Cyber Crime

Growing Cyber Crime

Our lives haven’t been the same ever since the existence of internet. Internet is one of the biggest revolutions in World. It has opened up so many opportunities in terms of trade, finance and education. It is often referred as an ‘ocean of vast knowledge’. While internet has most definitely made our lives better, it has also emerged as an easy way of spreading hatred and anxiety. 

Cyber crime

Cyber crime is one of the leading disadvantages of internet. Almost each and every one of us has been a victim of either cyber-crime or cyber bullying. More than 1 billion people have been a victim of cyber crimes such as internet frauds, social media hacking, virus dissemination, phishing scams etc.

Cyber crime are computer or network-based crimes. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs/National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, a cyber crime may be defined as “any unlawful act where computer or commit or facilitate the commission of crime”.

Few examples of Cyber-Crime are: -

1. Phishing cyber crime: - in these scams the scammer tricks you to give your bank or credit card details and your passwords.

2. Email bombing: - it is an act in which large number of email messages are sent to a single email address in a short period of time. These might not steal any of your personal information but they may result in an unresponsive server.

3. Theft: - Internet theft is the broad term for any type of theft that happens over the internet, this can be done through many ways such as fake ads, fake emails, viruses and snooping. The aim of internet theft is to steal your personal information and use it to then steal money out of your bank account or make purchases using your details.

4. Child soliciting and abuse: - children are the most vulnerable sections of the society and hence they are easily exploited in the cyber world. The offenders often use false identities and chat with young children and start luring the kids towards them.

5. Cyber stalking and Cyber bullying: - these two things are very common in teenagers and young adults. The victim is subjected to online harassment in forms of obscene images and messages, death threats and rape threats.

6. Transmitting virus: - A computer virus is a malware program that infects files, disk drives, and computer programs. Programs that multiply like viruses and spread from computer to computer are called worms. Virus, Worms, Trojan Horse, Time-bomb, Logic Bomb, Rabbit, and Bacterium are some examples of malicious software that infect the computer.

7. Defamation: - Online or cyber defamation involves damaging someone’s reputation in society using a computer or the internet as a medium.

Causes of Cyber crime

1. Easy to access: hackers can nowadays crack into your computer’s firewall very easily due to advancement in technologies.

2. Negligence: more often than not, people neglect using security systems that will help them keep their data safe.

3. Loss of evidence: the data related to cyber crime can easily be destroyed, so the loss of evidence has become a very common problem which immobilizes the whole investigation process.

Why do we need to protect ourselves from Cyber-crime?

Cyber criminals can go to any extend to steal your money and personal information. They might also be involved in some other illicit acts like child trafficking racket or drug dealing racket. Cyber bullying is another crime that pushes people especially children over the edge, the amount of hatred that one gets through the internet take a toll on a person’s mental health, and eventually the bullying forces a person in to depression or he decides to end his life. 

Methods to protect yourself from cyber crime:-

1. Use strong and unique passwords.
2. Keep your social media account private.
3. Protect your computer with anti-virus software.
4. Secure your mobile devices.
5. Protect your identity online and refrain from talking to strangers.
6. If some one is harassing you by sending you obscene images and messages then immediately report them to police. Do not respond to these messages without contacting the police first. To report cybercrime complaints online, visit the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. This portal can be accessed at https://cybercrime.gov.in/. In this portal, there are two sections. One section is to report crimes related to Women and Children (where reports can be filed anonymously as well) and the other section is to report about other crimes. 
Do not store your card details on websites. 
Always use two step verification process on social media accounts. 
Avoid downloading and responding to mails and messages from unknown sources. 
Always keep your systems/devices (desktop, laptop, mobile) updated with latest patches.
 
Remember - “One single vulnerability is all an attacker need.” So be cyber smart, be cyber safe.

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