Article written by Gerard Sylvester for SAMACHAR

1. tech navigator
Property related crimes are a few categories
under which of cyber crimes are classified
into.
The Indian Information Technology Act
(2000) is primarily meant to legislation to
promote e-commerce and lacks the teeth
to handle cyber crime effectively. To add
to this, our law enforcement authorities are
quite inept to handle this new type of crime
and criminals.
Some Cyber crimes that we frequently hear
about are
Unauthorised access to
computer systems
This broadly falls into the term hacking.
Unauthorized use, or attempts to
circumvent or bypass the security
mechanisms of an information system or
network is termed as hacking.
Email Bombing
Email bombing is characterized by abusers
repeatedly sending an email message to a
particular address at a specific victim site.
T HE increased use of computers and
the Internet has given raise to a new
breed of criminals – Cybercriminals.
Wikipedia defines Cybercrime as a term
Most cases this is designed to chock
bandwidth and to exhaust existing system
resources so as to bring down the system
used broadly to describe activity in which or the service that the system provides. This
computers or networks are a tool, a target, may inturn lead to a denial-of-service attack.
or a place of criminal activity.
Email spamming is a variant of bombing;
In 1820, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile it refers to sending email to hundreds or
manufacturer in France, produced the thousands of users (or to lists that expand
By Gerard Sylvester
loom. This device allowed the repetition to that many users). Email spamming can
of a series of steps in the weaving of be made worse if recipients reply to the
special fabrics. This resulted in a fear email, causing all the original addressees to
amongst Jacquard’s employees that their receive the reply.
traditional employment and livelihood were
being threatened. They committed acts of VIRUS/Trojan horse/Worms
sabotage to discourage Jacquard from A computer virus is a computer program
further use of the new technology. This, that can copy itself and infect a computer
they say, is the first recorded cyber crime! without permission or knowledge of the
user. The original may modify the copies
Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS), or the copies may modify themselves, as
Email Bombing, VIRUS, Unauthorized occurs in a metamorphic virus. A virus can
access, Cyber stalking, Email/Website only spread from one computer to another
Spoofing, Pornography and Intellectual when its host is taken to the uninfected
[turn on page 47]
Gerard Sylvester can be reached at sylvester_26@yahoo.com
Page 40 SAMACHAR July-August 2007
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computer, for instance by a user will never manifest itself in the physical
sending it over a network or carrying sense but this does not mean that the
it on a removable medium such as a pursuit is any less distressing. There are
floppy disk, CD, USB drive or by a wide variety of means by which
the Internet. individuals may seek out and harass
individuals even though they may not
Data Diddling share the same geographic borders, and
Data diddling involves changing data this may present a range of physical,
prior or during input into a computer. emotional, and psychological
In other words, infor mation is consequences to the victim.
changed from the way it should be
entered by a person typing in the Child Pornography
data, a virus that changes data, the Child Pornography is a part of cyber
programmer of the database or pornography but it is such a grave
application, or anyone else involved offence that it is individually also
in the process of having information recognized as a cyber crime. The
stored in a computer file. The culprit Internet is being highly used by its
can be anyone involved in the abusers to reach and abuse children
process of creating, recording, sexually, worldwide. The Internet
encoding, examining, checking, explosion has made the children a viable
converting, or transmitting data. victim to the cyber crime. As more
This is one of the simplest methods homes have access to Internet, more
of committing a computer-related children would be using the Internet
crime, because it requires almost no and more are the chances of falling
computer skills whatsoever. Despite victim to the aggression of pedophiles.
the ease of committing the crime, The pedophiles use their false identity
the cost can be considerable. to trap children and even contact them
in various chat rooms where they
Salami Slicing befriend them and gain personal
Salami slicing is the illegal practice information from the innocent preys.
of stealing money repeatedly in They even start contacting children on
extremely small quantities, usually by their e-mail addresses. These pedophiles
taking advantage of rounding to the drag children to the net for the purpose
nearest cent (or other monetary unit) of sexual assault or so as to use them
in financial transactions. It would be as a sex object.
done by always rounding down, and
putting the fractions of a cent into Cyber Defamation
another account. Salami slicing is Any derogatory statement, which is
most often performed by employees designed to injure a person’s business
of the corporation that handles those or reputation, constitutes cyber
transactions, and, if not guarded defamation. Defamation can be
against, it can be difficult to detect. accomplished as libel or slander. Cyber
defamation occurs when defamation
Cyber Stalking takes place with the help of computers
Cyberstalking, which is simply an and / or the Internet. E.g. someone
extension of the physical form of publishes defamatory matter about
stalking, is where the electronic someone on a website or sends e-mails
mediums such as the Internet are containing defamatory information to
used to pursue, harass or contact all of that person’s friends.Be a safe
another in an unsolicited fashion. Netizen! (a portmanteau of Internet
Most often, given the vast distances and citizen).
that the Internet spans, this behavior ***
SAMACHAR July-August 2007 Page 43