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Cyber Crime Assignment
Cyber Crime Assignment
1. INTRODUCTION
2. CONTENT
2.1 CLASSIFICATION OF CYBER CRIMES
2.2 COMPARISON OF CYBER CRIMES IN MALAYSIA AND USA
2.3 SUGGESTIONS
3. CONCLUSION
4. REFERENCES
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The last decade of the twentieth century was the decade of the internet and world-wideweb (web). The internet, which was primarily used by academic institutions and the military,
became vast accessible to the public with the invention of the world-wide-web (web). This
started a world-wide trend in developing web sites not only for personal and research
purposes, but for information dissemination by governments and as a tool for electronic
commerce by commercial organizations situated around the world. But the popularity and
ease of use of the internet technology also attracted criminals who rapidly adapted to the
technology, using its anonymity and global reach to commit crimes directed not only at
private citizens but also against governments and nations.
The growing danger from crimes committed against computers, or against information on
computers is beginning to claim attention nationwide. Cyber criminals have very rapidly
adapted to developments in technology, specifically internet technology, and use its
characteristics of transience, anonymity, speed and vast spread to commit various types of
crimes such as obtaining computer hardware and software illegally, computer hacking,
viruses, fraud and identity theft, music and movie piracy, and more.
Cyber crime is a concept that has different definitions. Based on Wikipedia (cybercrime,
2006), cyber crime is a term used broadly to describe criminal activity in which computers or
communication networks as the tools, targets or places of criminal activity. Meanwhile,
Oxford Reference Online defines the cyber crime as a crime committed over the internet. A.J
Surin (2009) writes that cyber crime also known as computer crime. The Encyclopedia
Brittanica defines computer crime as any crime that is committed by means of special
knowledge or expert use of computer technology.
Based on the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ), there are various types of cyber crimes
reported over the years such as obtaining computer hardware, peripherals and software
illegally, crimes that target a computer network or device directly such as computer hacking,
viruses, worms, malware and spyware, fraud and identity theft, cyber terrorism, child
pornography and other misuses of information technology.
2.0 CONTENT
as files, web pages or software. The impact of computer hacking varies from being
simply invasive and annoying to illegal.
Some cyber criminals use computers and networks as place of criminal
activity such as financial fraud. Financial fraud encompasses wide range of illegal
behavior, from mortgage scams to tax fraud. The examples of financial fraud are
bankruptcy fraud, computer-based fraud, mail fraud, medicare fraud, student loan
fraud, tax fraud and more. All of these crimes may results the lost of trust and
confident for users to use information technology in their daily life activities.
Computers and networks also become new facilitators for older crimes such as
online child pornography, online gambling, phishing, espionage and terrorism.
2.2 COMPARISON OF CYBER CRIMES IN MALAYSIA AND USA
In USA, The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in collaboration with the
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), have published the report that shows cyber
crime continue to be on the increase. The most common victim complaints in 2010
were non-delivery of payment/merchandise, scams impersonating the FBI and
identity theft. Victims of these crimes reported losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cyberstalking impacts millions within the USA and a substantial number of
cyberstalking victims are victims of domestic abuse. The most frequent cyber
crimes reported in USA are spam, fraud, offensive content, harassment, drug
trafficking, cyber terrorism and cyber warfare. More than 20 cases are reported
each month just for cyber terrorism crime. The statistics Sofaer and Goodman
provide about the costs to governments and businesses alone make one gasp. The
CSI survey found that total financial losses from frauds, virus attacks, sabotage and
denial-of-service pranks rose from about $100 million in 1997 to $266 million in
2000. In August 2010, the international investigation Operation Delego, operating
under the aegis of the Department of Homeland Security, shut down the
international pedophile ring Dreamboard. The website has approximately 600
members, and may have distributed up to 123 terabyte of child pornography.
In Malaysia, cyber crime had increased each day and becoming more serious
and intense crime lately. Recently, a group of hackers known as Anonymous had
attacked the government websites, mainly in the .gov.my domain. Calling it as
Operation Malaysia, Anonymous managed to attack fifty one websites and forty
one of the sites suffered various levels of disruption, in June 2011. The Star
newspaper reported that more than four thousand cyber crimes cases have been
lodged with Cybersecurity Malaysia in the past two years. The complaints are
mostly consisted of hack threats, fraud, denial-of-services and other computer
problems such as files lost or corrupted by viruses.
In USA, the state governments have the greatest influence over most
Americans daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution, government and
code of laws including cyber crime acts. There are sometimes great different in law
and procedure between each state, concerning issues such as property, health and
education. On the other hand, each state in Malaysia uses the same acts even for
cyber crimes act. The Malaysian cyber laws consist of Computer Crime Act 1997,
Digital Signature Act 1997, Telemedicine Act 1997, Communication and Multimedia
Act 1998 and Optical Disk Act 2000. These acts cover the misuse of computers and
complement the existing criminal legislation such as unauthorized access,
unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate other crimes and
unauthorized modification, gave an interpretation of computers, computers
networks, output, data, functions, programs and premises, wrongful communication,
abetment and attempts punishable as offences and presumptions.
2.3 SUGGESTIONS
For Malaysia to be a world leading country in ICT development and be a
global centre and hub for communication and multimedia information and content
services, a law needs to be formed to promote a high level of consumer confidence
and to protect the information security and network reliability and integrity.
Therefore, the first important step that should be taken by the government to
combat this new type of crime is by introducing a new legal framework to facilitate
the development of ICT systems. There are some suggestions and strategies to fight
cyber crimes. First, the national efforts and those of the international organizations
have to reinforce each other, achieving a nearly global attention to the problem of
cyber crime and terrorism and promoting international harmonization of legal
approaches. The governments should assure that the laws apply to cyber crimes. In
Malaysia, national government remains the dominant authority for regulating
criminal behavior. Current laws ought to be updated. Enactments of enforceable
computer crime laws that also respect the rights of individuals are an essential step
in the battle against this emerging threat. Cyberlaws extend to more than just
computers. It extends to any device that has a computing function, including mobile
phones. Extending the rule of law into cyberspace is a critical step to create a
trustworthy environment for people and businesses. Because that extension a work
in progress, organizations today must first and foremost defend their own systems
and information from attack, be it from outsiders or from within.
Second, the firms should secure their networked information. Laws to enforce
property rights work only when property owner take reasonable steps to protect
their property in the first place. Even where laws are adequate, firm dependent on
the network must make their own information and systems secure. And where
enforceable laws are months or years away, this responsibility is even more
significant. To provide this self-protection, organizations should focus on
implementing cyber security plans addressing people, process and technology
issues. Organizations need to commit the resources to educate employees on
security practices, develop thorough plans for the handling of sensitive data,
records and transactions, and incorporate robust security technology such as
they pay when companies they patronize are victimized and the extra taxpayer they
spend every year in response to computer-related crimes.
3.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, computer crimes are still on the rise. It is easy to commit a
crime whether we realize it or not. There are a lot of tools available on the internet
that can be used to commit all sorts of crimes such as fraud, identity theft, scams,
denial of service attack, hacking and breaking in and so forth. Cybercriminals take
advantage of the speed propagation, global reach, anonymity and transience of the
internet to commit crimes. Cyber crimes are currently an important global issue that
has the potential of adversely affecting international economics, commerce,
security and human rights. A lot of actions and approaches have been taken by the
government as well as private sectors to try to fight the computer crimes. In
Malaysia, the government has set up legal frameworks that are used to punish the
offenders such as the Cyber Laws of Malaysia apart from the technical approaches
taken by the individual organizations. Though there is no proof approach that can be
taken to stop computer crimes from occurring, but by having these approaches
applied efficiently and effectively, it is hope that it will put the problem under
control. The weak penalties in most updated criminal statutes provide limited
deterrence for crimes that can have large-scale economic and social effect. On the
other hand, the general weakness of statutes increases the importance of private
sector efforts to develop and adopt strong and efficient technical solutions and
management practices for information security. Whatever actions we take, public
awareness on cyber crime and how bad it will affect us in future is still plays an
important role.
4.0 REFERENCES
1. cybercrime (2006), Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.Retrieved 14:28, April 3,
2006 from http://en.wkipedia.org/w/index.php?title=cybercrime&oldid
2. Subramaniam, Are Cybercrime Laws Keeping Up With The Triple Convergence of
Information and Technology?, http://www.iima.org/ciima/7 ciima6-1 39=50
3. cybercrime, Oxford Reference, www.oxfordreference.com/views/entry.html?
ssid75131518entry
4. h.g laws, http://www.org.hg.org/computer-crime.html
5. article of cyber crimes: The Net is Not in a Legal Vacuum, New Sunday Times,
Sunday, 31 August 2008.
6. Johanna Granville, Dot.Con: The Dangers of Cyber Crime and a Call for Proactive
Solutions, Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol.49, no1 (winter
2003),pp.102-109