Cyber News and Network security

The Internet which connects millions of people in a global network has created a new breed of crimes, cyber crimes. Cyber crimes are criminal activities which are committed by using computers or networks.

The most common cyber crimes are*

1. Hacking * Hacking is trespassing into another's computer and gain unauthorized access to commit crimes like data, fraud and identity theft. Hackers use soft wares like spyware and adware which are often found in free wares available for download from the internet, to infiltrate a computer for information.

2. Credit card fraud and Phishing * Phishing is setting up bogus websites that look like those of legitimate websites. They spam out e-mails with spoofed addresses of legitimate sites like banks, credit card companies or online retailers and pose as customer service representatives to request online passwords to steal credit card numbers. The e-mails contain either a form to fill out personal information or a link to the crooks' phoney website.

3. Sending Virus * Computer viruses are small software programs which spread from one computer to another, creating havoc with computer operation, corrupt or delete data on the computer, use the e-mail program to spread itself to other computers. Viruses come disguised as attachments of funny images, greeting cards, audio or video files. They are also hidden in illicit files or programs downloaded from the internet.

4. Cyber stalking * Cyber stalking is stalking a victim's online activity which the stalker uses to threaten and intimidate the victim. Stalking is common due to the anonymity of the internet and this harassment can be as frightening as being followed in your locality or home.

5. Pornography and Child pornography* Pornographic material on the internet is illegal. Child pornography is pornography that uses (or appears to use) children in lewd manner .The newest issue involves morphing photos, where children's heads are attached to adults' bodies which have been miniaturized.

6. Denial of service attack or Email bombing * Email bombing is sending a large amount of emails to a victim's email box resulting in the victim's email account or mail server crashing.

7.Software Piracy * Genuine programs or soft wares are counterfeited while hackers break the code and distribute the key numbers, owing to which retail revenue losses are incurred.

8. IRC Crimes * Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers have chat rooms which hackers, terrorists and perverts misuse. Paedophiles use chat rooms to allure small children.

9. Cyber Defamation * The criminal sends emails or posts defamatory matter on a website. Usually, disgruntled employees or jilted lovers resort to this.

10. Salami Attack * The criminal makes a program that deducts a small amount say, a dollar per month from the account of Bank customers and deposits it in his account. Neither will the account holder notice nor approach the bank for this small amount but criminals profit a huge amount.

11.Net Extortion * This is copying a company's confidential data to extort money from the company.

12. Cyber Terrorism * Using a technology called steganography, terrorists communicate with their henchmen by encrypting messages into image files. Terrorist groups also create hate communities in certain websites.

There are Cyber Crime Investigative and Forensic Agent cells all over the world that are trained to deal with cyber crimes and scrutinize mediums such as hard disks, floppy disks and other storage devices!