Distinction Between Cyber crime and Conventional crimes

Conventional - The individual is going to need to pass a note to a teller or brandish a weapon,
wear a disguise to avoid security cameras, and escape with the money. The best outcome of this
crime, besides the individual getting away with is that the individual has now been identified
through security cameras, witness accounts, and after a lengthy police chase is arrested. Other
possible outcomes can include the robber being killed by police or As you can see, risk is
extremely high for conventional dying in a car crash, robberies.

Cyber - The individual now wants to perform the same type of crime, except now from the
internet. After exploiting vulnerabilities the attacker is now able to transfer funds to an offshore
account and removes all traces of his breach. Before anyone knows it, the attacker has fled and it
is impossible to the bank to recoup their funds. This physical risk associated with this type of
crime is now very limited and the cyber criminal has a decent shot at getting away with it. There
is also still the chance that attacker is caught before fleeing but, it all depends on the skills and
knowledge of the attacker.
Location, Number of attackers and time: The cyber criminals can be located anywhere in the
world, the number of attackers may range from one to thousands quite easily, and the cyber
crime may take place any time in the day and any day in the year. It may take a few seconds or
last for several hours.

Reach: In cyber crime one can perform attack to any one no matter which country the person
belongs to and the attack can be performed anonymously and within jurisdiction where as in
conventional crime one has to perform the attack physically with his physical appearance.

Speed: conventional crime are performed with lower speed one robber can rob two aur three
banks in a day but in cyber crime one can easily access to thousands of banks and can transfer
money easily.
MODE AND MANNER OF COMMITING CYBER CRIME

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.
Harassment via e-mails-
Harassment through e-mails is not a new concept. It is very similar to harassing through letters.
Recently I had received a mail from a lady wherein she complained about the same. Her former
boy friend was sending her mails constantly sometimes emotionally blackmailing her and also
threatening her. This is a very common type of harassment via e-mails.
Cyber-stalking-
The Oxford dictionary defines stalking as "pursuing stealthily". Cyber stalking involves
following a person's movements across the Internet by posting messages (sometimes threatening)
on the bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering the chat-rooms frequented by the
victim, constantly bombarding the victim with emails etc.
Dissemination of obscene material/ Indecent exposure/ Pornography (basically child
pornography) / Polluting through indecent exposure-
Pornography on the net may take various forms. It may include the hosting of web site
containing these prohibited materials. Use of computers for producing these obscene materials.
Downloading through the Internet, obscene materials. These obscene matters may cause harm to
the mind of the adolescent and tend to deprave or corrupt their mind.
Two known cases of pornography are the Delhi Bal Bharati case and the Bombay case wherein
two Swiss couple used to force the slum children for obscene photographs. The Mumbai police
later arrested them.
Defamation -
It is an act of imputing any person with intent to lower the person in the estimation of the right-
thinking members of society generally or to cause him to be shunned or avoided or to expose
him to hatred, contempt or ridicule. Cyber defamation is not different from conventional
defamation except the involvement of a virtual medium.
Unauthorized control/access over computer system-
This activity is commonly referred to as hacking. The Indian law has however given a different
connotation to the term hacking, so we will not use the term "unauthorized access"
interchangeably with the term "hacking" to prevent confusion as the term used in the Act of 2000
is much wider than hacking.
E mail spoofing-
A spoofed e-mail may be said to be one, which misrepresents its origin. It shows it's origin to be
different from which actually it originates.
Computer vandalism-
Vandalism means deliberately destroying or damaging property of another. Thus computer
vandalism may include within its purview any kind of physical harm done to the computer of any
person. These acts may take the form of the theft of a computer, some part of a computer or a
peripheral attached to the computer or by physically damaging a computer or its peripherals.
Intellectual Property crimes / Distribution of pirated software-
Intellectual property consists of a bundle of rights. Any unlawful act by which the owner is
deprived completely or partially of his rights is an offence. The common form of IPR violation
may be said to be software piracy, copyright infringement, trademark and service mark violation,
theft of computer source code, etc.
The Hyderabad Court has in a land mark judgement has convicted three people and sentenced
them to six months imprisonment and fine of 50,000 each for unauthorized copying and sell of
pirated software.
Cyber terrorism against the government organization -
At this juncture a necessity may be felt that what is the need to distinguish between cyber
terrorism and cyber crime. Both are criminal acts. However there is a compelling need to
distinguish between both these crimes. A cyber crime is generally a domestic issue, which may
have international consequences, however cyber terrorism is a global concern, which has
domestic as well as international consequences. The common form of these terrorist attacks on
the Internet is by distributed denial of service attacks, hate websites and hate emails, attacks on
sensitive computer networks, etc. Technology savvy terrorists are using 512-bit encryption,
which is next to impossible to decrypt. The recent example may be cited of – Osama Bin Laden,
the LTTE, attack on America’s army deployment system during Iraq war.
Cyber terrorism may be defined to be “ the premeditated use of disruptive activities, or the threat
thereof, in cyber space, with the intention to further social, ideological, religious, political or
similar objectives, or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such objectives”.

Another definition may be attempted to cover within its ambit every act of cyber terrorism.
A terrorist means a person who indulges in wanton killing of persons or in violence or in
disruption of services or means of communications essential to the community or in damaging
property with the view to –
(1) putting the public or any section of the public in fear; or
(2) affecting adversely the harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional
groups or castes or communities; or
(3) coercing or overawing the government established by law; or
(4) endangering the sovereignty and integrity of the nation
and a cyber terrorist is the person who uses the computer system as a means or ends to achieve
the above objectives. Every act done in pursuance thereof is an act of cyber terrorism.
Trafficking
Trafficking may assume different forms. It may be trafficking in drugs, human beings, arms
weapons etc. These forms of trafficking are going unchecked because they are carried on under
pseudonyms. A racket was busted in Chennai where drugs were being sold under the pseudonym
of honey.
Fraud & Cheating
Online fraud and cheating is one of the most lucrative businesses that are growing today in the
cyber space. It may assume different forms. Some of the cases of online fraud and cheating that
have come to light are those pertaining to credit card crimes, contractual crimes, offering jobs,
etc.
Recently the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate Delhi found guilty a 24-year-old engineer
working in a call centre, of fraudulently gaining the details of Campa's credit card and bought a
television and a cordless phone from Sony website. Metropolitan magistrate Gulshan Kumar
convicted Azim for cheating under IPC, but did not send him to jail. Instead, Azim was asked to
furnish a personal bond of Rs 20,000, and was released on a year's probation
REASONS FOR CYBER CRIME

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:

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.

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.

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.
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.

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.