Cyber Crime Essay

Chapter I Introduction When did this new and insidious variety of crime actually come into being? One may say that the concept of the computer came with the invention of the first abacus, hence it can be said that â€Å"cybercrime†. It has been around ever since people used calculating machines for wrong purposes. However, cybercrime has shown itself as a serious threat to society for less than a decade. Before we plunge into the world of cybercrime, it is necessary to have some basic understanding of how the cyber world evolved. In 1981 Ian Murphy, aka â€Å"Captain Zap†, became first felon convicted of a computer crime. Murphy broke into AT&T’s computers and changed the billing clock so that people receive discounted rates during normal business hours, Ian Murphy was greeted with 1,000 hours of community service and 21/2 years probation. Cybercrime refers to any crime that involves a  computer  and a  network, where the computers may or may not have played an instrumental part in the commission of a  crime. Net crime  refers, more precisely, to criminal exploitation of the  Internet. Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding  hacking,  copyright infringement, child pornography, and  child grooming. There are also problems of  privacy  when  confidential  information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise. On the global level, both governments and non-state actors continue to grow in importance, with the ability to engage in such activities as  espionage,  financial theft, and other cross-border crimes sometimes referred to as  cyber warfare. The international legal system is attempting to hold actors accountable for their actions, with the  International Criminal Court  among the few addressing this threat. Cyber crime is a growing threat to our societies today. EU member states suffer daily thousands of attacks against their information systems. Viruses facilitating stealing information from personal computers, spam, identity theft, and child pornography are increasingly widespread. According to recent reports, images of sexually abused children available on-line quadrupled in the last five years and half of all internet crime involves the production, distribution and sale of child pornography. The European Commission has cooperated closely with the French Presidency and the Member States in the elaboration of a series of practical measures to fight cyber crime. The new strategy recommends reinforcing partnership between the police and the private sector by better knowledge-sharing on investigation methods and trends in cyber crime. It also encourages both parties to respond quickly to information requests, resort to remote searches, cyber patrols for online tracking of criminals and joint investigations across borders. The strategy also calls for the setting up of an alert platform in the short term, where reports on crime committed on the Internet, such as posting of illegal content, in EU member states would be pooled for cross-checking by Europol. The Commission earmarked 300,000 euro for Europol to implement the platform. Vice-President Jacques Barrot highlighted the importance of this strategy by saying â€Å"The strategy encourages the much needed operational cooperation and Information exchange between the Member States. It gives a shared responsibility to the Commission, the Member States and other stakeholders to introduce the different measures. If the strategy is to make the fight against cyber crime more efficient, all stakeholders have to be fully committed to its implementation. We are ready to support them, also financially, in their efforts. † Cybercrimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography and indecent exposure, constitutes one of the most important Cybercrimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity can hardly be amplified. This is one Cybercrime which threatens to undermine the growth of he younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled. A minor girl in Ahmadabad was lured to a private place through cyber chat by a man, who, along with his friends, attempted to gang rape her. As some passersby heard her cry, she was rescued. Another example wherein the damage was not done to a person but to the masses is the case of the Melissa virus. The Melissa virus fi rst appeared on the internet in March of 1999. It spread rapidly throughout computer systems in the United States and Europe. It is estimated that the virus caused 80 million dollars in damages to computers worldwide. In the United States alone, the virus made its way through 1. 2 million computers in one-fifth of the country’s largest businesses. David Smith pleaded guilty on Dec. 9, 1999 to state and federal charges associated with his creation of the Melissa virus. There are numerous examples of such computer viruses few of them being â€Å"Melissa† and â€Å"love bug†. Cyber harassment is a distinct Cybercrime. Various kinds of harassment can and do occur in cyberspace, or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious, or other. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also guilty of cybercrimes. Cyber harassment as a crime also brings us to another related area of violation of privacy of citizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a Cybercrime of a grave nature. No one likes any other person invading the invaluable and extremely touchy area of his or her own privacy which the medium of internet grants to the citizen. The second category of Cyber-crimes is that of Cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes include computer vandalism (destruction of others’ property), transmission of harmful programmers. A Mumbai-based upstart engineering company lost a say and much money in the business when the rival company, an industry major, stole the technical database from their computers with the help of a corporate cyber spy. ——————————————– [ 2 ]. History of Cyber Crime [ 3 ]. Definition of Cyber Crime http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Computer_crime [ 4 ]. Fight against Cyber Crime Vice-President Jacques Barrot [ 5 ]. Cyber crime against our society today