An Impose To Create Awareness Among Youth

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract:

Cyber crime is emerging as a serious threat. Worldwide governments, police departments and intelligence units have started to react. One of the many approaches to enable students and other peoples to protect themselves from the ever-increasing amount and range of cybercrime. This is relevant to students studying different aspects of undergraduate and postgraduate computing. This paper discusses the views of young generation on the potential risks on other relevant issues related cyber crime. The peoples may specialise in different aspects of computing from business information systems, through software development to networking. But we are just focusing on really they are aware about "what is cyber crime?" and its consequences. In this research paper we are discussing about who are cyber criminals, impact of cyber crime, security training.

Keywords: Cybercrime, networking, software, security, information, cyber criminals.

INTRODUCTION

The Information Technology Act, 2000, does not define the term 'cyber crime’. Cyber crime can generally defined as a criminal activity in which information technology systems are the means used for the commission of the crime.

Based on the United Nations General Assembly resolution of January 30, 1997, the Government of India passed the Information Technology Act 2000 (Act No.21 of 2000) and notified it on October 17, 2000. The Information Technology Act, 2000, is the first step taken by the Government of India towards promoting the growth of the E-commerce and it was enacted with a view to provide legal recognition to

E-commerce and e-transactions, to facilitate E-governance and prevent computer-based crimes. It is a first historical step. However, the rapid increase in the use of Internet has led to a spate in crime like child pornography, cyber terrorism, publishing sexually explicit content in electronic form. The need for a comprehensive amendment was consistently felt and after sufficient debate and much deliberation, the I.T. Amendment Act 2008 was passed. The ITAA 2008 got the President’s assent in February 2009 and was notified with effect from 27.10.2009. The new IT Amendment Act 2008 has brought a large number of cyber crimes under the ambit of the law. Some of the significant points in the Amendment Act include introduction of corporate responsibility for data protection with the concept of ‘reasonable security practices’ (Sec.43A), recognition of Computer Emergency Response Team – India (CERT-In) as the national nodal agency empowered to monitor and even block web-sites under specific circumstances, introduction of technological neutrality replacing digital signatures with electronic signatures etc. Besides, the CERT-In will also assist members of the Indian Community in implementing proactive measures to reduce the risks of computer security incidents [1].

The IT Act provides legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange, and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as "electronic commerce", involving the use of alternatives to paper-based methods of communication and storage of information. The IT Act facilitates electronic filing of documents with the Government agencies.

Figure 1: Growth in Cyber Crime complaints

The Figure 1 shows that, the increasing complaints of complaints.

DEFINITION

The term 'cyber crime' has not been defined in any Statute or Act. The Oxford Reference Online defines 'cyber crime' as crime committed over the Internet [2].

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines 'cyber crime' as any crime that is committed by means of special knowledge or expert use of computer technology. So what exactly is Cyber Crime? Cyber Crime could reasonably include a wide variety of criminal offences and activities.

A generalized definition of cyber crime may be "unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or target or both"[2].

CBI Manual defines cyber crime as:

(i) Crimes committed by using computers as a means, including conventional crimes.

(ii) Crimes in which computers are targets.

WHO ARE CYBER CRIMINALS?

The cyber criminals constitute of various groups/category. This division may justify on the basis of the object that they have in their mind. The following are the category of cyber criminals-

1. Children and adolescents between the age group of 6-18 years: The simple reason for this type of committing crime behavior pattern in children is seen mostly due to the curiousness to know and explore the things. Further the reasons may be psychological even [1].

2. Organized hackers- These kinds of hackers are mostly organized together to fulfill certain objective. The reason may be to fulfill their political bias, fundamentalism, etc [1].

E.g. 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 fulfill their political objectives [1].

3. Professional hackers / crackers their work of hackers is motivated by the color 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 van employed to crack the system of the employer basically as a measure to make it safer by detecting the loopholes [2].

4. Discontented employees- This group includes 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 [3].

IMPACTS OF CYBER-CRIME

From the Figure 1, the approximate age between 18 to 30 years constituted about 88 percent of their customers whilst the remaining 12 percent is shared among the ages of 31-35 and above 35 years. Suspects are the youth aged between 21-35 totaling 85 percent.

Figure 2: Age Distribution of Internet Users [3]

From the Figure 1, the approximate age between 18 to 30 years constituted about 88 percent of their customers whilst the remaining 12 percent is shared among the ages of 31-35 and above 35 years. Suspects are the youth aged between 21-35 totaling 85 percent.

Norton by Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) today released the findings of its annual Norton Cybercrime Report, one of the world’s largest consumer cybercrime studies. The study is aimed at understanding how cybercrime affects consumers, and how the adoption and evolution of new technologies impacts people’s security. With findings based on self-reported experiences of more than 13,000 adults across 24 countries, the 2012 edition of the Norton Cybercrime Report calculates the direct costs associated with global consumer cybercrime at US $110 billion over the past twelve months [4].

Figure 1: Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Report 2008 [12].

Every second, 18 adults become a victim of cybercrime, resulting in more than one-and-a-half million cybercrime victims each day on a global level. With losses totaling an average of US $197 per victim across the world in direct financial costs, cybercrime costs consumers more than a week’s worth of nutritious food necessities for a family of four [4].

So due to lack of awareness among young generation following impacts which we are suffering from those are as follows:

Case A. Impact on finance:

With white-collar crime almost doubling from 2009, financial fraud by insiders remains the single greatest fear of Indian companies, according to the results of a survey by audit and consulting firm KPMG. Of the 1,000 companies covered in the survey, 87% said they had incurred losses of at least Rs10 lakh due to fraud in 2009.The previous survey, carried out in 2008, had only 47% complaining on this count. At least 75% of Indian firms said instances of fraud had increased over the past two years.

A lack of objective and independent internal audits, inadequate overseeing of senior management’s activities by the audit committee, and weak regulatory environment were pinpointed as culprits for the spike in financial statement frauds. The 10th biennial India Fraud Survey Report 2010reveals that 81% of the companies surveyed felt that financial statement fraud was the biggest threat in India, with at least 60% of them saying inadequate enforcement of regulations had increased such fraud [5].

Case study: Sathyam Computers Case (2008) Mr.Ramalinga Raju, the former Chairman and Chief Executive had admitted that he had manipulated the balance sheet for several years to show huge inflated profits and fictitious assets. The estimated fraud was

Rs.700 Crore billion, one of the highest committed frauds since 1996. Mr. Ramalinga Raju is in Jail for committing fraud, cheating and forgery. The article dated Feb 17th,Dec 2008 by Devanshu Dutta in the

Newspaper, quotes as follows-"The man who nailed the Bombay Scam 1864 was Khurshed. F. Nariman who has the Honour of point and a road named after him". Will this quote prove its stance in the near future? [5]

Case B. Impact on politics:

Case study: A teenager was detained for questioning at Palghar in Thane district for posting "vulgar" comments against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and the people of Maharashtra on Facebook.

Police said "We have received a complaint against a person that he posted some objectionable comments against Raj Thackeray on Facebook. We are questioning him as we do not want to repeat the same mistakes committed a few days ago," an officer at Palghar police station told PTI, speaking on condition of anonymity. The boy has not been charged and police have sought legal opinion [6].

Case C. Cyber Cafes:

Emails Cyber cafes have emerged as hot spots for cyber crimes. Even terrorists prefer the anonymity of a cyber cafe to communicate with each other. The mushrooming of cyber cafes in the city, which provide the secrecy through cabins constructed for users, has also made the porn literature easily accessible to the people visiting them [7].

Case studies: [Chandigarh Tribune Monday May 28 2001 ] A 23- year-old person from Tiruchi was arrested by the City Cyber Crime police on Thursday on charges of sending an e-mail threat to the Chief Minister and his family.

[The Hindu Friday Aug 10 2007] In another case, the police team investigating the e-mail threat on the lives of the President and the Prime Minister has prepared a sketch of the suspect, who had sent the email from a cyber cafe in the city. [The Hindu, Sunday Ocober29/2006].

Case D. On Social Networking Sites:

The majority agreed that there were risks associated with declaring too much personal data, on such sites, the researchers revealed, and potential cyber-stalking was a concern for some. However, less than half of the students surveyed thought they were personally at risk but the pages of their friends were riskier than their own.

Social networking sites really do pose a cybercrime risk. With just your name, birthday and a few personal facts gleaned from such a site someone could impersonate you, dupe an employee at a bank, gain additional info and eventually build up quite an identity – in your name [8, 9].

Case study: Rashmi: 22 years, final year, mass communication:

About a year ago, her orkut profile was hacked by some-body and that person started sending obscene scraps to all her friends in the list. She did not know about it first and later one of her friends told her that she was receiving obscene scraps from her profile. She was shocked and immediately after going home she tried logging into her profile and was unable to do so. She then realized that her profile has been hacked and she immediately created a new account and scrapped all her friends about the incident and asked them to report abuse. After many abuse reports were filed, the profile was removed by Orkut. She did not know about the cyber laws when the incident happened but now she says she is well aware of it. As a result, she stopped joining too many communities and stopped posting any personal information in her profile. She suggests the same to the girls who want to safeguard themselves on Orkut [10].

Case E. Child Pornography:

The Internet is being highly used by its abusers to reach and abuse children sexually, worldwide. The internet is very fast becoming a household commodity in India. Its explosion has made the children a viable victim to the cyber crime. As more homes have access to internet, more children would be using the internet and more are the chances of falling victim to the aggression of pedophiles.

The easy access to the pornographic contents readily and freely available over the internet lowers the inhibitions of the children. Pedophiles lure the children by distributing pornographic material, and then they try to meet them for sex or to take their nude photographs including their engagement in sexual positions. Sometimes Pedophiles contact children in the chat rooms posing as teenagers or a child of similar age, and then they start becoming friendlier with them and win their confidence. Then slowly pedophiles start sexual chat to help children shed their inhibitions about sex and then call them out for personal interaction. Then starts actual exploitation of the children by offering them some money or falsely promising them good opportunities in life. The pedophiles then sexually exploit the children either by using them as sexual objects or by taking their pornographic pictures in order to sell those over the internet [11].

In case of cyber world, most of the parents do not themselves know about the basics in internet and dangers posed by various services offered over the internet. Hence the children are left unprotected in the cyber world. Pedophiles take advantage of this situation and lure the children, who are not advised by their parents or by their teachers about what is wrong and what is right for them while browsing the internet [11, 12].

FINDINGS

According to impact of the cyber crime as we discussed in previous sessions we realized that there is a need to give proper training to young generation. Security training for young generation.

Case A(In finance sector):

Improve independent internal audits

Install and maintain security measures

Conduct regular scans to detect vulnerabilities, Malware / Trojans and other weaknesses

Always keep a watch on the sites that children’s are accessing to prevent any kind of harassment or depravation in children.

Case B(For Politicians):

Use strong password means it must be combination alphabets, numbers and symbols.

Do not share personal information. Disconnect from internet when not in use.

Avoid online banking, shopping, entering

credit card details, etc if the network is not Properly secured.

Always delete spam emails immediately and

empty the trash box to prevent accidental clicking on the same link.

Not to believe everything you read online

Case C (For Cyber Cafe owners):

Maintain a register for Identity of the visitor.

The Identity of the visitor/User shall be established through Voter card, identity card, ration card, driving license, passport or PAN card.

If any activity of the visitor is suspicious the owner of the cybercafé should inform to the nearby police station.

Case D(While using Social Networking Sites):

Configure security & privacy settings of the applications such as browsers, email software using strong security settings.

Make all your social network profiles private or exclusive so that others have to be a member to view your profile or friends list.

Do not share personal information in public spaces anywhere online, nor give it to strangers, including in email or chat rooms.

Not to believe everything you read online.

Frequently change your password.

Case E(General tips for parents and children’s):

Be aware about fake accounts.

Keep your home network secured

Befriend of your child/teen.

Talk to your kids regularly about how to use technology.

Advise your kids never to share passwords.

General tips:

Do not send sensitive business files to personal email addresses.

Have suspicious/malicious activity reported to security personnel immediately.

Always avoid sending any photograph online particularly to strangers and chat friends as there have been incidents of misuse of the photographs.

Always use latest and updated antivirus software to guard against virus attacks.

Never send your credit card number to any site that is not secured, to guard against frauds.

It is better to use a security program that gives control over the cookies and send information back to the site as leaving the cookies unguarded might prove fatal.

Use of firewalls may be beneficial.

CONCLUSION

This paper put eye not only on the awareness among youth and understanding of the cyber crimes but also explains the impacts over the different levels of the society. It is necessary to raise awareness of cybercrime and to minimize its effect by ensuring that all young generation have a wide and current knowledge. It is then hoped that this will ensure that not only the students but also their friends, relatives and future employers would also gain from this knowledge. It is hoped that this should help them to protect their computer systems from future cyber attacks. This will help to the community to secure all the online information critical organizations which are not safe due to such cyber crimes. The understanding of the behavior of cyber criminals and impacts of cyber crimes on society will help to find out the sufficient means to overcome the situation. Give more training of How to prevent against Cyber Crime to young generation mostly between 16-30 years will reduce cyber crime.

The way to overcome these crimes can broadly be classified into three categories: Cyber Laws (referred as Cyber laws), Education and Policy making. All the above ways to handle cyber crimes either are having very less significant work or having nothing in many of the countries. This lack of work requires to improve the existing work or to set new paradigms for controlling the cyber attacks.