This article has been written by Ms. KHUSHI BAJPAI, a 2^ND year student of Symbiosis law school, Noida.

Rapid technology advancements have opened up a wide range of new opportunities and effective sources for businesses of all kinds. The internet has been a major driver of technological advancement. The internet has made the globe smaller by bringing far-off items closer together. The internet has evolved into a valuable national resource, and overall national security increasingly depends on it. However, these novel threats, such as cybercrime, also came along with the new technologies. Cybercrime is any crime that involves the use of a computer, such as spamming, phishing, or hacking.

Introduction to cybercrime

Cybercriminals steal users’ personal computers, smartphone data, personal information from social media, commercial secrets, and other information using the internet and computer technology. Criminals who engage in these unlawful online operations are known as hackers. Even while law enforcement organizations are working to address this issue, it keeps becoming worse and more people are falling prey to identity theft, hacking, and dangerous software. Using opaque security that uses a single system of software and hardware to verify any information that is accessed via the Internet is one of the greatest ways to block these crooks and secure critical information.

Causes of cybercrime:

Cybercriminals always choose the fastest path to huge profits. They target wealthy individuals or wealthy institutions where a lot of money is transacted daily, such as banks, casinos, and financial corporations, and they hack private data from these targets. It is challenging to apprehend such crooks. As a result, there are now more cybercrimes occurring worldwide. Because of their vulnerability, computers must be protected and secured from cybercriminals by regulations. The following reasons for computers’ susceptibility could be listed:

• Easy to access – Because of the complicated technology, protecting a computer system from unauthorized access is difficult because there are numerous potential points of failure. Access codes, retinal pictures, sophisticated voice recorders, etc. that can easily trick biometric systems and get past firewalls can be stolen by hackers and used to get past numerous security systems.
• Ability to store data in a relatively small amount of space – The computer has the special ability to store data in a very little amount of space. This makes it much simpler for individuals to steal data from other storage systems and utilize it for their own financial gain.
• Complex – Operating systems, which are programmed with billions of lines of code, power computers. Because the human mind is flawed, mistakes can be made at any point. Cybercriminals profit from these openings.
•  Negligence – Negligence is one of the qualities of human action. So, there’s a chance that by failing to defend the computer system, we can provide cybercriminals access to and control over the computer system.
• Loss of evidence – Information pertaining to the crime is quickly erasable. Loss of evidence has thus become a very widespread and evident issue that paralyses the system used for conducting cybercrime investigations.

Types of cybercrimes

The most prevalent cybercrimes are described below, while there are many others.

1.  Hacking is the straightforward phrase for transmitting unauthorized instructions to any other computer or network. In this instance, a person’s computer has been compromised, allowing access to personal or sensitive data. The offender may not be aware that his computer has been accessed remotely since he utilizes a variety of software to break into the victim’s PC. Government websites are frequently a top target for hackers since doing so helps them become more well-known, which is then fueled by aggressive media attention. This differs from ethical hacking, which is a technique employed by many firms to assess the effectiveness of their Internet security measures.

2. Child pornography and abuse: Throughout the world, children are sexually abused on the internet in large numbers. This is another sort of cybercrime, where criminals use chat rooms to recruit children to produce child porn. Every country’s cybersecurity division spends a lot of time watching chat rooms that are popular with kids in an effort to curtail and stop child abuse and solicitation.

3.  Piracy or Theft: This crime happens when someone downloads content that is protected by copyrights, such as music, movies, games, and software. Even peer-sharing websites that promote software piracy exist, and the FBI is currently targeting many of these websites. The legal system is currently dealing with this cybercrime, and there are rules that forbid unauthorized downloading. Film directors and producers are frequently the targets of this crime.

4. Cyberstalking: This type of internet abuse involves bombarding the victim with emails and online messages. These stalkers typically know their targets, so instead of engaging in offline stalking, they turn to the Internet. To make the victims’ lives worse, they start offline stalking in addition to cyberstalking if they observe that it is not having the desired impact.

5. Cyber Terrorism: Also referred to as information warfare, cyber terrorism is an act of Internet terrorism that entails planned, extensive, and disruptive attacks on computer networks using computer viruses, or actual physical attacks using malware, in order to target specific people, governments, and organizations. The purpose of terrorism is to instill a sense of terror in the victims’ thoughts. By keeping this idea in mind, it is simpler to distinguish between cyberattacks and acts of cyberterrorism that are motivated by financial or narcissistic gain. The focus of a cyber terrorist’s operations is to cause harm and destruction.

6. Identity Theft: This has become a huge problem with people using the Internet for monetary transactions and financial services. In this type of cybercrime, a perpetrator gains access to a victim’s bank account, credit cards, debit card, Social Security number, and other personal information in order to steal money or make purchases online in the victim’s name. It may cause the victim to suffer significant financial losses and possibly damage their credit history.

7. Computer Vandalism: A form of nefarious action, computer vandalism entails disrupting businesses by harming computers and data in numerous ways. The construction of malicious software intended to carry out damaging actions like deleting hard drive data or stealing login credentials is a common method of computer vandalism. Computer theft is distinct from viruses, which affix themselves to already-running software.

8. Malicious software: This category includes Internet-based applications that are used to interfere with a network. The software is used to access a system in order to steal confidential data or information or to harm any installed software.

9. Fraudulent Calls and Emails: You’ve probably heard a lot about this crime, and you could have even gotten a call like this. Vishing, or voice phishing, is the term used to describe it. The perpetrator of this kind of fraud gets in touch with you by pretending to be an employee of a bank and calling about your bank account or credit cards via phoney texts, calls, or emails. He requests private information such as passwords, OTPs, and ATM card information, or he requests that the user click on a link that he has supplied. You will lose the money in your account if you unwisely trust them and divulge the information. Remember that no bank will ever ask you for sensitive information.

10. Spreading false information on social networking sites: Some cybercriminals only use these platforms to disseminate social, religious, and political rumors. Common people are impressed by this and unintentionally share the link or post given on their social media by a stranger. Remember that publishing any unauthorized links or posts on social media falls under the area of cybercrime, which exposes the user to legal punishment. Therefore, stay away from them and avoid working on social media on someone else’s behalf because doing so could wreck your entire life.

11.  Online unlawful selling (Dark Web): In this crime, a criminal sells an individual illegal weapons, drugs, smuggled products, or personal information over an illicit online marketplace and uses bitcoin to complete the transaction. It encourages both black marketing and terrorism. The Dark Web, for instance, is content from the World Wide Web that is present on Darknets and networks but can only be accessed with particular software, setup, or authorization. On this website, every unlawful activity is transacted. You may be thinking that if something is illegal, then very few people would use it, but you would be wrong because there are millions of users worldwide, and that number is growing every day.

How to tackle cybercrime?

Establish multifaceted public-private partnerships with law enforcement organizations, the information technology sector, information security groups, internet corporations, and financial institutions to combat cybercrime. Cybercriminals do not compete with one another for dominance or control like they do in the physical world. Instead, they cooperate to develop their abilities and even support one another in finding new opportunities. Therefore, the traditional means of criminal justice cannot be applied to cybercriminals.

• Using the solutions offered by Cross-Domain Solutions is the best course of action. This enables companies to employ a single system made up of both software and hardware to authenticate information access and transfer when it occurs between multiple security classification levels. This enables smooth information sharing and access inside a certain security classification, but prevents information from being intercepted or accidentally released to users outside of that security classification. This promotes the security of the network and the systems connected to it.

• Use strong passwords; avoid writing them down; and keep unique password and username combinations for each account. With certain assaulting techniques, such as a Brute force attack or a Rainbow table attack, weak passwords are easily broken. You can take the following security measures to guard against password hacking.

• Creating passwords with keyboard patterns. such like qwertyui
• Employing simple combinations. such as Raju1990 and Feb1990

• Using pre-generated passwords. like Welcome123 and Ravi123
• retaining the username and password combination. such as Raju/Raju

• Be social media savvy by keeping your privacy settings on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Verify your security settings to be sure. Take care when posting information online. Once something is online, it remains there permanently.

• Protect your Mobile Devices: A lot of individuals are unaware that hazardous software like computer viruses and hackers may also infect their mobile devices. Make cautious to only get software from reliable sources. Maintaining an updated operating system is also essential. Make careful to set up antivirus protection and a secure lock screen. Otherwise, if you misplace your phone or merely leave it on the table for a little while, anyone can access all of your sensitive information. Even worse, someone may put malicious software on your computer and use your GPS to track your every move.

• Use encryption for your most sensitive files, such as financial records and tax returns, to safeguard your data. By learning about frauds and hacking techniques online, one can keep one step ahead of the hacker. Fishing is a well-known hacking technique, however by gathering knowledge on the most recent fishing assaults from the Internet, one can avoid any scams. Therefore, be cautious and warn your neighbours about these scams.
• Protect your identity online: When it comes to protecting your identity online it is better to be excessively cautious than not cautious enough. You must use extreme caution while disclosing personal information online, such as your name, address, phone number, and/or financial information. When making online purchases or other transactions, make sure the websites are secure. In order to do this, you must enable your privacy settings when using or logging onto social networking sites.

• Applying patches and other software fixes as soon as they become available is one of the greatest methods to keep attackers away from your computer. Keep your machine up to date with the most recent patches and updates. By keeping your computer updated, you prevent hackers from exploiting software faults (vulnerabilities) that they would otherwise use to gain access to your system.

• Several different kinds of security software are required for fundamental internet security. Protect your computer with security software. Firewalls and antivirus software are crucial components of security software. The first layer of defence for your computer is typically a firewall. It regulates what and who is allowed to communicate online with your computer. A firewall could be compared to a kind of “policeman” who keeps an eye on all data that is trying to enter and exit your computer over the Internet, permitting communications that it knows are secure and preventing “bad” traffic like attacks from ever getting to your computer.

• Parental Control: In the age of modern technology, parents should keep an eye on all of their kids’ online activity. Giving kids the privacy, they need would be difficult. Parents need to exercise caution and regularly monitor email accounts and browsing history. Enabling parental control in mobile apps, browsers, and at the router level is a better way to handle this because it will limit their access to just secure websites. The kids will be protected from internet fraud thanks to this. To shield kids from harm, many programmes like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube offer specialized material for kids alone.

• Call the proper person for assistance: If you are a victim, try not to lose your cool. Like any other crime, you should contact your local police if you come across any illegal internet content, such as child exploitation, or if you have any suspicions about a cybercrime, identity theft, or business scam. Many websites help with cybercrime.

Conclusion

Today, there are a lot of hackers all around the world. While many public and private organizations, like the FBI, CIA, and state police, are striving to find these hackers, we too have a responsibility to protect our personal information from internet scams. In addition, it is important to educate illiterate individuals about computers, debit and credit cards, the internet, and other technology. Because they sit in one nation and access the computer from another, we are aware that it might be challenging to detect these hackers. The best way to prevent this is for us to be watchful and vigilant, and to always use strong and unique IDs and passwords online. Finally, I want to stress that it will be challenging for hackers to get your data if you use safe websites and the internet responsibly.

Aishwarya Says:

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