not input any sensitive information that might help provide access to your accounts, even if the page appears legitimate. No reputable company ever sends emails of this type. It is a sad fact of life that there are those who enjoy exploiting the concerns of others. Many emailed warnings about viruses are hoaxes, designed purely to cause concern and disrupt businesses. These warnings may be genuine, so don't take them lightly, but always check the story out by visiting an anti-virus site such as McAfee, Sophos or Symantec before taking any action, including forwarding them to friends and colleagues. These are letters or emails, which inform the recipient that he/ she has won a prize in a lottery. To get the money, the recipient has to reply. After which another mail is received asking for bank details so that the money can be directly transferred. The email also asks for a processing fee/ handling fee. Of course, the money is never transferred in this case, the processing fee is swindled and the banking details are used for other frauds and scams.
15
5. CYBER STALKING: Although there is no universally accepted definition of cyberstalking, the term can be used to refer to the use of the Internet, email, or other electronic communications devices to stalk another person.
Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person‟s home or place of
business, making harassing telephone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person‟s property.
Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a credible threat of violence against the victim; other‟s include threats against the victim‟s immediate family‟ and still others require only that the alleged stalker‟s course of conduct constitute an implied threat.
In many cases, the cyber stalker and the victim had a prior relationship, and the cyber stalking begins when the victim attempts to break off the relationship. However, there also have been many instances of cyber stalking by strangers. Given the enormous amount of personal information available through the Internet, a cyber stalker can easily locate private information about a potential victim with a few mouse clicks or keystrokes.
As the Internet becomes an ever more integral part of our personal and professional lives, stalkers can take advantage of the ease of communications as well as increased access to personal information. In addition, the ease of use and non-confrontational, impersonal, and sometimes anonymous nature of Internet communications may remove disincentives to cyber stalking.
16
6. SOFTWARE PIRACY:
Theft of software through the illegal copying of genuine programs or the counterfeiting and distribution of products intended to pass for the original is termed as termed as software piracy. • Breaking security methods • Cracking programs • Creating a copy and or selling it • Creating a copy and giving it to someone else. • Creating a copy to serve as a backup. • Renting the original software. • Reselling the original software.
There are many ways to pirate software. But it all depends on what security methods are being employed.
Generally: •
Software is made with a key(376347364761374)
•
The key unlocks program
•
The goal of a pirate is how the lock works
•
Then can make there own key
•
Once they make there key they pirated it
Why Do People Do This:
•
For profit
•
To get all there software free
•
Prestige of being the first to hack the program EX. The pirating team called Deviance always likes to be first to break the program.
17
A consumer of pirated software has a lot to lose…
He gets untested software that may have been copied thousands of times over,
potentially containing hard-drive-infecting viruses
No technical support in case of software failure
No warranty protection
No legal right to use the product
7. 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. Eg: the Ziegler case where in a logic bomb was introduced in the bank‟s system, which deducted 10 cents from every
account and deposited it in a particular account. In such crime criminal makes insignificant changes in such a manner that such changes would go unnoticed. Criminal makes such program that deducts small amount like $2.50 per month from the account of all the customer of the bank and deposit the same in his account. In this case no account holder will approach the bank for such small amount but criminal gains huge amount.
8. DENIAL OF SERVICE:
This is an act by the criminal, who floods the bandwidth of the victim‟s network or fills
his e-mail box with spam mail depriving him of the services he is entitled to access or provide. This involves flooding computer resources with more request than it can handle. This causes the resources to crash there by denying authorized users the service offered by the resources. The most common and obvious type of DoS attack occurs when an attacker "floods" a network with information. When you type a URL for a particular website into your
18
browser, you are sending a request to that site's computer server to view the page. The server can only process a certain number of requests at once, so if an attacker overloads the server with requests, it can't process your request. This is a "denial of service" because you can't access that site. An attacker can use spam email messages to launch a similar attack on your email account. Whether you have an email account supplied by your employer or one available through a free service such as Yahoo or Hotmail, you are assigned a specific quota, which limits the amount of data you can have in your account at any given time. By sending many, or large, email messages to the account, an attacker can consume your quota, preventing you from receiving legitimate messa ges.
19
PREVENTION OF CYBER CRIME Prevention is always better than cure. It is always better to take certain precaution while operating the net. A should make them his part of cyber life. Sailesh kumar Zarkar, technical advisor and network security consultant to the Mumbai Police Cyber crime Cell, advocates the 5P mantra for online security: Precaution, Prevention, Protection, Preservation and Perseverance.
PREVENTIVE STEPS FOR INDIVIDUALS:
CHILDREN:
Children should not give out identifying information such as Name, Home address, School Name or Telephone Number in a chat room. They should not give photographs to anyone on the Net without first checking or informing parents guardians. They should not respond to messages, which are suggestive, obscene, belligerent or threatening, and not to arrange a face-to – face meeting without telling parents or guardians. They should remember that people online might not be who they seem.
PARENTS:
Parent should use content filtering software on PC to protect children from gambling, hate speech, drugs and alcohol. There is also software to establish time controls for use of limpets (for example blocking usage after a particulars time) and allowing parents to see which site item children have visited. Use this software to keep track of the type of activities of children.
GENERAL INFORMATION:
1. Don‟t delete harmful communications (emails, chats etc). They will provide vital information about system and address of the person behind these.
20
2. Avoid getting into huge arguments online during chat and discussions with other users. 3. Remember that all other Internet users are strangers; you do not know who you are chatting with. So be careful. 4. Be extremely careful about how you share personal information about yourself online. 5. Choose your chatting nickname carefully so as others. 6. Do not share personal information in public space online; do not give it to strangers. 7. Be extremely cautious about meeting online introduced person. If you choose to meet, do so in a public place along with a friend. 8. If a situation online becomes hostile, log off and if a situation places you in fear, contact local police. 9. Save all communications for evidence. Do not edit it in any way. 10. keep a record of your contacts and inform Law Enforcement Officials.
PREVENTIVE STEPS FOR ORGANISATIONS AND GOVERNMENT
PHYSICAL SECURITY: Physical security is most sensitive component, as prevention
from cyber crime Computer network should be protected from the access of unauthorized persons.
ACCESS CONTROL: Access Control system is generally implemented using firewalls,
which provide a centralized point from which to permit or allow access. Firewalls allow only authorized communications between the internal and external network.
PASSWORD: Proof of identity is an essential component to identify intruder. The use of
passwords in the most common security for network system including servers, routers and firewalls. Mostly all the systems are programmed to ask for username and password for
21
access to computer system. This provides the verification of user. Password should be charged with regular interval of time and it should be alpha numeric and should be difficult to judge.
USING ENCRYPTION: Encryption is able to transform data into a form that makes it
almost impossible to read it without the right key. This key is used to allow controlled access to the information to selected people. The information can be passed on to any one but only the people with the right key are able to see the information. Encryption allows sending confidential documents by E-mail or save confidential information on laptop computers without having to fear that if someone steals it the data will become public. With the right encryption/decryption software installed, it will hook up to mail program and encrypt/decrypt messages automatically without user interaction.
FINDING THE HOLES IN NETWORK: System managers should track down the
holes before the intruders do. Many networking product manufactures are not particularly aware with the information about security holes in their products. So organization should work hard to discover security holes, bugs and weaknesses and report their findings as they are confirmed.
USING INTRUSION ALERT PROGRAMS: As it is important to identify and close
existing security holes, you also need to put some watchdogs into service. There are some intrusion programs, which identify suspicious activity and report so that necessary action is taken. They need to be operating constantly so that all unusual behaviour on network is caught immediately.
22
CONCLUSION
As someone rightly said that “bytes are replacing bullets in the crime world”. The growth of
cyber crime in India, as all over the world, is on the rise and to curb its scope and complexity is the pertinent need today. India ranks fifth in the world for cyber crime, according to a report in 2010 by the U.S.-based Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center.
We do not appreciate the need of the hour till the problem takes a precarious dimension. At that stage it is always very difficult, if not impossible, to deal with that problem. The scenario of Information Technology is also the same. The Cyber laws enforced by the government are good on papers but they need to be practically implemented. Moreover, the only possible step is to make people aware of their rights and duties (to report crime as a collective duty towards the society) and further making the application of the laws more stringent to check crime. Further we all together do not deny that there is a need to bring changes in the Information Technology Act to make it more effective to combat cyber crime.
23
REFERENCES 1.
http://www.pogar.org/publications/ruleoflaw/cybercrime-09e.pdf
2.
http://www.clusif.asso.fr/fr/production/ouvrages/pdf/CyberCrime2004.pdf
3.
http://www.cybercitizenship.org/crime/crime.html
4.
http://www.crime-research.org/analytics/702/
5.
http://indiacyberlab.in/cybercrimes/types.htm
6.
http://www.cyberangels.org/security/hacking.pdf
7.
http://indiacyberlab.in/cybercrimes/virus.htm
8.
http://indiacyberlab.in/cybercrimes/fraud.htm
9.
http://indiacyberlab.in/cybercrimes/denial.htm
10. http://indiacyberlab.in/cybercrimes/stalking.htm
