Social Impact of Cyber Crime

Cyber criminals take full advantage of the anonymity, secrecy and

interconnectedness provided by the Internet, therefore attacking the very
foundations of our modern information society. Cybercrime can involve
botnets, computer viruses, cyber bullying, cyber stalking, cyber terrorism,
cyber pornography, Denial of Service attacks, hacktivism, identity theft,
malware and spam. Law enforcement officials have struggled to keep pace
with cyber criminals, who cost the global economy billions annually. Police
are attempting to use the same tools cyber criminals use to perpetrate
crimes in an effort to prevent those crimes and bring the guilty parties to
justice. This essay begins by defining cyber-crime, and then moves to a
discussion of its economic and social impacts. It continues with detailed
excursions into cyber bullying and cyber pornography, two especially
representative examples of cybercrime today, and concludes with a
discussion of ways to curtail the spread of cybercrime.

Computer-related misdeed designated days back to the sources of

computing itself, though the larger connectivity between computers through
the Internet has conveyed the notion of cyber misdeed into the public
consciousness of our data humanity, where it continues at the start of the
21st century.

In 1995, when the World Wide Web was in its very early phases of
development, futurist Gene Stephens composed about the present and
future truth of cyber misdeed then made some predictions: “Billions of
dollars in deficiency have currently been discovered. Billions more have gone
undetected. Trillions will be thieved, most without detection, by the
appearing expert lawless individual of the twenty-first 100 years – the
cyberspace offender” (Stephens, 1995, p. 24).

Reflecting on his propositions in a 2008 item, Stephens documented that he

and other ones foresaw much of the cyber misdeed to come:
I rightly outlook an blast of mobile telephone time robbery and telephone
fraud; expanded cyber-attacks and deception contrary to government and
business; huge borrowing business card robbery and fraud; interior robbery
of clients’ persona by financially labouring or hungry economic service
employees; more cyber porn, cyber stalking, cyber harassment, and cyber
vengeance; and the use of biometrics and encryption as procedures of
defending facts and numbers in cyberspace (Stephens, 2008, p. 33).

Media accounts since the 1990s have documented the numerous procedures
by which lawless individuals have utilized the Internet to consign crimes.
Cyber thieves have become accomplished at utilizing the anonymity and
secrecy of the Internet to defraud their victims of their cash, their calm
of brain and really even their lives. When victims let their guard down by
muting a wholesome scepticism and caution, cyber misdeed takes place. As
one FBI representative documented, “The scammer endeavours to prey on
victims who are kind of in melody with what’s going on in the world. The con
alterations, but finally they’re preying on the good will of people” (quoted in
Simmons, 2008). Some Social Effects are as follows

On Commerce

The complexity of modern enterprises, their reliance on technology, and the

heightened interconnectivity among organisations that is both a result and a
driver of e-business these are rapidly evolving developments that create
widespread opportunities for theft, fraud, and other forms of exploitation
by offenders both outside and inside an organisation.

With the growth of e-business, internal and external perpetrators can

exploit traditional  vulnerabilities in seconds. They can also take advantage
of new weaknesses—in the software and hardware architectures that now
form the backbone of most organisations. In a networked environment, such
crimes can be committed on a global basis from almost any location in the
world, and they can significantly affect an organisations overall well-being.

A central issue, in both public and private sectors, is whether we are

devoting enough resources to information security. Part of the answer must
come from economic analysis. What are the costs, both historical and
potential, of security breaches?  No one in the field of commerce is
satisfied with our present ability to measure the costs and probabilities of
cyber-attacks. There are no standard methodologies for cost measurement,
and study of the frequency of attacks is hindered by the reluctance of
organizations to make public their experiences with security breaches.

Information security is the safeguarding of computer systems and the

integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the data in addition, cyber-
attacks, or breaches of information security, appear to be increasing in
frequency, and few are willing to ignore the possibility that the severity of
future attacks could be much greater than what has been observed to date.
Their containment has long been recognized as a critical national policy
issue. Several computer security consulting firms produce estimates of total
worldwide losses attributable to virus and worm attacks and to hostile
digital acts in general. The 2003 loss estimates by these firms range from
$13 billion (worms and viruses only) to $226 billion (for all forms of overt
attacks).

The insurance industry’s response to rising perceptions of cyber-risk has

been twofold. Initially, most companies excluded, and continue to exclude,
cyber-attacks from standard business insurance coverage. After this initial
exclusion, several insurers then began selling specialized cyber-risk
policies. Growth of the market has been slow; lacking the empirical data to
construct actuarial tables, insurers are unable to price risk with the degree
of confidence they enjoy in traditional insurance lines. 

As organisations increasingly integrate their systems with those of their

vendors, suppliers, customers, and others, the risks they face multiply. The
shift toward “self-service” systems within and among organisations—
capabilities that offer enormous opportunities for cost savings and other
efficiencies in, for example, human resources, inventory, or billing—also
makes their host organisations increasingly vulnerable.

Apart from inherent technological weaknesses is the lack of e-crime

awareness among many organisations. Many do not realise that the same
technological advancements that have enabled business growth and
innovation are also available to facilitate cyber misbehaviour. In addition,
organisations may not yet understand that protecting assets in the virtual
world is a more complex and exacting endeavour than protecting assets in
the physical world. Organisations may not perceive the extent to which they
can benefit from preparedness efforts.

Direct loss of assets is just one consequence of cyber misbehaviour.

Whether the attack comes from inside or outside the organisation, victims
often suffer from negative publicity, which can harm the organisations
brand and reputation, erode relationships with customers and other
stakeholders, and eat into potential revenue. This ever-present array of
threats underscores the growing need for organisations to develop a cyber
defence program that weaves preventive measures into the fabric of e-
business operations.

Along with a strong emphasis on prevention, a cyber defence program must

also focus on detection in the form of a sound forensic incident response
process. Such a process establishes policies and procedures for
departmental and individual behaviour and encompasses plans for ongoing
communication with employees and other stakeholders, analysts, and the
press.

3.2                        On Social Networking

With malware showing no signs of abating on social networks and continuous

news of the privacy implications of sharing personal details through social
media, it's no surprise users are making more efforts to reduce their risk
of exposure.

Threats targeting social networks are continuously being regenerated in new

versions so their makers can evade detection and spread their malicious
programs relentlessly across users' accounts. Shouldn’t a punishment be
awarded, not only with the aim of reforming the culprit, but also to make it
serve as a deterrent for others? And more so when the case in question
pertains to cyber security.

Recently, the Delhi high court imposed a fine of Rs.20,000 on a man for
posting on a social networking site “objectionable” photographs and the
telephone number of a woman who had studied along with him in the
school. The court imposed the fine while quashing a criminal case registered
against the man under the Information Technology Act (ITA).
While the victim and the accused in this case may have reached an out-of-
court settlement to avoid legal tangles and negative publicity, many argue
that a stringent punishment should be awarded in cybercrime cases since
with widespread usage of social networking sites there is a fear of cyber
harassment, and exemplary punishments can serve as deterrents.

Harassment and stalking of women online is common, and can include rape
threats and other threats of violence, as well as the posting of women's
personal information. It is blamed for limiting victims' activities online or
driving them offline entirely, thereby impeding their participation in online
life and undermining their autonomy, dignity, identity and opportunities.

Cyber stalking of intimate partners is the online harassment of a current or

former spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or significant other. It is a form of
domestic violence, and experts say its purpose is to control the victim in
order to encourage social isolation and create dependency. Harassers may
send repeated insulting or threatening e-mails to their victims, monitor or
disrupt their victims' e-mail use, and use the victim's account to send e-
mails to others posing as the victim or to purchase goods or services the
victim doesn't want. They may also use the internet to research and
compile personal information about the victim, to use in order to harass
her. This being a major effect of social networking websites. 

3.4            On Women

Cybercrime is a global phenomenon. With the advent of technology,

cybercrime and victimization of women are on the high and it poses as a
major threat to the security of a person as a whole. Even though India is
one of the very few countries to enact IT Act 2000 to combat
cybercrimes, issues regarding women still remain untouched in this Act. The
said Act has termed certain offences as hacking, publishing of obscene
materials in the net, tampering the data as punishable offences. But the
grave threat to the security of women in general is not covered fully by
this Act

Types of cybercrime that are committed against women:

Amongst the various cyber-crimes committed against individuals and society

at large the crimes which can be mentioned as specially targeting women
are as follows: –
1.         Harassment via e-mails.

2.         Cyber-stalking.

3.         Cyber pornography.

4.         Defamation.

5.         Morphing.

6.         Email spoofing.

Harassment through e-mails is not a new concept. It is very similar to

harassing through letters. Harassment includes blackmailing, threatening,
bullying, and even cheating via email. E-harassments are similar to the
letter harassment but creates problem quite often when posted from fake
ids.

Cyber stalking is one of the most talked about net crimes in the modern
world. The Oxford dictionary defines stalking as "pursuing stealthily".
Cyber stalking involves following a person's movements across the Internet
by posting messages (sometimes threatening) on the bulletin boards
frequented by the victim, entering the chat-rooms frequented by the
victim, constantly bombarding the victim with emails etc. Cyber Stalking
usually occurs with women, who are stalked by men, or children who are
stalked by adult predators or paedophiles.

Typically, the cyber stalker's victim is new on the web, and inexperienced
with the rules of netiquette & Internet safety. Their main targets are the
mostly females, children, emotionally weak or unstable, etc. It is believed
that over 75% of the victims are female. The motives behind cyber stalking
have been divided in to four reasons, namely, for sexual harassment, for
obsession for love, for revenge and hate and for ego and power
trips. Cyber stalkers target and harass their victims via websites, chat
rooms, discussion forums, open publishing websites (e.g. blogs and Indy
media) and email. The availability of free email and website space, as well
as the anonymity provided by these chat rooms and forums, has contributed
to the increase of cyber stalking as a form of harassment. There are a
couple of reported cases, which speak of the position of the cyber stalking
in India.
The recent being the case of Manish Kathuria who was recently arrested by
the New Delhi Police. He was stalking an Indian lady, Ms Ritu Kohli by
illegally chatting on the Web site MIRC using her name. He used obscene
and obnoxious language, and distributed her residence telephone number,
inviting people to chat with her on the phone. As a result of which, Ritu
kept getting obscene calls from everywhere, and people promptly talked
dirty with her. In a state of shock, she called the Delhi police and
reported the matter. For once, the police department did not waste time
swinging into action, traced the culprit and slammed a case under Section
509 of the Indian Penal Code for outraging the modesty of Ritu Kohli
(Indian child, 2005).

In another case, an engineering and management graduate, facing

prosecution in a dowry harassment case, was arrested by Delhi police for
sending obscene e-mails in his wife’s name to several persons. In June
2000, a man was arrested by the Delhi police for assuming the identity of
his ex-employer’s wife in a chat channel an encouraging other to telephone
net. The victim who was getting obscene telephone calls at night from
stranger made a complaint to the police. The accused was then located “on
line” in the chat room under the identity of the, victim and later traced
through the telephone number used by him to access the internet (Mishra,
2001).

Internet has provided a medium for the facilitation of crimes like

pornography. Cyber porn as it is popularly called is widespread. Almost 50%
of the web sites exhibit pornographic material on the Internet today.
Pornographic materials can be reproduced more quickly and cheaply on new
media like hard disks, floppy discs and CD-ROMs. The new technology is
not merely an extension of the existing forms like text, photographs and
images. Apart from still pictures and images, full motion video clips and
complete movies are also available.

Unfortunately, even though Chapter XI of the IT Act deals with the

offences such as Tampering with computer source documents (s.65),
Hacking with computer system (s66), publishing of information which is
obscene in electronic form (s.67) Access to protected system(s70), Breach
of confidentiality and privacy (s. 72), Publication for fraudulent purpose
(s.74) IT Act 2000 still needs to be modified. It does not mention any
crime specifically as against women and children.
The elementary problems, which are associated with Cyber-Crimes, are
Jurisdiction, Loss of evidence, Lack of cyber army and Cyber savvy judges
who are the need of the day. Judiciary plays a vital role in shaping the
enactment according to the order of the day. One such stage, which needs
appreciation, is the P.I.L., which the Kerala high Court has accepted
through an email. Today with the growing arms of cyberspace the growing
arms of cyberspace the territorial boundaries seem to vanish thus the
concept of territorial jurisdiction as envisaged under S.16 of C.P.C. and
S.2.of the I.P.C. will have to give way to alternative method of dispute
resolution.

Again, under no section in IT ACT 2000, Obscenity – personal viewing – Is

an offence, in fact like in IPC 292 again if it is proved that you have
published or transmitted or caused to be published in the electronic form
only then under Section 67 it can be an offence. Last but not the least,
the IT Act 2000 does not mention the typical cybercrimes like cyber
stalking, morphing and email spoofing as offences.

Only 3% of the total complaints received by the cyber cell of Mumbai crime
branch are converted into FIRs, thanks to the complainant themselves,
most of whom are women. The victims don't want to go ahead in the case
to avoid any social stigma to be attached either to themselves or in some
cases to the offender, as in most of the cases the offenders are minors
and known to the victims.

Complainants including professionals, teachers, airline industries, students

and film personalities approach the police to ensure that the harassment is
stopped and defamatory messages or morphed pictures removed from the
internet. Women netizens are still not open to immediately report the cyber
abuse or cybercrime. The biggest problem of cybercrime lies in the modus
operandi and the motive of the cybercriminal. Cyber space is a transit
space for many people, including offenders. While people do not live in
cyber space, they come and go like any other place. This nature provides
the offenders the chance to escape after the commission of cybercrime.
Many websites and blogs provide security tips for the safety of women and
children in the net. But still then again, cybercrime against women are on
rise.
In reality it is seen many chat friends enjoy teasing their women friends by
words such as “sexy”, “attractive” which are the virtual beginning of cyber
obscenity. They slowly take their female friends into confidence and start
discussing about their own problems like a true friend. Hence in many
occasions they are successful in turning the net friendship into a strong
bond and gradually proceed to send obscene or derogatory remarks. If the
recipient shies away, the sender of such messages would become more
encouraged to continue. The problem would be solved only when the
victimised woman then and there report back or even warn the abuser about
taking strong actions.

While there are increasing resources being developed for parents to monitor
children’s use of the internet and chat sites, very little information exists
about the risks facing women who use the internet.

Online harassment (aka cyber stalking) and related threatening behaviour

are violent acts that are increasing towards women who use the internet to
access information or communicate online. Cyber stalking and related
threatening behaviour are significantly affecting women’s everyday lives.
The stigma and shame women survivors face compound the isolation and
perpetuation of violence against women.

Working in partnership with the Pacific Community Networks Association and

Women space, and with support from the Women and Community Safety
project, factors that lead to online abuse and safety risks for rural women
will be further examined.

A toolkit and training package will be developed to assist staff and

volunteers of public internet sites to gain a greater understanding of online
safety concerns facing female users. The Online Safety for Women project
will also advocate for appropriate responses by government to address
violence against women on the internet.

The BC Rural Women’s Network expects this project will highlight the
increasing risk of violence women face via the internet and help to decrease
vulnerability of marginalized rural women. As the internet becomes more
heavily relied upon as a means of communication and information sharing, it
is essential that users be given information on ways to navigate safely.