Types of Crime in Cyberspace

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Table of Contents

Introduction
What is cybercrime?
Types of Cybercrimes
Hacking
Cyber Stalking
Software piracy
Cyber laws and Prevention of Cybercrimes
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Technology is an element of our culture that influence us and that is in turn shaped by people in order to suit their needs. Transformation of any aspect of our technology in turn changes the way we do our socio-economic and political activities. Information Communication Technology (ICT) in particular has undergone great advancement in the recent past and is still undergoing changes thereby altering the way we carry out virtually all of our activities. While there are numerous advantages that accrue from progress of the ICT like improving the speed at which information, news and ideas are transferred from one part of the globe to another and efficiency in various types of jobs, there are equally numerous criminal activities that have evolved alongside progress of the ICT. In other words, crime has also been transformed by ICT so that today we have what is called cyberspace crime that has brought up numerous legal and security challenges with respect to use of computers and the web. The purpose of this essay is to research on three types of crime that is frequently committed on the web and find out what can be done to prevent these crimes. It also seeks to establish whether different countries have different attitudes towards these crimes, whether the current computer and internet related laws are adequate and find out if criminals can be prosecuted across borders.

What is cybercrime?

Since time immemorial all human societies whether big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, sophisticated or primitive have always forbidden activities that are deemed to be contrary to accepted societal values and morals Miller and Jentz (15). Arguably crime has always been a challenge to public order in all societies from the very humble beginnings of humanity. According to Darrow, a crime is.an act outlawed by the law of a country and which is deemed adequately serious to deserve providing punishment for its commission (6). Here it is important to note that it does not necessarily follow that the act is either good or bad; the penalty follows for the breach of the law and not essentially for the moral wrongdoing Darrow (6).Apparently something is not necessarily bad because it is outlawed by the law. There are various types of crime including property crime, white-collar crime, and public order crime like drunkardness, pornography and prostitution among others. Cybercrime is a new form of crime that has evolved alongside advancement in the use of internet and the computers.

Cybercrime can be defined as an act related to the use of the internet and computers that is outlawed by laws that are now commonly known as cyber or computer-related laws that is considered sufficiently serious enough to deserve a punishment for its commission Gupta (5). Cybercrime primarily differs from ordinary crime in the sense that whereas traditional criminals use guns and other ordinary tools cybercriminals use computer technology Brenner (10).Therefore, cybercrime basically correspond to movement of real-world crime into internet and computer world or cyberspace which is basically the tool criminals use to commit old crimes in new ways Brenner (10).

Types of Cybercrimes

There are various types of cybercrimes including hacking, child pornography, cyber stalking, soft ware piracy, virus dissemination, denial of service attack and online frauds such as spoof websites and email security alerts, spoofing, lottery frauds and virus Hoax E-mails Gupta (5). These crimes continue to develop and become more complicated so much so that naive members of the public may not be able to differentiate between lawful actions from illegal cyber acts by individuals who pose as innocent web users. For purposes of this task we shall look at the following three cyber crimes.

Hacking

Hacking has been a common cyberspace crime long before invention of the internet in 1970s.Hacking refers to unlawful intrusion into a computer system without the go-ahead of the computer user or owner Gupta (5). Gupta observes that hacking entails all acts that are aimed at breaking into a computer and/or network without permission of the owner (5).Main purposes behind hacking are greed, destructive mentality, and desire to reach outlawed information, curiosity, vengeance, power and publicity Gupta (5).

According to Gupta (5) hackers write or use readymade computer programs to assault the intended computer. As mentioned above, different hackers tend to have different motives. On one hand some hackers are driven by a malicious desire to destruct out of which they get satisfaction. On the other hand some hackers crack other peoples systems for selfish material gains through acts such as stealing credit card information, transmitting money from victims’ bank accounts to their accounts from where they withdraw the money Gupta (5). There is also a category of hackers who get monetary gains by intimidating giant companies that they are going to publish stolen sensitive information which is significant in nature Gupta (5).Due to the wide media coverage that governments receive their websites are the hottest aims of the hackers around the world. Hackers are usually categorized as crackers and phreaks. Computer security experts and the purists assert that those hackers who break into computer systems should be properly called crackers and those aiming at the phones should be known as “phreaks” Gupta (5).

Cyber Stalking

Stalking in general terms refers to multiple acts of harassment directed towards a victim like destroying the victim’s property, making harassing phone calls, following the victim and leaving written messages or objects on the victims SNW platform Gupta (6).According to Gupta “Cyber stalking refers to the use of the internet, e-mail, or other electronic communications devices to stalk another person” (p. 7). It is a new form of harassment that is rising to shocking levels in big cities like Mumbai in India. Gupta points out that cyber stalking as well as offline may end up in to serious brutal acts such as bodily injury to the victim and that cyber stalking should be taken and viewed seriously (7).

A cyber stalker mails distressing or intimidating messages to their target victim. The purpose of both online and offline stalkers is the wish to control the victim’s life Gupta (8). A typical stalker gathers personal details about their target victims like names, family background, telephone numbers, place of work, daily routine of the target victim, address of residence, dates of birth among others from web resources like the various profiles the victim may have filled up while opening chat or e-mail accounts or signing-up an account with a given website Gupta (8).If the stalker is a friend or an acquaintance of the victim accessing the above enumerated information is easier. This information may be used by the stalker to sabotage the reputation of the victim by for instance posting it on any website associated to sex-services or dating services Gupta (8). By posting the information on such websites the stalker posses as if it is the victim who is posting the information and welcoming people to call the victim on her telephone number for sexual services Gupta (8).

Software piracy

Software piracy refers to theft of software through unlawful copying of legitimate programs or faking and supply of materials planned to pass for the original Gupta (9).Examples of software piracy include end user copying such as friends loaning disks to one another or organizations failing to report the total number of software installations they have made, forging or counterfeiting in terms of extensive doubling-up and delivery of unlawful copied software, illegitimate internet downloads by intrusion and hard disk loading whereby hard disk dealers loads illegally copied software Gupta (9).Users of illegally copied software looses a lot. For example, he or she obtains untested software that may have been copied many times possibly containing hard-drive-infecting viruses, misses technical support in case of software failure, looses warranty protection ,and lacks legal right to use the product Gupta (9).

Cyber laws and Prevention of Cybercrimes

Cyber laws have not fully developed to an extent that they can be said to be adequate to protect innocent and largely uninformed and unsuspecting users of the computers and the internet. For instance Jaishankar argues that current laws are not adequate in the sense that most of them are not set to deal specifically with computer and internet related crimes (315).One main weakness of these laws according to Jaishankar (315) is their wording which he asserts largely addresses traditional crimes committed in real-world situations thereby making them inappropriate to crimes in cyberspace. Jaishankar adds that cyber laws are still developing and that they continue to change (315). In the developed countries where ICT has taken roots cyber laws are relatively developing at a faster pace because of the widespread online crime and victimization of many people particularly women via the so –called Social Net Works. However, presence of adequate laws should not be equated with stamping out and discontinuation of cyber criminal activities or signify knowledge of these laws by members of the public.Therefore, the members of the public must be sensitized adequately on cyber crimes and cyber laws available so that they can be able to identify cyber crimes and help in fighting the menace that has cost many individuals and organizations millions of dollars. The mentality by some members of the public that cyber criminals are not reachable by the long hand of the law should be erased as fast as possible in order to minimize cases of cyber crimes which are a serious stumbling block to meaningful socioeconomic progress now that more and more people are working from the comfort of their homes through the internet. Also it is important to note that where there are no cyber laws an act of omission committed with the aid of computers and internet can be prosecuted and criminal punished in accordance with available traditional laws. In other words, absence of cyber laws does not make an offense committed with aid of a computer and the internet liable to punishment by courts of law.

There are various security methods that organizations, institutions as well as individuals can use to prevent and preserve integrity and security of their computers and networks including system control, computer emergence or computer incident response teams, encryption, computer-use monitoring, early warning systems and biometrics to manage access (Dempsey 261;Bidgoli 335).Gupta recommends that in order to guard against cybercrime organizations and individuals should always follow general guiding principles on cyber safety like avoiding to respond to obscene, belligerent or threatening messages (14).According to Gupta you should never plan to meet a person you have only ‘met’ on the web and that in the event that you arrange such a meeting you should inform someone close where you are going to meet the stranger (15).That person should keep in contact with you via the phone for instance to monitor you safety and wellbeing while with the stranger. You can as well be accompanied by someone close if the stranger you are meeting does not object the idea and if he or she does someone close can be in the vicinity of the meeting venue. Do not take chances with your safety while meeting a stranger for whatever reason Gupta (15). You should not give out personal identification information like you name, telephone number or home address in a chat room as well as important information such as your gender and age should never be revealed to anyone Gupta (15). Avoid mailing your photograph to anyone on the net unless you know the person well enough Gupta (15). Uphold email safety by avoiding inputting any private information that might help make available access to your bank accounts. We should use firewalls, avoid opening to unknown email attachments, use the latest versions of antivirus programs, avoid running programs of unknown origins, turn off your computer or disconnect from the net work when not in use among many other protection measures Gupta (16).

Conclusion

To sum up, different countries have different attitudes towards cybercrime. However, criminal acts committed with the aid of the computers and web generally underpins contravention of the law everywhere because the computer is simply a tool used to commit a crime that otherwise could be committed without a computer. These differences depend on levels of development in terms of ICT and the extent in usage of computers. For instance, in China cyberspace crime are largely identified with males Fisher and Lab (251).At the moment international cyberspace laws are poorly developed thus making criminal prosecutions across borders problematic.

Hess notes that to be prosecuted across the borders an act committed through the aid of the computers and the internet must constitute a crime in the two countries involved (30). At the moment this is not the case at the international levels despite the heightened rate of globalization which ironically has been accelerated by use of computers and the internet. This however does not mean there are absolutely no legal frameworks up on which criminals can be sued because after all a crime is a crime whether online or offline or that there is nothing that can be done to international cybercriminals miller and Gentz (216).Hess (30) suggests that even though national legal traditions must be respected in accordance to principle of general international laws, current needs for well developed and adequate cyber laws necessitates the need for countries to describe crimes in cyber space in a similar way (30).

Works Cited

Bidgoli, Hossein. The Internet encyclopedia, Volume 2. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 2004.

Brenner, Susan W. Cybercrime: criminal threats from cyberspace. New York, NY: ABC-CLIO, 2010.

Darrow, Clarence. Crime: Its Cause and Treatment. Teddington, Middlesex: Echo Library, 2007.

Dempsey, John S. Introduction to Private Security. New York, NY: Cengage Learning, 2007.

Fisher, Bonnie S.and Lab, Steven P. Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention, Volume 1. New York, NY: SAGE, 2010.

Gupta, Gajendra. Advanced Java. Daryaganj, New Delhi: Laxmi Publications, 2006.

Hess, Patrick. Cyber terrorism and information war. New Delhi: PVT. LTD. 2002.

Jaishankar K. Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behavior. Georgia, Atlanta: CRC press, 2011.

Miller, Roger LeRoy and Jentz, Gaylord A. Fundamentals of Business Law: Excerpted Cases. New York, NY: Cengage Learning, 2009.

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