Cyber Crimes: Types and Preventive Measures

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In the era of the cyber world as the usage of computers became more popular, there was expansion in the growth of technology as well, and the term ‘Cyber’ became more familiar to the people. The evolution of Information Technology (IT) gave birth to cyberspace alongwith cyber crimes at the domestic and international level as well. The word “Crime” means “A legal wrong that can be followed by criminal proceedings which may result into punishment” and the word Cyber Crime means “unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or target or both”.

The Concept of Cyber Law

When the Internet was developed, the founding fathers of the Internet hardly had any inclination that the Internet could transform itself into a platform which could be used for criminal activities. Today, there are many disturbing things happening in cyberspace. Due to 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.

Cyberlaw is important because it touches almost all aspects of transactions and activities on and concerning the Internet, the World Wide Web and Cyberspace. Initially it may seem that Cyberlaws is a very technical field and that it does not have any bearing to most activities in Cyberspace. But the actual truth is that nothing could be further than the truth. Whether we realize it or not, every action and every reaction in Cyberspace has some legal and Cyber legal perspectives.

In India, Cyber Law is mostly covered by the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and over the due course of time, The IT Act 2000 has been attempting to change outdated laws and provides ways to deal with cyber crimes. The Act offers the much-needed legal framework so that information is not denied legal effect, validity or enforceability, solely on the ground that it is in the form of electronic records.

In view of the growth in transactions and communications carried out through electronic records, the Act seeks to empower government departments to accept filing, creating and retention of official documents in the digital format. The Act has also proposed a legal framework for the authentication and origin of electronic records / communications through digital signature. Thus, the advantages of Cyber Laws in India are:

1. Making Emails a valid and legal form of communication for E-Commerce and which can be duly produced and approved in a court of law
2. Companies shall now be able to carry out electronic commerce using the legal infrastructure provided by the Act
3. Digital signatures have been given legal validity and sanction in the Act
4. The Act throws open the doors for the entry of corporate companies in the business of being Certifying Authorities for issuing Digital Signatures Certificates
5. The Act now allows the Government to issue notification on the web thus heralding e-governance
6. The Act enables the companies to file any form, application or any other document with any office, authority, body or agency owned or controlled by the appropriate Government in electronic form by means of such electronic form as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government
7. The IT Act also addresses the important issues of security, which are so critical to the success of electronic transactions. The Act has given a legal definition to the concept of secure digital signatures that would be required to have been passed through a system of a security procedure, as stipulated by the Government at a later date
8. Under the IT Act, 2000, it shall now be possible for corporates to have a statutory remedy in case if anyone breaks into their computer systems or network and causes loss

Fraud in the world of Internet ie. Internet Fraud

Internet fraud is committed in several ways. The FBI and police agencies worldwide have people assigned to combat this type of fraud; according to figures from the FBI, U.S. companies’ losses due to Internet fraud in 2003 surpassed US$500 million. In some cases, fictitious merchants advertise goods for very low prices and never deliver. However, that type of fraud is minuscule compared to criminals using stolen credit card information to buy goods and services.

The Internet serves as an excellent tool for investors, allowing them to easily and inexpensively research investment opportunities. But the Internet is also an excellent tool for people committing frauds.

There are various methods in which Fraud can be committed. They are:

1. Identity Theft.

It can be further divided into two parts. They are:

a. Stolen Credit Cards: Most Internet fraud is done through the use of stolen credit card information which is obtained in many ways, the simplest being copying information from retailers, either online or offline. There have been many cases of crackers obtaining huge quantities of credit card information from companies’ databases. There have been cases of employees of companies that deal with millions of customers in which they were selling the credit card information to criminals.Despite the claims of the credit card industry and various merchants, using credit cards for online purchases can be insecure and carry a certain risk. Even so called “secure transactions” are not fully secure, since the information needs to be decrypted to plain text in order to process it. This is one of the points where credit card information is typically stolen.

b. Getting Wire Transfer Information: Some fraudsters approach merchants asking them for large quotes. After they quickly accept the merchant’s quote, they ask for wire transfer information to send payment. Immediately, they use online check issuing systems as “Qchex” that require nothing but a working email, to produce checks that they use to pay other merchants or simply send associates to cash them.

2. Purchase Scams

It can be further divided into two parts. They are:

a. Direct Solicitations: The most straightforward type of purchase scam is a buyer in another country approaching many merchants through spamming them and directly asking them if they can ship to them using credit cards to pay.

b. Re- Shippers: Reshipping scams trick individuals or small businesses into shipping goods to countries with weak legal systems. The goods are generally paid for with stolen or fake credit cards.

3. Business Scams.

Fraudulent schemes often use the Internet to advertise purported business opportunities that will allow individuals to earn thousands of dollars a month in “work-at-home” ventures. These schemes typically require the individuals to pay either a small or large amount of money, but fail to deliver the materials or information that would be needed to make the work-at-home opportunity a potentially viable business.

4. Phishing

“Phishing” is the act of attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message. It is a form of social engineering attack.Phishing has been widely used by fraudsters using spam messages masquerading as large banks or PayPal. These fraudsters can copy the code and graphics from legitimate websites and use them on their own sites to create legitimate-looking scam web pages. They can also link to the graphics on the legitimate sites to use on their own scam site. These pages are so well done that most people cannot tell that they have navigated to a scam site.

5. Pharming

Pharming is the exploitation of a vulnerability in the DNS server software that allows a hacker to acquire the domain name for a site, and to redirect that website’s traffic to another web site. DNS servers are the machines responsible for resolving internet names into their real addresses — the “signposts” of the internet.

Protection against Cybercrimes

Now that you are aware of the types of cyber threats looming near you, how can you protect yourself against them? Here are a few tips:

1. Use updates anti-virus softwares and firewalls
2. If you receive emails from unknown sources that contain any form of attachment or link to click, don’t open such type of emails
3. Make sure that the operating system is up to date including critical security updates & patches
4. Take proper precautions when using public wifi, such as avoiding of making any monetary transactions
5. Try keeping a complicated password and keep changing the password regularly
6. Pay attention to the web camera LED indicators and make sure that they are off when you are not using them
7. Do not share your private information, such as house address, credit/debit card numbers, etc. to unknown people on the internet

Conclusion

So, remember the next time you are browsing on the internet, to take proper precautions to prevent being the next victim of cyber crime.