Cyber crime
Cyber Crimes
Cyber crimes are any crimes that involve a computer and a network. In some cases, the computer may have been used in order to commit the crime, and in other cases, the computer may have been the target of the crime.
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Computer Viruses
Computer viruses are computer programs that, when opened, put copies of themselves into other computers' hard drives without the users' consent. Creating a computer virus and disseminating it is a cyber crime. The virus may steal disk space, access personal information, ruin data on the computer or send information out to the other computer user's personal contacts.
The most common way for a virus to infect a computer is by way of an email attachment. An example would be if you received an email with an attachment. You open this attachment, and the virus immediately spreads through your computer system. In some cases, if the virus is opened by a computer on a system network, such as your place of employment, the virus can immediately be spread throughout the network without needing to be sent via email.
There are numerous reasons that a person would create a virus to send out to another computer or computers. It may be to steal information or money, to sabotage that system or to demonstrate the flaws that the other computer system has. In some cases these viruses are able to be removed from the user's computer system, and in some cases they are not. Therefore, it is easy for us to understand how these viruses cause significant financial harm every year. The punishment for those who damage or gain unauthorized access to a protected computer can be prison time and the repayment of financial losses.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or electronics to stalk or harass an individual, an organization or a specific group. There are many ways in which cyberstalking becomes a cyber crime. Cyberstalking can include monitoring someone's activity realtime, or while on the computer or device in the current moment, or while they are offline, or not on the computer or electronic device. Cyberstalking becomes a crime because of the repeated threatening, harassing or monitoring of someone with whom the stalker has, or no longer has, a relationship.
Cyberstalking can include harassment of the victim, the obtaining of financial information of the victim or threatening the victim in order to frighten them. An example of cyberstalking would be to put a recording or monitoring device on a victim's computer or smartphone in order to save every keystroke they make so that the stalker can obtain information. Another example would be repeatedly posting derogatory or personal information about a victim on web pages or social media despite being warned not to do so. Cyberstalking has the potential punishment of a prison sentence.
Identity Theft
Identity theft is a form of stealing someone's personal information and pretending to be that person in order to obtain financial resources or other benefits in that person's name without their consent. Identity theft is considered a cyber crime. The personal information stolen can include the person's name, social security number, birth date or credit card numbers. This stolen information is then used to obtain new credit cards, access bank accounts or obtain other benefits, such as a driver's license.
Identity theft is completed by using breaches in the victim's browser security or through spyware, which is software placed unknowingly on a person's computer in order to obtain information. Identity theft can also be performed by hacking into computer networks to obtain personal data - sometimes in large amounts. For example, an individual could get your password and obtain your personal information that you entered into Amazon.com when you made a purchase in the past.He could use your birth date and social security number in order to apply for a new driver's license in your name with his picture on it!identify theft is punished by a prison sanction.
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Documented cases
- One of the highest profiled banking computer crime occurred during a course of three years beginning in 1970. The chief teller at the Park Avenue branch of New York's Union Dime Savings Bank embezzled over $1.5 million from hundreds of accounts.
- A hacking group called MOD (Masters of Deception), allegedly stole passwords and technical data from Pacific Bell, Nynex, and other telephone companies as well as several big credit agencies and two major universities. The damage caused was extensive, one company, Southwestern Bell suffered losses of $370,000 alone.
- In 1983, a nineteen-year-old UCLA student used his PC to break into a Defense Department international communications system.
- Between 1995 and 1998 the Newscorp satellite pay to view encrypted SKY-TV service was hacked several times during an ongoing technological arms race between a pan-European hacking group and Newscorp. The original motivation of the hackers was to watch Star Trek re-runs in Germany; which was something which Newscorp did not have the copyright to allow.
- On 26 March 1999, the Melissa worm infected a document on a victim's computer, then automatically sent that document and a copy of the virus spread via e-mail to other people.
- In February 2000, an individual going by the alias of MafiaBoy began a series denial-of-service attacks against high-profile websites, including Yahoo!, Amazon.com, Dell, Inc., E*TRADE, eBay, and CNN. About fifty computers at Stanford University, and also computers at the University of California at Santa Barbara, were amongst the zombie computers sending pings in DDoS attacks. On 3 August 2000, Canadian federal prosecutors charged MafiaBoy with 54 counts of illegal access to computers, plus a total of ten counts of mischief to data for his attacks.
- The Russian Business Network (RBN) was registered as an internet site in 2006. Initially, much of its activity was legitimate. But apparently the founders soon discovered that it was more profitable to host illegitimate activities and started hiring its services to criminals. The RBN has been described by VeriSign as "the baddest of the bad". It offers web hosting services and internet access to all kinds of criminal and objectionable activities, with an individual activities earning up to $150 million in one year. It specialized in and in some cases monopolized personal identity theft for resale. It is the originator of MPack and an alleged operator of the now defunct Storm botnet.
- On 2 March 2010, Spanish investigators arrested 3[clarification needed] in infection of over 13 million computers around the world. The "botnet" of infected computers included PCs inside more than half of the Fortune 1000 companies and more than 40 major banks, according to investigators.
- In August 2010 the international investigation Operation Delego, operating under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security, shut down the international pedophile ring Dreamboard. The website had approximately 600 members, and may have distributed up to 123 terabytes of child pornography (roughly equivalent to 16,000 DVDs). To date this is the single largest U.S. prosecution of an international child pornography ring; 52 arrests were made worldwide.
- In January 2012 Zappos.com experienced a security breach after as many as 24 million customers' credit card numbers, personal information, billing and shipping addresses had been compromised.
- In June 2012 LinkedIn and eHarmony were attacked, compromising 65 million password hashes. 30,000 passwords were cracked and 1.5 million EHarmony passwords were posted online.
- December 2012 Wells Fargo website experienced a denial of service attack. Potentially compromising 70 million customers and 8.5 million active viewers. Other banks thought to be compromised: Bank of America, J. P. Morgan U.S. Bank, and PNC Financial Services.
- April 23, 2013 saw the Associated Press' Twitter account's hacked - the hacker posted a hoax tweet about fictitious attacks in the White House that they claimed left President Obama injured.This hoax tweet resulted in a brief plunge of 130 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, removal of $136 billion from S&P 500 index, and the temporary suspension of AP's Twitter account. The Dow Jones later restored its session gains.
- In May 2017, 74 countries logged a ransomware cybercrime, called "WannaCry".
cases
Penalties
Penalties for computer related crimes in New York State can range from a fine and a short period of jail time for a Class A misdemeanor such as unauthorized use of a computer up to computer tampering in the first degree which is a Class C felony and can carry 3 to 15 years in prison.[citation needed]
However, some hackers have been hired as information security experts by private companies due to their inside knowledge of computer crime, a phenomenon which theoretically could create perverse incentives. A possible counter to this is for courts to ban convicted hackers from using the Internet or computers, even after they have been released from prison – though as computers and the Internet become more and more central to everyday life, this type of punishment may be viewed as more and more harsh and draconian. However, nuanced approaches have been developed that manage cyberoffender behavior without resorting to total computer or Internet bans.These approaches involve restricting individuals to specific devices which are subject to computer monitoring or computer searches by probation or parole officers.
Awareness
As technology advances and more people rely on the internet to store sensitive information such as banking or credit card information, criminals are going to attempt to steal that information. Cyber-crime is becoming more of a threat to people across the world. Raising awareness about how information is being protected and the tactics criminals use to steal that information is important in today's world. According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2014 there were 269,422 complaints filed. With all the claims combined there was a reported total loss of $800,492,073.[42] But yet cyber-crime doesn't seem to be on the average person's radar. There are 1.5 million cyber-attacks annually, that means that there are over 4,000 attacks a day, 170 attacks every hour, or nearly three attacks every minute, with studies showing us that only 16% of victims had asked the people who were carrying out the attacks to stop.[43] Anybody who uses the internet for any reason can be a victim, which is why it is important to be aware of how one is being protected while online.