What is Cyber Crime?
Norton, a very popular anti-virus software developed by symantec, cites the definition of cyber crime from the Council of Europe's Cybercrime Treaty who uses the term 'cybercrime' to refer to offenses ranging from criminal activity against data to content and copyright infringement [Krone, 2005]. They continued to say, "however, others [Zeviar-Geese, 1997-98] suggest that the definition is broader, including activities such as fraud, unauthorized access, child pornography, and cyberstalking. The United Nations Manual on the Prevention and Control of Computer Related Crime includes fraud, forgery, and unauthorized access [United Nations, 1995] in its cybercrime definition."
Another definition of cyber crime is given by Futures Working Group (2010) who defines it as " any criminal offense that is committed or facilitated through the use of the communication capabilities of computers and computer systems.”
Another source, diG Jamaica, defines cyber crime as: "Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm to the victim directly or indirectly, using modern telecommunication networks such as Internet (Chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups) and mobile phones (SMS/MMS)"
Another definition of cyber crime is given by Futures Working Group (2010) who defines it as " any criminal offense that is committed or facilitated through the use of the communication capabilities of computers and computer systems.”
Another source, diG Jamaica, defines cyber crime as: "Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm to the victim directly or indirectly, using modern telecommunication networks such as Internet (Chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups) and mobile phones (SMS/MMS)"
Characteristics of Cyber Crime
Norton classifies cyber crime into two groups as well as list their characteristics:
Type I cybercrime has the following characteristics:
Examples of this type of cybercrime include but are not limited to phishing, theft or manipulation of data or services via hacking or viruses, identity theft, and bank or e-commerce fraud.
Type II cybercrime, at the other end of the spectrum, includes, but is not limited to activities such as cyberstalking and harassment, child predation, extortion, blackmail, stock market manipulation, complex corporate espionage, and planning or carrying out terrorist activities. The characteristics of Type II cybercrime are:
Type I cybercrime has the following characteristics:
- It is generally a single event from the perspective of the victim. For example, the victim unknowingly downloads a Trojan horse which installs a keystroke logger on his or her machine. Alternatively, the victim might receive an e-mail containing what claims to be a link to known entity, but in reality is a link to a hostile website.
- It is often facilitated by crimeware programs such as keystroke loggers, viruses, rootkits or Trojan horses.
- Software flaws or vulnerabilities often provide the foothold for the attacker. For example, criminals controlling a website may take advantage of a vulnerability in a Web browser to place a Trojan horse on the victim's computer.
Examples of this type of cybercrime include but are not limited to phishing, theft or manipulation of data or services via hacking or viruses, identity theft, and bank or e-commerce fraud.
Type II cybercrime, at the other end of the spectrum, includes, but is not limited to activities such as cyberstalking and harassment, child predation, extortion, blackmail, stock market manipulation, complex corporate espionage, and planning or carrying out terrorist activities. The characteristics of Type II cybercrime are:
- It is generally an on-going series of events, involving repeated interactions with the target. For example, the target is contacted in a chat room by someone who, over time, attempts to establish a relationship. Eventually, the criminal exploits the relationship to commit a crime. Or, members of a terrorist cell or criminal organization may use hidden messages to communicate in a public forum to plan activities or discuss money laundering locations, for example.
- It is generally facilitated by programs that do not fit into under the classification crimeware. For example, conversations may take place using IM (instant messaging) clients or files may be transferred using FTP.
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