20-07-2013, 04:57 PM
CYBER CRIMES AND STEPS TO PREVENT AND CONTROL
Cyber Crimes.docx (Size: 73.66 KB / Downloads: 27)
ABSTRACT
The world we are in today is all about Information Technology (IT) because we are in the age of Information Technology and the people with the right information, with proper way of disseminate this information and processing them is considered as the most successful. Information technology is the transfer of information using telecommunication and micro-based computer system. Nowadays, the computer has replaced manual records, and the fraudulent input document has been substituted by manipulating data held in a computer system. This manipulation does not need to be sophisticated. Computers have become the mainstay of business and government processes. Business has been using them for years and in most countries, there are drives towards electronic or joined up government. This is to allow the people to access government services from their desktop in their own home.
TYPES OF COMPUTER CRIMES
The following are some of various types of computer crimes:
Data Interception: This type is exclusive to network environment with teleprocessing activities in which the criminal may tap the signal sent to a computer from remote source. One of common example of interception of data in transmission is commonly called hacking.
Data Modification: Alteration, destruction, or erasing of data in the computer, usually done with desire to misallocate money or to cover up management incompetence.
Theft of Software: Taking or copying data, regardless of whether it is protected by other laws, e.g., copyright, privacy, etc. The cause of this may be for profit purpose or for private use.
Network Interference: This is impeding or preventing access for others. The most common example of this action is instigating a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack, flooding Web sites or Internet Service Providers. DDOS attacks are often launched from numerous computers that have been hacked to obey commands of the perpetrator.
Virus Dissemination: Introduction of software damaging to systems or data it contains.
Aiding and Abetting: Enabling the commission of a cyber crime especially some cyber café operators in Nigeria.
CYBER CRIME IN NIGERIA
According to the above statistics, Nigeria was rated third among other countries. Majority of the cyber crimes perpetrated in Nigeria generally are targeted at individuals and not necessarily computer systems, hence they require less technical expertise. The damage done manifests itself in the real world. Human weaknesses such as greed and gullibility are generally exploited. The damage dealt is largely psychological and financial. These crimes are similar to theft, and the likes that have existed for century’s offline even before the development of high-tech equipment. Through the Internet, the same criminals or persons with criminal intents have simply been given a tool which increases their potential pool of victims and makes them all the harder to trace and apprehend (Aghatise, 2006).
CONCLUSION
Most of the recorded computer crimes cases in most organization involve more than individual and virtually all computer crime cases known so far are committed by employer of the organization. Criminals have also adapted the advancements of computer technology to further their own illegal activities. Investigators must know the materials to search and seize the electronic evidences to recover, and the claim of custody to maintain. Without question, law enforcement must be better prepared to deal with many aspects of computer-related crimes and the techno-criminals who commit them. This article is not meant to suggest that programmers or computer users are fraudulent people or criminal but rather to expose us to the computer-related crime and provides ways to prevent them.