A password is a type of authentication. It is a secret word or phrase that a user must know in order to gain access. A pass-phrase is a correspondingly larger secret consisting of multiple words.
Passwords have been used since Roman times. The Romans were some of the first large armies where people didn't recognize each other by sight. In order to gain entry into the camp, a Roman soldier would have to know the secret password.
Internal to the computer, password information is constantly being checked. If you were queried for the password each and every time, you would find that computer would become unusable. Therefore, the computer attempts to "cache" the password so that internal prompts during the same session do not cause external prompts to the user.
All systems cache passwords in memory during a login session. Therefore, if a hacker can gain access to all memory on the system, he/she can likely sift the memory for passwords. Likewise, hackers can frequently sift pagefiles for passwords.
To crack a password means to decrypt a password, or to bypass a protection scheme.
When the UNIX operating system was first developed, passwords were stored in the file “/etc/passwd”. This file was readable by everyone, but the passwords were encrypted so that a user could not figure out what a person's password was. The passwords were encrypted in such a manner that a person could test a password to see if it was valid, but couldn't decrypt the entry.
However, a program called "crack" was developed that would simply test all the words in the dictionary against the passwords in “/etc/passwd”. This would find all user accounts whose passwords where chosen from the dictionary. Typical dictionaries also included people's names since a common practice is to choose a spouse or child's name.
The file sources of encrypted passwords typically include the following:
• /etc/passwd from a UNIX system
• SAM or SAM._ from a Windows NT system
• .pwl from a Windows 95/98 system
• sniffed challenge hashes from the network
The "crack" program is a useful tool for system administrators. By running the program on their own systems, they can quickly find users who have chosen weak passwords. In other words, it is a policy enforcement tool.
Password crackers are utilities that try to ‘guess’ passwords. One way, also known as a dictionary attack, involves trying out all the words contained in a predefined dictionary of words. Ready-made dictionaries of millions of commonly used passwords can be freely downloaded from the Internet.
Another form of password cracking attack is ‘brute force’ attack. In this form of attack, all possible combinations of letters, numbers and symbols are tried out one by one till the password is found out. Brute force attacks take much longer than dictionary attacks.
The snapshot below is of a popular password cracking utility called Brutus. Brutus has both dictionary attack as well as a brute force attack capabilities.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Email related crime: part 2nd
2. Spreading Trojans, viruses and worms
Emails are often the fastest and easiest ways to propagate malicious code over the Internet. The Love Bug virus, for instance, reached millions of computers within 36 hours of its release from the Philippines thanks to email.
Hackers often bind Trojans, viruses, worms and other computer contaminants with e-greeting cards and then email them to unsuspecting persons. Such contaminants can also be bound with software that appears to be an anti-virus patch. E.g. a person receives an email from information@mcaffee.com (this is a spoofed email but the victim does not know this). The email informs him that the attachment contained with the email is a security patch that must be downloaded to detect a certain new virus. Most unsuspecting users would succumb to such an email (if they are using a registered copy of the McAffee anti-virus software) and would download the attachment, which actually could be a Trojan or a virus itself!
3. Email bombing
Email bombing refers to sending a large number of emails to the victim resulting in the victim’s email account (in case of an individual) or servers (in case of a company or an email service provider) crashing.
A simple way of achieving this would be to subscribe the victim’s email address to a large number of mailing lists. Mailing lists are special interest groups that share and exchange information on a common topic of interest with one another via email. Mailing lists are very popular and can generate a lot of daily email traffic – depending upon the mailing list. Some generate only a few messages per day others generate hundreds. If a person has been unknowingly subscribed to hundreds of mailing lists, his incoming email traffic will be too large and his service provider will probably delete his account.
The simplest email bomb is an ordinary email account. All that one has to do is compose a message, enter the email address of the victim multiple times in the “To” field, and press the “Send” button many times. Writing the email address 25 times and pressing the “Send” button just 50 times (it will take less than a minute) will send 1250 email messages to the victim! If a group of 10 people do this for an hour, the result would be 750,000 emails!
There are several hacking tools available to automate the process of email bombing. These tools send multiple emails from many different email servers, which makes it very difficult, for the victim to protect himself.
4. Threatening emails
Email is a useful tool for technology savvy criminals thanks to the relative anonymity offered by it. It becomes fairly easy for anyone with even a basic knowledge of computers to become a blackmailer by threatening someone via e-mail.
In a recent case, Poorva received an e-mail message from someone who called him or herself ‘your friend’. The attachment with the e-mail contained morphed pornographic photographs of Poorva. The mail message said that if Poorva were not to pay Rs. 10,000 at a specified place every month, the photographs would be uploaded to the Net and then a copy sent to her fiancé. Scared, Poorva at first complied with the wishes of the blackmailer and paid the first Rs. 10, 000. Next month, she knew she would have to approach her parents.
Then, trusting the reasonableness of her fiancé she told him the truth. Together they approached the police. Investigation turned up the culprit – Poorva’s supposed friend who wanted that Poorva and her fiancé should break up so that she would get her chance with him.
5. Defamatory emails
As has been discussed earlier cyber-defamation or even cyber-slander as it is called can prove to be very harmful and even fatal to the people who have been made its victims.
6. Email Frauds
Email spoofing is very often used to commit financial crimes. It becomes a simple thing not just to assume someone else’s identity but also to hide one’s own. The person committing the crime understands that there is very little chance of his actually being identified.
In a recently reported case, a Pune based businessman received an email from the Vice President of the Asia Development Bank (ADB) offering him a lucrative contract in return for Rs 10 lakh. The businessman verified the email address of the Vice President from the web site of the ADB and subsequently transferred the money to the bank account mentioned in the email. It later turned out that the email was a spoofed one and was actually sent by an Indian based in Nigeria.
In another famous case, one Mr. Rao sent himself spoofed e-mails, which were supposedly from the Euro Lottery Company. These mails informed him that he had won the largest lottery. He also created a website in the name of the Euro Lottery Company, announced on it that he had won the Euro Lottery and uploaded it on to the Internet. He then approached the Income Tax authorities in India and procured a clearance certificate from them for receiving the lottery amount. In order to let people know about the lottery, he approached many newspapers and magazines.
The media seeing this as a story that would interest a lot of readers hyped it up and played a vital role in spreading this misinformation. Mr. Rao then went to many banks and individuals and told them that having won such a large sum of money he was afraid for his safety. He also wanted to move into a better house. He wheedled money out of these institutions and people by telling them that since the lottery prize money would take some time to come to him, he would like to borrow money from them. He assured them that the loan amount would be returned as soon as the lottery money came into his possession.
Lulled into believing him (all thanks to the Income Tax clearance) most of these people loaned large amounts of money to him. It was only when he did not pay back the loan amounts to the banks that they became suspicious. A countercheck by the authorities revealed the entire scheme. Mr. Rao was arrested. Later, it was found that some of the money had been donated for philanthropic causes and also to political parties!
Emails are often the fastest and easiest ways to propagate malicious code over the Internet. The Love Bug virus, for instance, reached millions of computers within 36 hours of its release from the Philippines thanks to email.
Hackers often bind Trojans, viruses, worms and other computer contaminants with e-greeting cards and then email them to unsuspecting persons. Such contaminants can also be bound with software that appears to be an anti-virus patch. E.g. a person receives an email from information@mcaffee.com (this is a spoofed email but the victim does not know this). The email informs him that the attachment contained with the email is a security patch that must be downloaded to detect a certain new virus. Most unsuspecting users would succumb to such an email (if they are using a registered copy of the McAffee anti-virus software) and would download the attachment, which actually could be a Trojan or a virus itself!
3. Email bombing
Email bombing refers to sending a large number of emails to the victim resulting in the victim’s email account (in case of an individual) or servers (in case of a company or an email service provider) crashing.
A simple way of achieving this would be to subscribe the victim’s email address to a large number of mailing lists. Mailing lists are special interest groups that share and exchange information on a common topic of interest with one another via email. Mailing lists are very popular and can generate a lot of daily email traffic – depending upon the mailing list. Some generate only a few messages per day others generate hundreds. If a person has been unknowingly subscribed to hundreds of mailing lists, his incoming email traffic will be too large and his service provider will probably delete his account.
The simplest email bomb is an ordinary email account. All that one has to do is compose a message, enter the email address of the victim multiple times in the “To” field, and press the “Send” button many times. Writing the email address 25 times and pressing the “Send” button just 50 times (it will take less than a minute) will send 1250 email messages to the victim! If a group of 10 people do this for an hour, the result would be 750,000 emails!
There are several hacking tools available to automate the process of email bombing. These tools send multiple emails from many different email servers, which makes it very difficult, for the victim to protect himself.
4. Threatening emails
Email is a useful tool for technology savvy criminals thanks to the relative anonymity offered by it. It becomes fairly easy for anyone with even a basic knowledge of computers to become a blackmailer by threatening someone via e-mail.
In a recent case, Poorva received an e-mail message from someone who called him or herself ‘your friend’. The attachment with the e-mail contained morphed pornographic photographs of Poorva. The mail message said that if Poorva were not to pay Rs. 10,000 at a specified place every month, the photographs would be uploaded to the Net and then a copy sent to her fiancé. Scared, Poorva at first complied with the wishes of the blackmailer and paid the first Rs. 10, 000. Next month, she knew she would have to approach her parents.
Then, trusting the reasonableness of her fiancé she told him the truth. Together they approached the police. Investigation turned up the culprit – Poorva’s supposed friend who wanted that Poorva and her fiancé should break up so that she would get her chance with him.
5. Defamatory emails
As has been discussed earlier cyber-defamation or even cyber-slander as it is called can prove to be very harmful and even fatal to the people who have been made its victims.
6. Email Frauds
Email spoofing is very often used to commit financial crimes. It becomes a simple thing not just to assume someone else’s identity but also to hide one’s own. The person committing the crime understands that there is very little chance of his actually being identified.
In a recently reported case, a Pune based businessman received an email from the Vice President of the Asia Development Bank (ADB) offering him a lucrative contract in return for Rs 10 lakh. The businessman verified the email address of the Vice President from the web site of the ADB and subsequently transferred the money to the bank account mentioned in the email. It later turned out that the email was a spoofed one and was actually sent by an Indian based in Nigeria.
In another famous case, one Mr. Rao sent himself spoofed e-mails, which were supposedly from the Euro Lottery Company. These mails informed him that he had won the largest lottery. He also created a website in the name of the Euro Lottery Company, announced on it that he had won the Euro Lottery and uploaded it on to the Internet. He then approached the Income Tax authorities in India and procured a clearance certificate from them for receiving the lottery amount. In order to let people know about the lottery, he approached many newspapers and magazines.
The media seeing this as a story that would interest a lot of readers hyped it up and played a vital role in spreading this misinformation. Mr. Rao then went to many banks and individuals and told them that having won such a large sum of money he was afraid for his safety. He also wanted to move into a better house. He wheedled money out of these institutions and people by telling them that since the lottery prize money would take some time to come to him, he would like to borrow money from them. He assured them that the loan amount would be returned as soon as the lottery money came into his possession.
Lulled into believing him (all thanks to the Income Tax clearance) most of these people loaned large amounts of money to him. It was only when he did not pay back the loan amounts to the banks that they became suspicious. A countercheck by the authorities revealed the entire scheme. Mr. Rao was arrested. Later, it was found that some of the money had been donated for philanthropic causes and also to political parties!
Email related crime
Email has fast emerged as the world’s most preferred form of communication. Billions of email messages traverse the globe daily. Like any other form of communication, email is also misused by criminal elements.
The ease, speed and relative anonymity of email has made it a powerful tool for criminals. Some of the major email related crimes are:
1. Email spoofing
2. Sending malicious codes through email
3. Email bombing
4. Sending threatening emails
5. Defamatory emails 6. Email frauds
1. Email spoofing
A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but has actually emerged from another source. Email spoofing is usually done by falsifying the name and / or email address of the originator of the email.
Usually to send an email the sender has to enter the following information:
i. email address of the receiver of the email
ii. email address(es) of the person(s) who will receive a copy of the email (referred to as CC for carbon copy)
iii. email address(es) of the person(s) who will receive a copy of the email (referred to as CC for carbon copy, but whose identities will not be known to the other recipients of the e-mail (known as BCC for blind carbon copy)
iv. Subject of the message (a short title / description of the message)
v. Message
Certain web-based email services like www.SendFakeMail.com, offer a facility wherein in addition to the above, a sender can also enter the email address of the purported sender of the email.
Consider Mr. Siddharth whose email address is siddharth@hotmail.com. His friend Girish’s email address is girish@yahoo.com. Using SendFakeMail, Siddharth can send emails purporting to be sent from Girish’s email account. All he has to do is enter girish@yahoo.com in the space provided for sender’s email address. Girish’s friends would trust such emails, as they would presume that they have come from Girish (whom they trust). Siddharth can use this misplaced trust to send viruses, Trojans, worms etc. to Girish’s friends, who would unwittingly download them.
The ease, speed and relative anonymity of email has made it a powerful tool for criminals. Some of the major email related crimes are:
1. Email spoofing
2. Sending malicious codes through email
3. Email bombing
4. Sending threatening emails
5. Defamatory emails 6. Email frauds
1. Email spoofing
A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but has actually emerged from another source. Email spoofing is usually done by falsifying the name and / or email address of the originator of the email.
Usually to send an email the sender has to enter the following information:
i. email address of the receiver of the email
ii. email address(es) of the person(s) who will receive a copy of the email (referred to as CC for carbon copy)
iii. email address(es) of the person(s) who will receive a copy of the email (referred to as CC for carbon copy, but whose identities will not be known to the other recipients of the e-mail (known as BCC for blind carbon copy)
iv. Subject of the message (a short title / description of the message)
v. Message
Certain web-based email services like www.SendFakeMail.com, offer a facility wherein in addition to the above, a sender can also enter the email address of the purported sender of the email.
Consider Mr. Siddharth whose email address is siddharth@hotmail.com. His friend Girish’s email address is girish@yahoo.com. Using SendFakeMail, Siddharth can send emails purporting to be sent from Girish’s email account. All he has to do is enter girish@yahoo.com in the space provided for sender’s email address. Girish’s friends would trust such emails, as they would presume that they have come from Girish (whom they trust). Siddharth can use this misplaced trust to send viruses, Trojans, worms etc. to Girish’s friends, who would unwittingly download them.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Info on cyber crime types
This would include cheating, credit card frauds, money laundering etc.
Cyber pornography
This would include pornographic websites; pornographic magazines produced using computers (to publish and print the material) and the Internet (to download and transmit pornographic pictures, photos, writings etc).
Sale of illegal articles:
This would include sale of narcotics, weapons and wildlife etc., by posting information on websites, auction websites, and bulletin boards or simply by using email communication. E.g. many of the auction sites even in India are believed to be selling cocaine in the name of ‘honey’
Online gambling:
There are millions of websites; all hosted on servers abroad, that offer online gambling. In fact, it is believed that many of these websites are actually fronts for money laundering.
Intellectual Property crimes
These include software piracy, copyright infringement, trademarks violations, theft of computer source code etc.
Email spoofing
A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but actually has been sent from another source. E.g. Pooja has an e-mail address hh@yahoo.vom Her enemy, Sameer spoofs her e-mail and sends obscene messages to all her acquaintances. Since the e-mails appear to have originated from Pooja, her friends could take offence and relationships could be spoiled for life.
Forgery
Counterfeit currency notes, postage and revenue stamps, mark sheets etc can be forged using sophisticated computers, printers and scanners
Cyber pornography
This would include pornographic websites; pornographic magazines produced using computers (to publish and print the material) and the Internet (to download and transmit pornographic pictures, photos, writings etc).
Sale of illegal articles:
This would include sale of narcotics, weapons and wildlife etc., by posting information on websites, auction websites, and bulletin boards or simply by using email communication. E.g. many of the auction sites even in India are believed to be selling cocaine in the name of ‘honey’
Online gambling:
There are millions of websites; all hosted on servers abroad, that offer online gambling. In fact, it is believed that many of these websites are actually fronts for money laundering.
Intellectual Property crimes
These include software piracy, copyright infringement, trademarks violations, theft of computer source code etc.
Email spoofing
A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but actually has been sent from another source. E.g. Pooja has an e-mail address hh@yahoo.vom Her enemy, Sameer spoofs her e-mail and sends obscene messages to all her acquaintances. Since the e-mails appear to have originated from Pooja, her friends could take offence and relationships could be spoiled for life.
Forgery
Counterfeit currency notes, postage and revenue stamps, mark sheets etc can be forged using sophisticated computers, printers and scanners
Types of Cyber Crimes
At the onset, let us satisfactorily define “cyber crime” and differentiate it from “conventional crime”.
Cyber crime can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature, such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief, all of which are subject to the Indian Penal Code. The abuse of computers has also given birth to a gamut of new age crimes that are addressed by the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Defining cyber crimes, as “acts that are punishable by the Information Technology Act” would be unsuitable as the Indian Penal Code also covers many cyber crimes, such as email spoofing and cyber defamation, sending threatening emails etc.
A simple yet sturdy definition of cyber crime would be “unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or a target or both”.
Let us examine the acts wherein the computer is a tool for an unlawful act. This kind of activity usually involves a modification of a conventional crime by using computers. Some examples are.
Cyber crime can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature, such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief, all of which are subject to the Indian Penal Code. The abuse of computers has also given birth to a gamut of new age crimes that are addressed by the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Defining cyber crimes, as “acts that are punishable by the Information Technology Act” would be unsuitable as the Indian Penal Code also covers many cyber crimes, such as email spoofing and cyber defamation, sending threatening emails etc.
A simple yet sturdy definition of cyber crime would be “unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or a target or both”.
Let us examine the acts wherein the computer is a tool for an unlawful act. This kind of activity usually involves a modification of a conventional crime by using computers. Some examples are.
Cyber Crimes
Introduction
The first recorded cyber crime took place in the year 1820!
That is not surprising considering the fact that the abacus, which is thought to be the earliest form of a computer, has been around since 3500 B.C. in India, Japan and China. The era of modern computers, however, began with the analytical engine of Charles Babbage.
In 1820, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile manufacturer in France, produced the loom. This device allowed the repetition of a series of steps in the weaving of special fabrics. This resulted in a fear amongst Jacquard's employees that their traditional employment and livelihood were being threatened. They committed acts of sabotage to discourage Jacquard from further use of the new technology. This is the first recorded cyber crime!
Today, computers have come a long way, what with neural networks and nano-computing promising to turn every atom in a glass of water into a computer capable of performing a billion operations per second.
Cyber crime is an evil having its origin in the growing dependence on computers in modern life. In a day and age when everything from microwave ovens and refrigerators to nuclear power plants is being run on computers, cyber crime has assumed rather sinister implications.
The first recorded cyber crime took place in the year 1820!
That is not surprising considering the fact that the abacus, which is thought to be the earliest form of a computer, has been around since 3500 B.C. in India, Japan and China. The era of modern computers, however, began with the analytical engine of Charles Babbage.
In 1820, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile manufacturer in France, produced the loom. This device allowed the repetition of a series of steps in the weaving of special fabrics. This resulted in a fear amongst Jacquard's employees that their traditional employment and livelihood were being threatened. They committed acts of sabotage to discourage Jacquard from further use of the new technology. This is the first recorded cyber crime!
Today, computers have come a long way, what with neural networks and nano-computing promising to turn every atom in a glass of water into a computer capable of performing a billion operations per second.
Cyber crime is an evil having its origin in the growing dependence on computers in modern life. In a day and age when everything from microwave ovens and refrigerators to nuclear power plants is being run on computers, cyber crime has assumed rather sinister implications.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Internet Law in 2007
As we start off the 2007 year, many in the web community probably have questions about what developments we can expect in web law in 2007. Well, the issues already appear to be coming together.
Internet Law in 2007
The beauty of the web is it is still a relatively new communication platform and is evolving on a daily basis. From a legal standpoint, this raises all kinds of issues and problems. The law prefers stability. It is also generally slow to react to new issues. Since the net is evolving on a daily basis, this puts the legal issues regarding it in some what of a time warp. Simply put, the law is a couple years behind on issues such as phishing, privacy and so on. Still, 2007 is cranking up to be an interesting year.
One of the major areas where we should see more legal wrangling in 2007 is privacy rights. While you might immediately jump to the conclusion I am talking about how the government invades our privacy, I am not. Instead, the issue of how companies use our private information is going to come front and center again. Specifically, the security used by companies in protecting our information is laughable. It seems a day does not pass without a company announcing it has been hacked and private information exposed. Frankly, it is a miracle that identity theft is not a bigger problem.
Regardless, you should expect Congress and lawsuits to carve out clearer rules on this issue.
In some ways, 2007 will be the same as 2006, 2005 and so on in one are – copyright. If you work on the web, you are probably sick of hearing about copyright by now. I am! Still, the issue continues to rear its head as new web innovations arise. The obvious issue arising now is YouTube and similar sites. Specifically, what happens when people post content that they do not own the copyright on? Well, things are going to get interesting to say the least. Unlike Napster, YouTube is now backed by big money Google, and has the deep pockets to fight copyright claims by the music industry, etc. This doesn’t necessarily mean it will win, but it should be an interesting fight!
A second area of copyright law as applied to the web is also starting to show some strength. It is in the field of search engine optimization, to wit, the great game of trying to obtain organic rankings for your site on Google, Yahoo, MSN and so on. Google is at the center of the issue. It has implemented a duplicate content filter that basically eliminates certain pages from the rankings if they have the same content as other sites. This is becoming aggravating for certain sites when their content is stolen, used on another site and then the offending site is used in the rankings. It is blatant copyright infringement and you can expect to see larger sites taking legal action to protect their turf.
Since the web evolves a breakneck speed, you can expect there to be many more legal areas popping up in 2007. SPAM may very well be one of them given the monumental failure of the CAN-SPAM Act. As to other areas, we will just have to wait and watch.
Internet Law in 2007
The beauty of the web is it is still a relatively new communication platform and is evolving on a daily basis. From a legal standpoint, this raises all kinds of issues and problems. The law prefers stability. It is also generally slow to react to new issues. Since the net is evolving on a daily basis, this puts the legal issues regarding it in some what of a time warp. Simply put, the law is a couple years behind on issues such as phishing, privacy and so on. Still, 2007 is cranking up to be an interesting year.
One of the major areas where we should see more legal wrangling in 2007 is privacy rights. While you might immediately jump to the conclusion I am talking about how the government invades our privacy, I am not. Instead, the issue of how companies use our private information is going to come front and center again. Specifically, the security used by companies in protecting our information is laughable. It seems a day does not pass without a company announcing it has been hacked and private information exposed. Frankly, it is a miracle that identity theft is not a bigger problem.
Regardless, you should expect Congress and lawsuits to carve out clearer rules on this issue.
In some ways, 2007 will be the same as 2006, 2005 and so on in one are – copyright. If you work on the web, you are probably sick of hearing about copyright by now. I am! Still, the issue continues to rear its head as new web innovations arise. The obvious issue arising now is YouTube and similar sites. Specifically, what happens when people post content that they do not own the copyright on? Well, things are going to get interesting to say the least. Unlike Napster, YouTube is now backed by big money Google, and has the deep pockets to fight copyright claims by the music industry, etc. This doesn’t necessarily mean it will win, but it should be an interesting fight!
A second area of copyright law as applied to the web is also starting to show some strength. It is in the field of search engine optimization, to wit, the great game of trying to obtain organic rankings for your site on Google, Yahoo, MSN and so on. Google is at the center of the issue. It has implemented a duplicate content filter that basically eliminates certain pages from the rankings if they have the same content as other sites. This is becoming aggravating for certain sites when their content is stolen, used on another site and then the offending site is used in the rankings. It is blatant copyright infringement and you can expect to see larger sites taking legal action to protect their turf.
Since the web evolves a breakneck speed, you can expect there to be many more legal areas popping up in 2007. SPAM may very well be one of them given the monumental failure of the CAN-SPAM Act. As to other areas, we will just have to wait and watch.
Short Synopsis Of Cybercrime
To many involved in criminal dense, cyber crime is the bane of the 21st Century. It accounts for millions in ill-gotten earnings each year. Vast criminal networks spanning the global are now actively involved in cyber crimes of one sort or another. The potential for future earnings is almost unlimited and the relatively safety that the Internet provider cyber criminals means that it is extremely hard to catch. Victims mount up. However, things were not always this way.
In the early days of cyber crime the world of cyber crime was seen as a rather harmless prank by computer geeks showing off how much they knew about the working of computer networks. It was tantamount to a dare, you say it cannot be done and we will show you how it can. Relatively little harm was intended and criminal defense lawyers did not have their work cut-out showing this. Indeed, few if any specific criminal laws were on the statutes that regulated cyber crimes in the early days and most of the criminal defenses were bog-standard.
As times changed, so did the nature of the cyber crime. More technological advances and cheaper access to hardware and software meant that the Internet became a domain anyone could access. More sinister fraud came to the attention of the authorities. Child related crimes, such as child pornography, became known widely. With the escalation of the criminal element of the cyber crime, new laws were needed and specialist criminal defense lawyers were required.
However, even only as recently as the last five years cyber crime was still controllable. Cyber crime was not a major revenue earner for criminal gangs in the late 20th Century. It has only been since the millennium that things have changed.
Nonetheless, without globally implement criminal sanctions in place against the actions of cyber criminals, the ultimate criminal defense still exists, namely jurisdiction. Unlike a crime committed in the real world, it is physically possible for a criminal to be in two places at once when it comes to cyber crimes. You can commit a crime in the US while you sit comfortably in your apartment in Russia. Consequently, universal laws will be needed if a criminal defense mechanism is going to be put in place to combat these growing problems.
In the early days of cyber crime the world of cyber crime was seen as a rather harmless prank by computer geeks showing off how much they knew about the working of computer networks. It was tantamount to a dare, you say it cannot be done and we will show you how it can. Relatively little harm was intended and criminal defense lawyers did not have their work cut-out showing this. Indeed, few if any specific criminal laws were on the statutes that regulated cyber crimes in the early days and most of the criminal defenses were bog-standard.
As times changed, so did the nature of the cyber crime. More technological advances and cheaper access to hardware and software meant that the Internet became a domain anyone could access. More sinister fraud came to the attention of the authorities. Child related crimes, such as child pornography, became known widely. With the escalation of the criminal element of the cyber crime, new laws were needed and specialist criminal defense lawyers were required.
However, even only as recently as the last five years cyber crime was still controllable. Cyber crime was not a major revenue earner for criminal gangs in the late 20th Century. It has only been since the millennium that things have changed.
Nonetheless, without globally implement criminal sanctions in place against the actions of cyber criminals, the ultimate criminal defense still exists, namely jurisdiction. Unlike a crime committed in the real world, it is physically possible for a criminal to be in two places at once when it comes to cyber crimes. You can commit a crime in the US while you sit comfortably in your apartment in Russia. Consequently, universal laws will be needed if a criminal defense mechanism is going to be put in place to combat these growing problems.
Short Synopsis Of Cybercrime
To many involved in criminal dense, cyber crime is the bane of the 21st Century. It accounts for millions in ill-gotten earnings each year. Vast criminal networks spanning the global are now actively involved in cyber crimes of one sort or another. The potential for future earnings is almost unlimited and the relatively safety that the Internet provider cyber criminals means that it is extremely hard to catch. Victims mount up. However, things were not always this way.
In the early days of cyber crime the world of cyber crime was seen as a rather harmless prank by computer geeks showing off how much they knew about the working of computer networks. It was tantamount to a dare, you say it cannot be done and we will show you how it can. Relatively little harm was intended and criminal defense lawyers did not have their work cut-out showing this. Indeed, few if any specific criminal laws were on the statutes that regulated cyber crimes in the early days and most of the criminal defenses were bog-standard.
As times changed, so did the nature of the cyber crime. More technological advances and cheaper access to hardware and software meant that the Internet became a domain anyone could access. More sinister fraud came to the attention of the authorities. Child related crimes, such as child pornography, became known widely. With the escalation of the criminal element of the cyber crime, new laws were needed and specialist criminal defense lawyers were required.
However, even only as recently as the last five years cyber crime was still controllable. Cyber crime was not a major revenue earner for criminal gangs in the late 20th Century. It has only been since the millennium that things have changed.
Nonetheless, without globally implement criminal sanctions in place against the actions of cyber criminals, the ultimate criminal defense still exists, namely jurisdiction. Unlike a crime committed in the real world, it is physically possible for a criminal to be in two places at once when it comes to cyber crimes. You can commit a crime in the US while you sit comfortably in your apartment in Russia. Consequently, universal laws will be needed if a criminal defense mechanism is going to be put in place to combat these growing problems.
In the early days of cyber crime the world of cyber crime was seen as a rather harmless prank by computer geeks showing off how much they knew about the working of computer networks. It was tantamount to a dare, you say it cannot be done and we will show you how it can. Relatively little harm was intended and criminal defense lawyers did not have their work cut-out showing this. Indeed, few if any specific criminal laws were on the statutes that regulated cyber crimes in the early days and most of the criminal defenses were bog-standard.
As times changed, so did the nature of the cyber crime. More technological advances and cheaper access to hardware and software meant that the Internet became a domain anyone could access. More sinister fraud came to the attention of the authorities. Child related crimes, such as child pornography, became known widely. With the escalation of the criminal element of the cyber crime, new laws were needed and specialist criminal defense lawyers were required.
However, even only as recently as the last five years cyber crime was still controllable. Cyber crime was not a major revenue earner for criminal gangs in the late 20th Century. It has only been since the millennium that things have changed.
Nonetheless, without globally implement criminal sanctions in place against the actions of cyber criminals, the ultimate criminal defense still exists, namely jurisdiction. Unlike a crime committed in the real world, it is physically possible for a criminal to be in two places at once when it comes to cyber crimes. You can commit a crime in the US while you sit comfortably in your apartment in Russia. Consequently, universal laws will be needed if a criminal defense mechanism is going to be put in place to combat these growing problems.
Cyber law
Cyber law encompasses a wide variety of legal issues related to use of communications technology. It includes use of Internet as well as any other form of Computer or Digital Processing Devices. It includes intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction.
As the law of Cyber Space, as envisioned by William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer , Cyber Law addresses the issues of Virtual Property and Virtual Persons. It covers rights of Netizens who are the citizens of Cyber Space and regulation of the Cyber Space for a peaceful and harmonious existence of Netizens.
The biggest challenge before Cyber Law is its integration with the legacy system of laws applicable to the physical world.
Since Cyber Space has no geographical boundaries, nor the Netizens have physical characteristics of Sex, Age etc, several conflicts surface when the rights of Netizens are viewed in the eyes of Citizens of a physical space. This is well reflected in the conflict between the Trade mark Laws and system of Domain Names.
There are several countries which have enacted special laws for regulating Cyber Space Transactions of Citizens within their Physical Jurisdiction and these are recognized as the Cyber Laws of the Physical Jurisdiction.
A recent book by Ahmad Kamal entitled "The Law of Cyber-Space" published by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, argues in favor of starting global negotiations on comprehensive and harmonized laws in this domain. The ultimate solution is to “harmonise” the laws of all the countries by making a compatible and commonly acceptable international treaty safeguarding the cyberspace.
As the law of Cyber Space, as envisioned by William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer , Cyber Law addresses the issues of Virtual Property and Virtual Persons. It covers rights of Netizens who are the citizens of Cyber Space and regulation of the Cyber Space for a peaceful and harmonious existence of Netizens.
The biggest challenge before Cyber Law is its integration with the legacy system of laws applicable to the physical world.
Since Cyber Space has no geographical boundaries, nor the Netizens have physical characteristics of Sex, Age etc, several conflicts surface when the rights of Netizens are viewed in the eyes of Citizens of a physical space. This is well reflected in the conflict between the Trade mark Laws and system of Domain Names.
There are several countries which have enacted special laws for regulating Cyber Space Transactions of Citizens within their Physical Jurisdiction and these are recognized as the Cyber Laws of the Physical Jurisdiction.
A recent book by Ahmad Kamal entitled "The Law of Cyber-Space" published by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, argues in favor of starting global negotiations on comprehensive and harmonized laws in this domain. The ultimate solution is to “harmonise” the laws of all the countries by making a compatible and commonly acceptable international treaty safeguarding the cyberspace.
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