The term ‘cyber crime’ is a misnomer. This term has nowhere been defined in any statute /Act passed or enacted by the Indian Parliament. The concept of cyber crime is not radically different from the concept of conventional crime. Both include conduct whether act or omission, which cause breach of rules of law and counterbalanced by the sanction of the state.
Reasons for Cyber Crime
A Resistive Touch Screen panel comprises several layers, the most
important of which are two thin, transparent electrically-resistive
layers separated by a thin space.
These layers face each other, with a thin gap between. One
resistive layer is a coating on the underside of the top surface of the
screen. Just beneath it is a similar resistive layer on top of its
substrate. One layer has conductive connections along its sides, the
other along top and bottom.
Capacitive:
Hart in his work “ The Concept of Law” has said
‘human beings are vulnerable so rule of law is required to protect
them’. Applying this to the cyberspace we may say that computers are
vulnerable so rule of law is required to protect and safeguard them
against cyber crime. The reasons for the vulnerability of computers may
be said to be:
a) 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.
b) 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.
c) 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.
d) 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.
e) 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.
Mode and Manner of Committing Cybercrime:
Unauthorized access to computer systems or networks / Hacking-
This kind of offence is normally referred as hacking in the generic
sense. However the framers of the information technology act 2000 have
no where used this term so to avoid any confusion we would not
interchangeably use the word hacking for ‘unauthorized access’ as the
latter has wide connotation.
Theft of information contained in electronic form-
This includes information stored in computer hard disks, removable
storage media etc. Theft may be either by appropriating the data
physically or by tampering them through the virtual medium.
Email bombing-
This kind of activity refers to sending large numbers of mail to
the victim, which may be an individual or a company or even mail servers
there by ultimately resulting into crashing.
Data diddling-
This kind of an attack involves altering raw data just before a
computer processes it and then changing it back after the processing is
completed. The electricity board faced similar problem of data diddling
while the department was being computerised.
Salami attacks-
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. E.g. the Ziegler case wherein
a logic bomb was introduced in the bank’s system, which deducted 10
cents from every account and deposited it in a particular account.
Denial of Service attack-
The computer of the victim is flooded with more requests than it
can handle which cause it to crash. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
attack is also a type of denial of service attack, in which the
offenders are wide in number and widespread. E.g. Amazon, Yahoo.
Virus / worm attacks-
Viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or a file
and then circulate themselves to other files and to other computers on a
network. They usually affect the data on a computer, either by altering
or deleting it. Worms, unlike viruses do not need the host to attach
themselves to. They merely make functional copies of themselves and do
this repeatedly till they eat up all the available space on a computer's
memory. E.g. love bug virus, which affected at least 5 % of the
computers of the globe. The losses were accounted to be $ 10 million.
The world's most famous worm was the Internet worm let loose on the
Internet by Robert Morris sometime in 1988. Almost brought development
of Internet to a complete halt.
Logic bombs-
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).
Trojan attacks-
This term has its origin in the word ‘Trojan horse’. In software
field this means an unauthorized programme, which passively gains
control over another’s system by representing itself as an authorised
programme. The most common form of installing a Trojan is through
e-mail. E.g. 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.
Internet time thefts-
Normally in these kinds of thefts the Internet surfing hours of the
victim are used up by another person. This is done by gaining access to
the login ID and the password. E.g. Colonel Bajwa’s case- the Internet
hours were used up by any other person. This was perhaps one of the
first reported cases related to cyber crime in India. However this case
made the police infamous as to their lack of understanding of the nature
of cyber crime.
Web jacking-
This term is derived from the term hi jacking. In these kinds of
offences the hacker gains access and control over the web site of
another. He may even mutilate or change the information on the site.
This may be done for fulfilling political objectives or for money. E.g.
recently the site of MIT (Ministry of Information Technology) was hacked
by the Pakistani hackers and some obscene matter was placed therein.
Further the site of Bombay crime branch was also web jacked. Another
case of web jacking is that of the ‘gold fish’ case. In this case the
site was hacked and the information pertaining to gold fish was changed.
Further a ransom of US $ 1 million was demanded as ransom. Thus web
jacking is a process where by control over the site of another is made
backed by some consideration for it.
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