Computer Crimes

Types Of Computer Crimes

Cybercrimes or computer crimes are crimes related to information technology certain crimes like defamation. Cyber frauds, phreakers, hacking, pornography, viruses, cyberstalking violation of privacy copyright violation cracking etc. Are increasing in all the countries and it is bound to provide a new dimension of legal issues. Crime committed through computers and can be classified as-

1. Some conventional crimes like defamation, forgery, harassment, fraud and some financial crimes committed with help of computers.
2. Crimes committed on a computer network like hacking, denial of service.
3. Crime relating to data alteration, destruction of data, theft of internet hours etc.

Phishing

It is an actt of criminally and fraudently acquiring critical information,such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by posing as a trustworthy website or through any other such electronicccommnication. i.e.,email and instant messaging. The gullible people are lured or tricked in divulging their sensitive/identites i.e., usernames, passwords etc.

Cyber Stalikng/Harassement

It is the repeateduse of internet or other electronic communication to harass or frighten someone. This may be done over social media like facebook, twitter etc or over e-mails. If you are victimized so, imediately such instances should be reported to the police for necessary action.

Armored Virus

This virus (armored virus) is one that special tricks to make the tracing disassembling and understanding of its code more difficult. An example is the Whale Virus.

Cyber Defamation

Cyber Defamation occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and or the internet.

E.g., someone publishes defamatory matter about someone;

1. on a website/social platform
2. send e-mail containing the defamatory information to all of those people’s friends.

Cyber Stalking

It involves following a person’s movements across the internet by posting messages sometimes threatening on thebulletin boards frequented by the victim entering the chat-rooms frequented by the ictim constantly bombarding the victim with e-mails etc.

Data Diddling

This kind of an attack involves altering the 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.

Cyber forgery and frauds

Forgery is a creation of documents that one knows is not genuine and yet projected the same as if it is genuine. Section 464 of IPC defines forgery as the making of a false document with intent to cause damage or injury to the public or any person

Unauthorized access to computer system or networks

This activity is commonly referred to as hacking. The Indian law has however ‘unauthorized access’ interchangeably with the term hacking.

Viruses

A computer virus is a computer program that can infect other computer programs by modifying them in such a way as to include possibly evolved copy of it.

Virus/worm attacks

Viruses are programs that attach themselves to a computer or a file and then circulate themselves to other files and to other computers on a network. They usually affect the data on a computer either by altering or deleting it. Worms unlike viruses do not need the host to attach themselves to.

Web jacking

This occurs when someone forcefully takes control of a website by cracking the password and later changing it. The actual owner of the website does not have any more control over what appears on that website.

Electronic Signature

1. An electronic signature, or e-signature, is any electronic that means indicates that either a person adopts the contents of an electronic message, or more broadly that the person who claims to have written a message is the one who wrote it (andthat message received is the one that was sent). By comparision a signature is a stylized script associated with a person.
2. Encrypted electronic signatures are increasingly used in e-commerce and in regulatory fillings as digitalsignatures are more secure than a simple generic electronic signature. The concept dates back when common law juridictions hving recognised telegraph signatures as far back as the mind -19th centuary and faxed signatures since the 1908’s.
3. In many countries, including the United States, the European Union and Austraila, electronic signatures when recognized under the law of each jurisdiction have the same legal consequences as themore traditional forms of executing of documents.

Digital Evidence

Digital evidence or electronic evidence is any probative information o the p or transmitted in digital form that a party to a court case may use at trial Before accepting digital evidence a court will determine if the evidence is relevant whether it is authentic, if it is hearsay and whether a copy is acceptable or the original is required. The use of digital evidence has increased decades as courts have allowed the use of e-mails, digital photographs. ATM transaction logs, word processing documents, instant message histories, files saved from accounting programs, spreadsheets, internet browser histories databases, the contents of computer memory, computer backups, compute printouts, Global Positioning System tracks, logs from a hotel’s electronic door locks, and digital video or audio files.

Digital evidence or electronic evidence is any probative information stored or transmitted in digital form that a party to a court case may use at trial. Before accepting digital evidence a court will determine if the evidence is relevant, whether it is authentic if it is hearsay and whether a copy is acceptable or the original is required.

The use of digital evidence has increased in the past few decades as courts have allowed the use of e-mails, digital photographs, ATM transaction logs, word processing documents, instant message histories, files saved from accounting programs, spreadsheets, internet browser histories, databases, the contents of computer memory, computer backups, computer printouts, Global Positioning System tracks, logs from a hotel’s electronic door locks, and digital video or audio files as evidence.