e-crime and e-customers - An analysis of Cyber Crime .....

e-crime and e-customers - An analysis of Cyber Crime (Thieves are not born, but made out of Opportunities)
Dr. Giridhar K.V.*

ABSTRACT
For the foreseeable future, two things will be true: We will rely upon cyberspace to run our critical infrastructure and the government will seek a continuing broad partnership to develop, implement and refine a National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. As our lives have become inexorably intertwined with the computer and other digital devices, Indians have been slow to understand the magnitude of change both for the better and worse. Cybercrimes can be of various types such as telecommunication piracy, electronic money laundering, tax evasion, sales and investment fraud, electronic fund transfer fraud, spam, scams, spywares and so on. This study provides and covers the issues related to ecrime and e-customers and Internet Safety. The Internet and computers have become a mainstream in our way of life. Many people are becoming victims of crime via the Internet and computers. Many of our citizens are using the Internet, but unfortunately many of these citizens

have not been educated to understand the dangers of the Internet. This study draws the attention of the readers about various types of e-crimes and also depicts the recommendations to avoid the same. Keywords: Cyber Crime, e-crime, e-customers

I. INTRODUCTION
For the foreseeable future, two things will be true: We will rely upon cyberspace to run our critical infrastructure and the government will seek a continuing broad partnership to develop, implement and refine a National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. An increasing number of domestic and international criminal activities are using the Internet. Computers and other electronic devices can be tools to commit crime or are targeted by criminals. A personal computer connected to the Internet without protection may be infected with malicious software in under a minute. This briefing discusses the scale and

*Kuvempu University, Shimoga, Karnataka State, India

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nature of computer crime, the technologies available to protect computers, and highlights the key policy challenges. Computer crime is known by lots of different names, including cybercrime, ecrime, or electronic crime. All of these are crimes where computers or networks are used or attacked. These electronic crimes are being used to steal identities and huge sums of money. Many traditional crimes such as theft, blackmail, forgery, embezzlement and fraud today are all conducted on the internet.

3. To study the causes of cyber-crimes 4. To find-out the group of victims 5. To offer the technological solutions

1.3 Methodology 1.3.1 Target Population

Active online buyers who have been victims of any kind of internet fraud.

1.3.2 Sampling Frame

The sample group will be composed of active online buyers who use internet to make transactions. The respondents have been chosen from an e-mail address list that was acquired through a Methodology. Respondents were asked to fill-in a survey which defines if they met the selection criteria. The selected respondents are active online buyers with more than one year internet shopping experience and have been victim of internet fraud. The surveys was administered to the addresses in the database; this is done with the aim of selecting the target population that meets the criteria until achieve the required sample size.

1.1 Overview on e-crime

Computers are increasingly being targeted by criminals or used as tools to commit old and new types of crime. Legislative change to address the increase in and diversity of computer crime is in progress. However, policing computer crime is resource-intensive, complex and requires support from a number of organizations. There are several technologies available to improve computer security but their effectiveness may be limited without user awareness and education. Responsibility for securing computers against crime largely rests with the user (individual or organization), although there is debate over whether the government and industry should do more to protect users.

1.3.3 Sampling Technique

A Simple Random Sampling is used to collect the data. This sampling technique is appropriate because it increases representativeness and ensures that each element in the population will have an equal chance of being included in the sample. Likewise, it requires minimum advance knowledge of the population and is less expensive than the stratified technique.

1.2 Objectives of the study

1. To study the different types of e-crimes 2. To analysis of cyber crimes

e-crime and e-customers - An analysis of Cyber Crime .....

1.3.4 Sample Size

Hundred active online buyers who have been victims of any kind of internet fraud have been considered as respondents.

1.3.5 Primary Survey Method

E-mail survey sent through electronic method. The primary survey method is a structured questionnaire that consists of a set of open ended, closed ended-questions, such as multiple choice and some dichotomous questions.

encountered over the net. Deaver, J. in his book The Blue Nowhere elucidates the reasons and causes and risk related to ecrimes. Mc. Kemmish, Rodneys articles eBanking crimes covers different types of banking crimes. Different other related articles and books are reviewed and some of points are covered in this study.

III. OBSERVATIONS
On the basis of primary and secondary data, the following observations have been made in the study. 3.1 91% of the respondents who are ecustomers become the victims of ecrime. Most of them are graduates and working professionals. 3.2 12% of respondents agonized with nondelivery of goods, 47% embittered with misrepresentation, 21% resentful by black-market goods and about 63% indignant with hidden charges to the item. 3.3 98% Majority of the respondents have become the victims of fraud, obscene, offensive Content, scams, drug trafficking and electronic funds transfer fraud while working in online. 3.4 The unsolicited sending out of junk emails for commercial purposes, which is unlawful. New anti-spam laws are being passed in various countries which will hopefully limit the use of unsolicited electronic communications. 3.5 Scams: The power of the internet and email communication has made it all too easy for email scams to flourish these schemes often arrive uninvited by

1.3.6 Secondary data

Secondary data has played major role in the study. Different types of online frauds have been identified and discussed in the study and suggestions have been given to avoid such types of frauds.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Australasian Centre for Policing Researchs article of Electronic Crime Strategy of the Police Commissioners been referred and it covers the different crimes detected by the police department in Australia. Bates, J. article of Fundamentals of Computer Forensics which published in International Journal of Forensic Computing covers classification of cyber-crimes: against persons, against property and against government. Bliss, A. & Harfield, Cs article The threat of computer crime: identifying the problem and formulating a response at force level, The Police Journal Butterworth depicts the growing use of computers; cybercrime is becoming more and more predominant in todays world. It also covered various types of Cyber-crimes that can be

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email many are related to the well documented Nigerian scam or lotto scam and use similar tactics in one form or another. While the actual amount of money lost by business and the community is unknown. The number of people claiming to have been frauded by these scams is relatively low. Spy ware: It is generally considered to be the software that is secretly installed on a computer and takes things from it without the permission or knowledge of the user. Spy ware can take personal information, business information or bandwidth or processing capacity and secretly gives it to someone else. It is recognized as the growing problem. Denial of Service Attack: This is an act by the criminal, who floods the bandwidth of the victims network or fills his email box with spam mail depriving him of the services he is entitled to access or provide. Virus Dissemination: Malicious software that attaches itself to other software. (Virus,, worms, Trojan Horse, Time bomb,, Logic Bomb,, Rabbit and Bacterium are the malicious softwares). Software Piracy: Theft of software through the illegal copying of genuine programs or the counterfeiting and distribution of products intended to pass for the original. Retail revenue losses worldwide are ever increasing due to this crime. It can be done in various ways- End user copying, Hard disk loading,, Counterfeiting, Illegal

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downloads from the internet etc Spoofing: Getting one computer on a network to pretend to have the identity of another computer, usually one with special access privileges, so as to obtain access to the other computers on the network.. Net Extortion: Copying the companys confidential data in order to extort said company for huge amount. Slami attack: In such crime criminal makes insignificant changes in such a manner that such changes would go unnoticed. Criminal makes such program that deducts small amount like Rs. 2.50permonth from the account of all the customer of the Bank and deposit the same in his account. In this case no account holder will approach the bank for such small amount but criminal gains huge amount. Sales of narcotics: Sale and Purchase through net. There are web sites which offer sale and shipment off contrabands drugs. They may use the techniques off stenography for hiding the message Obscene or Offensive Content: The contents of some of the websites and other electronic communications over the net can be really distasteful, obscene or offensive for a variety of reasons. In many countries such communications are considered illegal. It can be very troubling if your children are exposed to adult content. Harassment: This cyber-crime encompasses all the obscenities and derogatory comments directed towards

e-crime and e-customers - An analysis of Cyber Crime .....

a specific individual or individuals focusing for example on gender, race, religion, nationality, and sexual orientation. Harassment is the cybercrime most commonly encountered in chat rooms or through newsgroups. 3.16 Drug Trafficking: Drug traffickers use the Internet as a medium for trading their illegal substances by sending out enciphered e-mail and other Internet Technology. Most of the drug traffickers can be found arranging their illegal deals at internet cafes, using courier websites for the delivery of illegal packages containing drugs, and sharing formulas for amphetamines in restricted-access chat rooms. 3.17 Cyber Terrorism: Due to the increase in cyber terrorism, the hacking into official websites or the crashing of official websites, government officials and Information Technology security specialists have recently begun a significant increase their mapping of potential security holes in critical systems in order to better protect information sensitive sites. 3.18 Electronic Funds Transfer Fraud: Electronic funds transfer systems have begun to proliferate, and so has the risk that such transactions may be intercepted and diverted. Valid credit card numbers can be intercepted electronically, as well as physically; the digital information stored on a card can be counterfeited. Of course, we dont need Willie Sutton to remind us that

banks are where they keep the money. 3.19 Email bombing: This kind of activity refers to sending large numbers of mail to the victim, which may be an individual or a company or even mail servers there by ultimately resulting into crashing. 3.20 Web jacking: This term is derived from the term hi jacking. In these kinds of offences the hacker gains access and control over the web site of another. He may even mutilate or change the information on the site. This may be done for fulfilling political objectives or for money.

IV. RECOMMENDATIONS TO PREVENT E-CRIME

4.1 General recommendations: The following information is provided as a brief guide to assist in preventing ecrime: 4.2 Develop and implement appropriate system failure procedures and review and investigate security violation reports 4.3 Ensure physical security of equipment and storage devices but dont share identification numbers and passwords 4.4 Change passwords on a regular basis and regularly monitor dial-up facilities of users. Cancel access to data when employees transfer, leave or no longer require access 4.5 Review work quality and develop a sound system of controlling employees with access to data. Install virus

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protection software and maintaining updates on a regular basis Always check bank account transactions/balances and report discrepancies immediately to your financial institution Keep your computer in a family room so that you can monitor its use and Report the matter quickly to police if it is a criminal matter Avoid opening unsolicited emails, delete them immediately and do not respond to the inquirer Retain original offensive/menacing/ harassing emails. Consider the use of a third party to hold payment in trust until you receive an item purchased via an online auction site Do not automatically check boxes before reading the contents of any agreement etc. Educate yourself on a regular basis of the methods used by offenders to commit this type of crime Do not automatically divulge personal information to persons who have solicited contact with you, without checking their credentials. Store personal information such as passwords on a separate storage device rather than on the computer hard-drive Technological solutions: If software is correctly installed, the following can help to block attacks: Firewalls are hardware or software devices that block certain network traffic according to their security policy. Software solutions exist to identify and

remove malware and to help manage spam email. Many must be paid for but free versions are also available. 4.14 Authentication involves determining that a particular user is authorized to use a particular computer. This can include simple mechanisms such as passwords, to more complex methods using biometric technology. 4.15 Hardware cryptography uses computer chips with cryptographic capabilities intended to protect against a range of security threats. 4.16 Patches are programs designed by software manufacturers to fix software security flaws. Patching is often installed automatically. This reduces end-user participation and increases ease of use.

V. CONCLUSIONS
1. The results obtained from this study will allow further optimization of privacy and security statements. Therefore, Web pages and e-vendors will take into consideration the perception of swindled e-customers to their own benefit. 2. In case the results show a positive relation between trust and Website design/investment, this study will help e-sellers to improve the online marketing strategies used to attract and keep customers loyal to the brand. 3. The results will help determine if an online recognizable Website, or a wellknown brand name, is sufficient enough to motivate and influence e-customers

e-crime and e-customers - An analysis of cyber crime .....

who have been victims of fraud. 4. In the case the results show a positive relation between swindling and a decrease in demand for e-transactions, this study will definitely help ecompanies to realize the harm that swindlers are doing to their businesses. Likewise, the presence of a positive relation will motivate e-vendors to plan better strategies to attack swindlers and to recover the trust of conned consumers.

[6] Adams, J. (2001), The Weakness of a Superpower, Foreign Affairs, May/ June. Australasian Centre for Policing Research 2001, Electronic Crime Strategy of the Police Commissioners [7] Bates, J. (1997), Fundamentals of Computer Forensics, International Journal of Forensic Computing, [8] Bliss, A. & Harfield, C. (1998), The threat of computer crime: identifying the problem and formulating a response at force level, The Police Journal, January, Butterworth, Surrey, UK, pp.25-34. [9] Deaver, J. 2001, The Blue Nowhere, Hodder & Stoughton, London. [10] Mc.Kemmish, Rodney 1999, What is Forensic Computing, Trends & Issues, No. 118, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra. [11] http://www.nsml.co.uk/forensic/ computing/forensi [12] http://www.cybercell/Mumbai.com [13] http://www.agapeinc.in [14] http://www.cs.georgetown.edu/ ~denning/crypto/hiding1 doc, [15] http://www.nsml.co.uk/forensic/ computing/forensi

VI. REFERENCES
[1] Dorothy E. (1998) Denning, Information Warfare and Security, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. [2] Dorothy E. Denning and Peter J. Denning (1997), Internet Besieged, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. [3] Peter J. Denning (1990), Computers under Attack, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. [4] A collection of reprinted articles from computer software journals, mostly from the 2000s. [5] Peter G. Neumann (2000), ComputerRelated Risks, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.