i

DR. SHAKUNTALA MISRA NATIONAL

REHABILITATION UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

FACULTY OF LAW

PROJECT- ON
“CYBER CRIME & ETHICS IN COMPUTER EDUCATION”

SUBMITTED TO
DR. VIJETA DUA TONDON
ASSISTANT PROFFESOR
FACULTY OF LAW
D.S.M.N.R.U

SUBMITTED BY
PRAWARTIKA SINGH
B.COM.LL.B(HONS)
IX SEMESTER
143070032

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TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION 01
MODES OF CYBER CRIME 03-05
CYBER CRIMINAL 05-06
ETHICS IN COMPUTER EDUCATION 06-07
07-10
FEASIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PREVENT HACKERS: AN ETHICAL &
SOCIAL ISSUE
REFRENCES 12

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CYBER CRIME – AN INTRODUCTION

What is Crime? Crime is a social and economic phenomenon and is as old as the human society. Crime
is a legal concept and has the sanction of the law. Crime or an offence is “a legal wrong that can be
followed by criminal proceedings which may result into punishment So, what is Cyber crime. It is any
illegal activity using computer software, data or access as the object, subject or instrument of the
crime. Cyber crime is the latest and perhaps the most complicated problem in the cyber world. Cyber
crime may be said to be those species, of which, genus is the conventional crime, and where either the
computer is an object or subject of the conduct constituting crime This term has now here been defined
in any Act passed by the Indian Parliament.

MODE OF COMMITTING CYBER CRIME

 Virus / worm/Trojans attacks-

Viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or a file and then circulate themselves
to other files and to other computers on a network. They usually affect the data on a computer,
either by altering or deleting it. Worms, unlike viruses do not need the host to attach themselves to.
They merely make functional copies of themselves and do this repeatedly till they eat up all the
available space on a computer's memory. E.g. love bug virus, which affected at least 5 % of the
computers of the globe.

 Unauthorized access to computer systems or networks / Hacking-

This kind of offence is normally referred as hacking in the generic sense. However the framers of
the information technology act 2000 have no where used this term so to avoid any confusion we
would not interchangeably use the word hacking for ‘unauthorized access’ as the latter has wide
connotation.

 Theft of information

This includes information stored in computer hard disks, removable storage media etc. Theft may
be either by appropriating the data physically or by tampering them through the virtual medium.

 Phishing

The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in
an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity
theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal
information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the
legitimate organization already has.

 Cyber Pornography

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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.)

 Cyber Stalking

The Oxford dictionary defines stalking as "pursuing stealthily". Cyber stalking involves following
a person's movements across the Internet by posting messages (sometimes threatening) on the
bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering the chat-rooms frequented by the victim,
constantly bombarding the victim with emails

 Logic bombs

These are event dependent programs. This implies that these programs are created to do something
only when a certain event (known as a trigger event) occurs. E.g. even some viruses may be
termed logic bombs because they lie dormant all through the year and become active only on a
particular date

 Web jacking

This term is derived from the term hi jacking. In these kinds of offences the hacker gains
access and control over the web site of another. He may even mutilate or change the
information on the site. E.g. recently the site of MIT (Ministry of Information Technology) was
hacked by the Pakistani hackers and some obscene matter was placed therein. Further the site
of Bombay crime branch was also web jacked. Another case of web jacking is that of the ‘gold
fish’ case. In this case the site was hacked and the information pertaining to gold fish was
changed. Further a ransom of US $ 1 million was demanded as ransom.

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WHAT TYPE OF CYBER ATTACK HURTS COMPANIES MOST?

A recent survey shows the tremendous impact cyber crime is having on companies/organizations in
the India.

With that statistic on the rise, it’s easy to understand why sales of security software and hardware
have also jumped.

CYBER CRIMINALS:

The cyber criminals constitute of various groups/ category. This division may be justified on the basis
of the object that they have in their mind. The following are the category of cyber criminals-

1. Children and adolescents between the age group of 6 – 18 years

The simple reason for this type of delinquent behaviour pattern in children is seen mostly due to
the inquisitiveness to know and explore the things.

2. Organised hackers

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These kinds of hackers are mostly organised together to fulfil certain objective. The reason may be
to fulfil their political bias, fundamentalism, etc. Further the NASA as well as the Microsoft sites is
always under attack by the hackers.

3. Professional hackers / crackers

Their work is motivated by the color of money. These kinds of hackers are mostly employed to
hack the site of the rivals and get credible, reliable and valuable information.

4. Discontented employees

This group include those people who have been either sacked by their employer or are dissatisfied
with their employer. To avenge they normally hack the system of their employee.

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WE MUST CONTROL THE CYBER CRIME PROBLEM AND MAKE THE

INTERNET A SAFE PLACE FOR ITS USERS.

ETHICS IN COMPUTER EDUCATION

Generally speaking, ethics is the set of rules for determining moral standards or what is considered as
socially acceptable behaviours. Today, many computer users are raising questions on what is and is not
ethical with regard to activities involving information technology. Obviously, some general guidelines
on ethics are useful responsibly in their application of information technology.
General guidelines on computer ethics are needed for:

 Protection of personal data

 Computer Crime

 Cracking

These are serious ethical issues since it involves invasion of privacy, people’s privilege would be
violated and that the integrity of the data is also questionable.

FEASIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PREVENT HACKERS: AN ETHICAL & SOCIAL

ISSUE:

A firewall is a hardware or software device which is configured to permit, deny, or proxy data through
a computer network, can be used to prohibit unauthorized members, such as hackers from entering a
network.

Biometrics is also a solution. A school network can implement fingerprint recognition, facial
recognition, or voice recognition to authenticate users. Hence, any unauthorized members would be
rejected to access the computer database.

<<=
Picture
of a
firewall

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Picture of facial recognition =>

Cyber Crime may have disastrous consequences on the economy of the country. Organizations
& individuals may cause extensive losses at the hands of cyber criminals. It is therefore
imperative to deal with the various ways in which cyber crime can be prevented. Prevention is
always better than cure. It is always better to take certain precaution while operating the net

The development of modern conveniences has brought us many benefits, it also caused several
major problems. Storing data collection in a computerized format allows teachers and students
to access particular information easily by the use of IT methods, However, the drawback is that
the data is at risk, since cybercrime is so common in this day and age. It is important the people
know what they are doing with their computers, they should not be using peer-to-peer software,
or downloading illicit material, reason being:

a) they might get a virus or become hacked.

b) it's unethical!. If people take responsibility and use the computer appropriately, the effects of
the problems can be reduced to a minimum.

It is possible if there is:

1) Education & awareness

Many private & government schools educate students in relation to computers and present
subjects in respect of information technology. It is important that young persons should be
educated in respect of computer ethics at school level. Many hackers & cyber criminals
have some training in the field of information technology. The training of students at
universities in these fields should include the teaching of ethics & values.

A netizen should keep in mind the following things-

1. To prevent cyber stalking avoid disclosing any information pertaining to oneself.

This is as good as disclosing your identity to strangers in public place.

2. Always avoid sending any photograph online particularly to strangers and chat
friends as there have been incidents of misuse of the photographs.

3. Always use latest and up date anti virus software to guard against virus attacks.

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4. Always keep back up volumes so that one may not suffer data loss in case of virus
contamination

5. Never send your credit card number to any site that is not secured, to guard against
frauds.

6. Always keep a watch on the sites that your children are accessing to prevent any kind
of harassment or depravation in children.

7. It is better to use a security programme that gives control over the cookies and send
information back to the site as leaving the cookies unguarded might prove fatal.

8. web site owners should watch traffic and check any irregularity on the site. Putting
host-based intrusion detection devices on servers may do this.

9. use of firewalls may be beneficial.

10 Web servers running public sites must be physically separate protected from internal
corporate network.

2) Information Technology Security

Security should be directed at organizational level. At organizational level, the main

frame of the computer system as well as the important physical areas should be secure
against intrusion. 3

3) Detection and reporting

Corporations are sometime reluctant to report cyber offences and computer related
fraud . A whistle blowing system to report any cyber crimes should be implemented.

4) International cooperation

Cyber crime is a global problem & it often has global implications. The effective
cooperation between countries in respect of detection, investigation & prosecution of a
cyber crime will be effective to prevent cyber crime.

SECURITY TECHNOLOGIES USED BY THE VARIOUS

ORGANIZATIONS- A SURVEY:

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There was a large variety of security technologies being used among respondents. Usage of
Antivirus software was almost universal with 98%. Firewalls were close behind with over 90%
either using software or hardware firewalls. Operating system safeguards, such as limits on
which users could install software, password complexity requirements, and periodic password
changes were used by about half of respondents. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) proved to be
a popular means of achieving security with a 46% response. Advanced techniques such as
biometrics (4%) and smartcards (7%) were implemented infrequently; however, it is
anticipated that these numbers may increase in future surveys. Organizations used on average
7.8 of the security methods listed. Interestingly, having more security measures did not mean a
reduction in attacks. In fact there was a significantly positive correlation between the number
of security measures employed and the number of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. It is likely
that organizations that are attractive targets of attacks are also most likely to both experience
attack attempts and to employ more aggressive computer security measures. Also,
organizations employing more technologies would likely be better able to be aware of
computer security incidents aimed at their organizations

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CONCLUSION:

Capacity of human mind is unfathomable. We would conclude that it is not possible to

eliminate cyber crime from the cyber space. It is quite possible to check them. History is the
witness that no legislation has succeeded in totally eliminating crime from the globe. The only
possible step is to make people aware of their rights and duties (to report crime as a collective
duty towards the society) and further making the application of the laws more stringent to
check crime. Undoubtedly the Act is a historical step in the cyber world. Further We all
together do not deny that there is a need to bring changes in the Information Technology Act to
make it more effective to combat cyber crime.

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REFERENCES:

[1] Wm. Arthur Conklin,Gregory B. White, ChunkCothren,Dwayne Williams,Roger

L.Davis,”Principle ofcomputer security”.

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[2] Anton Chuvakin and Cyrus Peikari,”Protect yourselfAgainst Denial-of-Service

Attacks”, O’REILLY Windows

[3] Flexi Mohan,CEO- SecureSynergy posted on 31 october 2003 ”Future of Wireless

LAN Security”

[4] Mark Grimes, Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS): Threats and Safeguards.

[5] Avleen Viq,”Preventing Denjal of Service Attacks”, 24Pth PJune 2004 O’REILLY

WEB REFERENCES:

http://www.reportcybercrime.com

http://www.naavi.org

http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/cf

www.spamlaws.com

www.netsmartz.org

http://www.dcfl.gov/dc3/home.htm

http://www.reportcybercrime.com/statusofcybercrime.php

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