INTRODUCTION:

The term cyber crime is a misnomer. The concept of cyber crime is not radically different from the concept of conventional crime. Both include conduct whether act or omission, which cause breach of rules of law and counterbalanced by the sanction of the state.

CYBER CRIME Cyber crime is the latest and perhaps the most complicated problem in the cyber world. Cyber crime may be said to be those species, of which, genus is the conventional crime, and where either the computer is an object or subject of the conduct constituting crime Any criminal activity that uses a computer either as an instrumentality, target or a means for perpetuating further crimes comes within the ambit of cyber crime information contained in the electronic form, e-mail bombing, data didling, salami attacks, logic bombs, Trojan attacks, internet time thefts, web jacking, theft of computer system, physically damaging the computer system. A generalized definition of cyber crime may be unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a tool or target or both The computer may be used as a tool in the following kinds of activity- financial crimes, sale of illegal articles, pornography, online gambling, intellectual property crime, e-mail spoofing, forgery, cyber defamation, cyber stalking. The computer may however be target for unlawful acts in the following cases- unauthorized access to computer/ computer system/ computer networks, theft of information contained in the electronic form, e-mail bombing, data didling, salami attacks, logic bombs, Trojan attacks, internet time thefts, web jacking, theft of computer system, physically damaging the computer system.

REASONS FOR CYBER CRIME:.

The reasons for the vulnerability of computers may be said to be:

1. Capacity to store data in comparatively small space2.Easy to access3.Complex4.Negligence5. Loss of evidence

TYPES OF CYBERCRIME hacking

Hacking means an illegal intrusion into a computer system and/network. Using one's own programming abilities as also various programmes with malicious intent to gain unauthorized access to a computer or network are very serious crimes. Similarly, the creation and dissemination of harmful computer programs which do irreparable damage to computer systems is another kind of cyber crime. There is an equvalent term to hacking i.e. cracking, but the Indian law does not distinguish between the two.
Cyber stalking

Cyber Stalking can be defined as the repeated acts of harassment or threatening behavior of the cyber criminal towards the victim by using internet services. It includes following the victim, making harassing phone calls, killing the victims pet, vandalizing victims property, leaving written messages or objects. Stalking may be followed by serious violent acts such as physical harm to the victim and the same has to be treated and viewed seriously. It all depends on the course of conduct of the stalker.
Data diddling

This kind of an attack involves altering raw data just before it is processed by a computer and then changing it back after the processing is completed. Electricity boards in India have been victims to data diddling programs inserted when private parties were computerizing their systems.
Salami attacks

These attacks are used for the commission of financial crimes. The key here is to make the alteration so insignificant that in a single case it would go completely unnoticed. E.g. a bank employee inserts a program, into the banks servers, that deducts a small amount of money (say Rs. 5 a month) from the account of every customer. No account holder will probably notice this unauthorized debit, but the bank employee will make a sizeable amount of money every month.

Cyber-Terrorism Cyber-terrorism is distinguished from other acts of commercial crime or incidents of hacking by its severity. Attacks against computer networks or the information stored therein which result in "violence against persons or property, or at least cause enough harm to generate fear" are to be considered cyber-terrorism attacks according to congressional testimony from Georgetown

University professor Dorothy Denning. "Attacks that disrupt nonessential services or that are mainly a costly nuisance" are not classified as cyber-terrorist attacks by her definition. Pornography Children's exposure to pornography while online has become a political topic with various family-oriented groups seeking to prevent children's access to such sites. In Schools While the Internet can be a unique educational and recreational resource for children, it is important that they are educated about how to safely and responsibly use this powerful tool. Several issues have received particular attention with respect to protecting children online. Parents should be aware of cyberstalking and the threats that online predators pose to children's physical safety; harmful or inappropriate content (most often characterized as pornographic, excessively violent or simply 'adult'); privacy invasions that result from the collection of personally identifiable information about individual children; and commercialism and aggressive marketing targeted directly at children. Another issue related to the presence of children on the Internet is the potential misuse of this tool. Whether the consequences are intentional or unintentional, the Internet can open a dangerous window of accessibility for children who are unaware of the consequences of irresponsible use. For this reason, it is essential that parents consider how to educate children about the consequences associated with misusing the Internet. EXAMPLE OF CYBERCRIME

DNA Hackers: Synthetic biology weaponized virus, zero-day exploit to infect your brain?
This DNA hacking goes way beyond potentially using police bees to bust biohackers, or even storing unhackable data in box of bio-encrypted bacteria. It's not science fiction to hack insulin pumps or to use jamming signals to stop hackers from lethal pacemaker attacks, but now bioengineers and security futurists are warning that the day is coming when criminals and bioterrorists hunt for vulnerabilities that will give a new meaning to zero-day exploits. In the future, a weaponized virus will aim to infect you, your brain and body biology, and not just your computer or mobile device.

Bioengineer Andrew Hessel, co-chair of Biotechnology at Singularity University, has talked extensively about the Internet of Living Things and how synthetic biology will be the next big IT industry. Hessel likes to play with molecules, DNA and computers, and explained "synthetic biology as computer-assisted genetic design will go 'from an idea to printing DNA to ultimately booting DNA'." SmartPlanet reported, "Mobile phones equipped with genome decoders are coming. DIY fabricators that work with cells are already here...The cost barriers around genetic engineering are, in fact, falling, and what are essentially life-form design tools are increasingly accessible." Now consider when we will have the ability to "boot DNA" in the same way as booting up a PC, but the data wirelessly transmits into us to perhaps keep us "healthy." Another scary example from Hessel was if two companies were business competitors and one company infected the other with a virus or bacteria that made the company employees lazy or unhappy. If viruses are like biological spam, we could be infected with bacteria that manipulates our behavior and we might not even know it's happening.

How can I protect myself?

Currently there are no foolproof ways to protect a system. The completely secure system can never be accessed by anyone. Most of the militaries classified information is kept on machines with no outside connection, as a form of prevention of cyber terrorism. Apart from such isolation, the most common method of protection is encryption. The wide spread use of encryption is inhibited by the governments ban on its exportation, so intercontinental communication is left relatively insecure. The Clinton administration and the FBI oppose the export of encryption in favor of a system where by the government can gain the key to an encrypted system after gaining a court order to do so. The director of the FBI's stance is that the Internet was not intended to go unpoliced and that the police need to protect people's privacy and public-safety rights there. Encryption's draw back is that it does not protect the entire system, an attack designed to cripple the whole system, such as a virus, is unaffected by encryption. Others promote the use of firewalls to screen all communications to a system, including e-mail messages, which may carry logic bombs. Firewall is a relatively generic term for methods of filtering access to a network. They may come in the form of a computer, router other communications device or in the form of a network configuration. Firewalls serve to define the services and access that are permitted to each user. One method is to screen user requests to check if they come from a previously defined domain or Internet Protocol (IP) address. Another method is to prohibit Telnet access into the system.

Here are few key things to remember to pretect yourself from cyber-terrorism: 1. All accounts should have passwords and the passwords should be unusual, difficult to guess. 2. Change the network configuration when defects become know. 3. Check with venders for upgrades and patches. 4. Audit systems and check logs to help in detecting and tracing an intruder. 5. If you are ever unsure about the safety of a site, or receive suspicious email from an unkown address, don't access it. It could be trouble.

Some relavent ethical issues:

The ethical issues involved in cyber-terrorism are manifold. Any sort of crime or ethical violation can occur using a computer. Extortion of banks takes money from the banks, as well as their customers. The bank's, on the other hand, which many times refuse to admit to their inadequate defenses violate the public trust that the bank will be secure. The illegal altering medical records is unethical, as it can quickly and easily cause harm to another. Spreading disinformation is unethical in its lack of regard for the truth, as well as for the safety of and consequences on others who believe the misinformation. Altering, destroying, or stealing others data is a violation of their privacy. The ordinary hacker is guilty of lack of regard for the privacy of the peoples systems that he or she would enter.

CONCLUSION