No e-commerce initiative can hold ground or survive unless there is a proper legal system to address the computer related crimes. In case of computer crime or cyber crime, it is more important than ever to prevent unauthorized access to data or information.
Computers can play three kinds of role in criminal activity. First, computers can be targets of an offense, such as hacking to steal information or attack websites as occurs in denial of service attacks as well as the propagation of computer-viruses. Second, computers can simply be the medium in which an offence is committed: this includes the transmission of pornography, identity theft and fraud. Finally, computers can be incidental to a crime as they may be used to store information or provide other evidence of a crime that has been committed.
Computer-related crime poses a serious threat to society; it may target basic utilities, energy, transportation, communication services, military and political institutions. Computer-related crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated; perpetrators more knowledgeable, and increasingly difficult to detect.
In Simple way we can say that cyber crime is unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or a target or both. Cyber crimes can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature, such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief. The Major areas of concerns are:
- Electronic Banking & Finance
- Inter-bank payment systems
- Consumer Electronic Banking
- Digital Cash
- Dematerialization
- Confidentiality and Data Protection; and
- Evidence and security
We can categorize Cyber crimes in two ways
- The Computer as a Target: using a computer to attack other computers. e.g. Hacking, Virus/Worm attacks, DOS attack etc.
- The computer as a weapon: using a computer to commit real world crimes. g. Cyber Terrorism, IPR violations, Credit card frauds, EFT frauds, Pornography etc.
The cyber offences may relate to any of the following kinds:
- Unauthorized access & Hacking
- Trojan Attack
- Virus and Worm attack:-
- E-mail & IRC related crimes like Email spoofing, Email Spamming, Sending malicious codes through email, Email bombing Sending threatening emails, Defamatory emails, Email frauds and IRC related
- Denial of Services Attacks
- Distributed DOS
- Pornography Addiction
- Forgery
- IPR Violations
- Cyber Squatting
- Cyber Terrorism
- Banking/Credit card Related crimes
- E-commerce/ Investment Frauds
- Sale of illegal articles
- Online gambling
- Defamation
- Cyber Stacking
- Pedophiles
- Identity Theft
- Data diddling
- Theft of Internet Hours
- Theft of computer system (Hardware)
- Physically damaging a computer system
- Breach of Privacy and Confidentiality
- Privacy
- Confidentiality
