11.5 Cyber Crime Criminal activities 

or offences carried out in a digital environment can be considered as cyber crime. In such crimes, either the computer itself is the target or the computer is used as a tool to commit a crime. Cyber crimes are carried out against either an individual, or a group, or an organisation or even against a country, with the intent to directly or indirectly cause physical harm, financial loss or mental harassment. A cyber criminal attacks a computer or a network to reach other computers in order to disable or damage data or services. Apart from this, a cyber criminal may spread viruses and other malwares in order to steal private and confidential data for blackmailing and extortion. A computer virus is some lines of malicious code that can copy itself and can have detrimental effect on the computers, by destroying data or corrupting the system. Similarly, malware is a software designed to specifically gain unauthorised access to computer systems. The nature of criminal activities are alarmingly increasing day-by-day, with frequent reports of hacking, ransomware attacks, denial-of-service, phishing, email fraud, banking fraud and identity theft. 11.5.1 Hacking Hacking is the act of unauthorised access to a computer, computer network or any digital system. Hackers usually have technical expertise of the hardware and software. They look for bugs to exploit and break into the system. Hacking, when done with a positive intent, is called ethical hacking. Such ethical hackers are known as white hat hackers. They are specialists in exploring any vulnerability or loophole during testing of the software. Thus, they help in improving the security of a software. An ethical hacker may exploit a website in order to discover its security loopholes or vulnerabilities. He then reports his findings to the website owner. Thus, ethical hacking is actually preparing the owner against any cyber attack. A non-ethical hacker is the one who tries to gain unauthorised access to computers or networks in order to steal sensitive data with the intent to damage or bring down systems. They are called black hat hackers Remember!! Cyber crime is defined as a crime in which computer is the medium of crime (hacking, phishing, spamming), or the computer is used as a tool to commit crimes (extortion, data breaches, theft). Activity 11.5 How can you unsubscribe from a mail group or block an email sender? Ch 11.indd 239 08-Apr-19 12:32:00 PM 2020-21 240 Computer Science – Class xi or crackers. Their primary focus is on security cracking and data stealing. They use their skill for illegal or malicious purposes. Such hackers try to break through system securities for identity theft, monetary gain, to bring a competitor or rival site down, to leak sensitive information, etc. 11.5.2 Phishing and Fraud Emails Phishing is an unlawful activity where fake websites or emails that look original or authentic are presented to the user to fraudulently collect sensitive and personal details, particularly usernames, passwords, banking and credit card details. The most common phishing method is through email spoofing where a fake or forged email address is used and the user presumes it to be from an authentic source. So you might get an email from an address that looks similar to your bank or educational institution, asking for your information, but if you look carefully you will see their URL address is fake. They will often use logo’s of the original, making them difficult to detect from the real! Phishing attempts through phone calls or text messages are also common these days. (A) Identity Theft Identity thieves increasingly use personal information stolen from computers or computer networks, to commit fraud by using the data gained unlawfully. A user’s identifiable personal data like demographic details, email ID, banking credentials, passport, PAN, Aadhaar number and various such personal data are stolen and misused by the hacker on behalf of the victim. This is one type of phishing attack where the intention is largely for monetary gain. There can be many ways in which the criminal takes advantage of an individual’s stolen identity. Given below are a few examples: • Financial identity theft: when the stolen identity is used for financial gain. • Criminal identity theft: criminals use a victim’s stolen identity to avoid detection of their true identity. • Medical identity theft: criminals can seek medical drugs or treatment using a stolen identity. Beware !! Accepting links from untrusted emails can be hazardous, as they may potentially contain a virus or link to malicious website. We should ensure to open any email link or attachment only when it is from a trusted source and doesn’t look doubtful. Ch 11.indd 240 08-Apr-19 12:32:00 PM 2020-21 Societal Impact