19-07-2013, 03:16 PM
SEMINAR ON Cyber Crimes
Cyber Crimes.docx (Size: 73.66 KB / Downloads: 23)
ABSTRACT
The last half century or more witness some major progress in the development of various technologies in almost all areas of human Endeavour in both developed and developing countries. Specifically, Information Technology has advanced so well that almost everyone anywhere uses computers for their day-to-day activities. Today's computers are becoming more powerful, smaller, cheaper, and more user-friendly as technology improves. As they have improved, computers have proliferated in our society, our businesses, and our personal lives. Most modern businesses and governments depend on their computer systems to support their operations, from personnel files to financial management. In addition, computers played an important role in computational research such as Bio-Informatics, Differential Calculus, and Evolutionary Genetics. In today's environment, most businesses and government processes could not survive without the computer-especially e-mail or totally web-based businesses. However, an organization that uses computer for its daily transactions is liable to be the target of computer crimes. This article evaluates the concepts of computer crimes, detection and the controls. An understanding of various types of computer-related crimes is given. The paper finally exposed us to dangers it poses to organizations, factors that encourage it, and recommending possible controls and preventive measures against computer crimes.
INTRODUCTION
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.
According to Oxford Advance Learners dictionary (2001), crime is the activities that involve breaking the law or illegal act or activities that can be punished by law. Computer crime has been defined as the act of stealing or misusing the computer hardware or software (Olawepo 1999: 48). The larger the organization, the more they make use of computers for their day-to-day activities and more likely it is that someone is out there to commit a crime. Computer crimes were committed for many reasons, some which are rational, others of which may make no sense to the observer. There are those who will steal under the best of employment circumstances. Other would not steal even if they were the worst treated employees in the world. This is dependent on individual character. Olawepo (1999) observed that it is against the backdrop that management of computerized organizations should address all the energy at disposal, the issue of detection and preventing computer related crimes.
WHY DO PEOPLE COMMIT CYBER CRIME?
Computer is just a machine which cannot on its own has the capacity to perpetrate fraud, it is human being that initiate the act, and in particular by an insider. The most relevant question now is “why do computer users commit computer crime?” The factors that enhance the potential that a company will be the target of theft, fraud, embezzlement
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF CYBER CRIME
Cyber crime refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network, where the computers may or may not have played an instrumental part in the commission of a crime (Moore, 2005). Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement, child pornography, and child grooming. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise.
To provide the most reliable picture of different type of crime, the Internet Crime Complaint Center's (IC3) statistics will be used. According to IC3 website (2009), from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008, the IC3 website received 275,284 complaint submissions. This is a (33.1%) increase when compared to 2007 when 206,884 complaints were received. These filings were composed of complaints primarily related to fraudulent and non-fraudulent issues on the Internet using computers.
LOCATION OF PERPETRATORS
According to IC3 website (2009), in 2008, most scammers operated from the United States. The U.S. still held a huge lead in active internet users then, a gap that has since closed considerably. In 2008, China and the U.S. each have approximately 200 million internet users, and most of the world has grown commensurately. As the user populations have grown abroad, so have their scammer populations. Several countries stand out in 2008 as have disproportionately huge populations of scammers: Nigeria, Romania, the Netherlands and China. Lottery and fake money transfer (AFF) frauds seem to be the specialty of the Nigerians. The United States still leads in Identity Theft and Spoofing frauds.
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.