Computer Crimes

Computer crime is any crime that is committed with a computer over a network. The computer
or network may be the target of the crime, or the computer may be the device utilized to carrying
out other crimes. Computer crimes falls into two general categories: those that target computer
networks or devices and those that use a computer network to target individuals.

Computer crimes
a) Uploading of obscene /offensive content –uploading of content that maligns or have
negative impacts on individuals’ behavior e.g. uploading child pornography.
b) Malicious Hacking(Cracking)- infiltrating secure computer systems by use of programs
with the intention of stealing, destroying or corrupting a company's or individual's private
information or data files
c) Cybercrimes- 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)".
d) Cyber terrorism - use of Internet based attacks in terrorist activities, including acts of
deliberate, large-scale disruption of computer networks, especially of personal computers
attached to the Internet, by the means of tools such as computer viruses.Cyberterrorrism
can also be defined as intentional use of computers, networks, and public internet to
cause destruction and harm for personal objectives which may be political or ideological.
e) Cyberbully or Cyberstalking - Harassing others online.
f) Creating Malware - Writing, creating, or distributing malware such as viruses; worms,
Trojan horses, spyware.
g) Denial of Service attack(DoS) - a form of attacking computer network (e.g. a
company’s computer network by sending millions or more requests(packets of data)
every second causing the network to slow down, cause errors or shut down a network
making it unaccessible . Because it is difficult for a single individual to generate enough
traffic for a DoS attack to be successful, these attacks are usually run from multiple
computers infected by worms that have created zombie computers to all run at the same
time to generate a DoS attack
h) Fraud - Manipulating data, e.g. changing banking records to transfer money to an
account.
i) Identity theft - the act of a person obtaining information illegally about someone else.
Often the thief will try finding such information as social security number, passwords,
phone numbers, email, family information, credit card numbers, other credit information,
etc; the thief can then use this information to gain access to bank accounts, e-mail, cell
phones, identify themselves as you, or sells your information. ending to be someone you
are not.
 j) Intellectual property theft/copyright infringement – the use of works protected by
copyright law without permission infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the
copyright holder such as the right to reproduce,distribute,display or perform the protected
work or make derivates
k) Phishing -the act whereby malicious individual or group of individuals scam users by
sending e-mails or creating web pages that are designed to collect individual's online
bank, credit card, or other login information since the e-mails and web pages look like
legitimate companies users trust them and enter their personal information
l) Spamming - Distributing unsolicited e-mail(junk e-mail) to thousands or millions of
peoples email addresses without prior approval, promoting a particular product, service
or a scam to get other people's money
m) Spoofing - Deceiving a system into thinking you are someone you really are not.
n) Wiretapping - A form of electronic eavesdropping accomplished by seizing or
overhearing communications by means of a concealed recording or listening device
connected to the transmission line.
o) Espionage- the act or practice of spying. the use of spies by a government to discover the
military and political secrets of other nations.the use of spies by a corporation or the like
to acquire the plans, technical knowledge, etc., of a competitor.

Ways of Preventing Computer Crimes

Use of a Firewall-. A firewall is a virtual barrier that disallows information from making its way
into the network without authorization by blocking out any data that has not been intentionally
permitted by the network administrator. Any computer network should be protected by a
firewall. While this is an extremely helpful preventive measure, it can be circumnavigated and it
does nothing to protect the network from an internal problem.

Use of updated Anti-Virus Software- There are a number of anti-virus software options that
will help prevent these harmful programs from getting onto a network or a single computer such
as kaspersky,Norton,Microsoft essentials,SAMDAV among others.

Use of Intrusion Detection Systems-An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a good secondary
line of defense in addition to a firewall since it can help indicate when an internal attack is
taking place or when a hacker has bypassed a firewall and obtained access to the system.This
system identifies statistical deviations and points out unusual behavior within the network. When
activity that is inconsistent with the typical tasks performed on the network occur, the IDS flags
the activity and its source, alerting the appropriate people that an intrusion may be happening.
The system can also be programmed to detect when certain areas of the network are tampered
with and can act as a sort of burglar alarm against intrusions.

Restrict Access To computer networks and network devices –this is accomplished by

restricting access to all terminals(devices) on a network or on a single computer by making sure
that access to the network terminals/computer is only possible with a secret password to avoid
physical intrusion on the terminals
Never open an executable email attachment or attachment from an unknown source without
first knowing the contents and source of this file since (e.g. .exe ,.vbs) since viruses, worms or
other malicious programs can be transmitted via the attachments .

Use of backups-If a computer virus or an invading hacker deletes your files, or either one
corrupts your files, the easiest way to restore your computer may be to reformat the hard drive(s)
and then copy files from a recent backup. Backups also offer protection from more common (and
less exotic) threats such as accidental deletion of a file by an authorized user or failure of a hard
disk drive

Ignore pop-ups-Pop-ups can contain malicious software which can trick a user into verifying
something as he verifies a download is performed in the background, which will install malware.
Always ignore pop-ups offering things like site surveys on ecommerce sites, as they are
sometimes contain malcode.

Use of antispyware- is a type of program designed to prevent and detect unwanted spyware
program installations and to remove those programs if installed. Detection may be either rules-
based or based on downloaded definition files that identify currently active spyware programs.