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CYBER CRIME

Cyber crime refers to criminal conduct occurring in cyberspace—computerized, networked environments such as those in an office or on the Internet and the World Wide Web. According to U.S. law, cyber crimes have been committed if someone intentionally accesses a network facility without authorization or intentionally exceeds his or her given level of authorization to access that facility. If the crime is committed for commercial advantage, malicious destruction, private commercial gain, or in furtherance of any criminal act, the punishment is a fine and/or imprisonment for up to five years for a first offense. For any subsequent offense, the punishment is a fine and/or imprisonment for up to ten years.

TYPES OF CYBER CRIMES

Cyber crimes fall into three categories: (1) when computers or computer systems are the targets of crimes, such as hacking, denial of service, and viruses and Trojan horses; (2) when computers are the medium by which criminal activity is committed, such as phishing, sniffing, spamming, and spoofing; and (3) when computers are abused by rogue employees to illegally access organizational networks and steal valuable information. The following is a discussion of these cyber crimes.

Crimes against Computers and Computer Systems

• Hacking: Breaking into a computer network or Web site such as a bank's intranet by using a software program that can generate multiple login usernames and passwords until a valid combination is found and access is granted. Once in the system, the hacker is able to steal, alter, or delete any files within the system.
• Denial of service: By using a computer to flood a given Web site with so much useless traffic (e-mail, interactions, etc.) the site becomes frozen and stops the regular service thus losing business for a period.
• Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses: Small, malicious software programs that are sent as attachments to emails with the intent of paralyzing the receiving computer(s). Once an e-mail recipient opens such an attachment, the virus, worm, or Trojan horse is released, disabling computers and replicating itself by contaminating the whole e-mail system.

Crimes Using Computers to Deceive Users

• Phishing: Cyber criminals send legitimate looking emails to customers of banks and credit card companies asking them to update their account information by clicking on a Web link that sends the customer to an official-looking but actually fake site. By doing so, the criminals can steal customers' account information and thus masquerade as that customer.
• Sniffing: Criminals use their software to monitor the traffic on a Web site and steal valuable information traveling through it.
• Spamming: The unethical sending of millions of e-mail promotions to recipients who have never asked for the information. Spamming becomes illegal when a person sends numerous unsolicited e-mails containing illegal or objectionable messages such as pornography, threats, or harassments.
• Spoofing: The practice of deceiving online shoppers with a fake site of a legitimate company in order to get their identities and credit card numbers.

Crimes by Employees

Organizations need to be increasingly aware of employees who exceed authorization to access their company network and steal information for criminal use.

COUNTERMEASURES

Users need to use caution before handing over personal information and should think twice before "updating" information when they have not initiated the transaction. To protect individual computers, corporate networks, and Web sites, the following measures should be adopted: (1) users (both institutions and individuals) should install antivirus software and firewalls on their computers; (2) users should not use their birthday, social security number, or phone number as passwords to their accounts; (3) users should use different passwords for different accounts and change them periodically; (4) users should not open e-mail attachments or click on links from unknown sources; (5) to prevent phishing and spoofing, consumers should check Web sites' legitimacy and security before giving personal information and credit card numbers; (6) users should monitor their credit card usage and immediately report any unfamiliar transactions; (7) organizations should have clearly defined employee Internet policies; and (8) users should immediately report to the police when they experience a cyber crime.

SEE ALSO Identity Theft

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Awad, Elias M. (2004). Electronic commerce: From vision to fulfillment (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

McNurlin, Barbara C., and Sprague, Ralph H., Jr. (2004). Information systems management in practice (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

U.S. Department of Justice (2005). United States code annotated: Title 18. Crimes and criminal procedure. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime

Jensen J. Zhao