Logic bombs Essay Example for Free

Logic bombs Essay With the advent of information communication technology which has greatly helped in solving uncountable problems in all domains of human life all over the world, it has also come with its problems. Globally, the term cyber crime has gained unimaginable popularity because of its harm to all segments of human life. Cyber crime has not been defined in statutes/acts of parliament in many countries apart from a few developed countries which have some sections in their constitutions addressing this kind of emerging crime. The idea of cyber crime is not absolutely different from the other types of normal crimes. A crime is defined in the laws of land as the conduct which results to violation of the law and it is counterbalanced by the sanction of the state. The conduct may be an act or omission. Crime has been in existence through out human history and it is an economic and social phenomenon. It is a concept in the legal field which has the sanction of the law . Crime can also be referred to as an offence. It is an act which is legally wrong and can be pursued by criminal proceedings which can result to penalty (http://www. cybercrimelaw. net/content/cybercrime. html). Cyber crime basically refers to any criminal activity that involves the use of computer as a tool or a target. There are many kinds of unlawful activities that can be done via computer and they include: email spoofing, cyber deformation, sale of illegal articles, forgery, cyber stalking, online gambling, and intellectual property theft. The criminal cases where the computer is used as a target include: access to computer, computer system, or computer networks without permission , stealing of information in electronic form, logic bombs, Trojan attacks, internet time theft, email bombing, salami attacks, stealing computer system, web jacking, physical destruction of the computer and data diddling (http://cybercrime. planetindia. net/intro. htm). Cyber crime is as result of various reasons and they are as follows: Firstly, it is due to ability of the computer to store data in a very small space. Computers are designed in a very unique way such that they can store a lot of information in a very small space within it. This makes it possible to retrieve the information with a lot of ease. This is done using either virtual or physical medium. Secondly, it is very easy to access the information. This is usually due to the fact that the technology employed in protecting a computer from unauthorized access is very complex and is prone to human errors. This poses the main challenge in the protection of a computer. The security systems can be penetrated through using different technologies like the use of key loggers implanted logic bombs, retina imagers and sophisticated voice recorders which usually dupe and trick the biometric system and cross the firewalls thus entering into the security system being used in the computer. The third reason is that the working of a computer is very complex and involves the use of an operating system that uses millions and millions of codes to store information and execute commands. Since all these is designed by humans whose mind is liable to memory lapses, the cyber criminals uses this one as an opportunity to distort the codes and gain access to the computer operating system. The fourth reason is because of negligence. It is evident that human behavior is often characterized by negligence. As a result of this, it is likely that while installing guarding programs, this negligence might occur thus giving the cyber criminals an opportunity for accessing the computer operation system (http://www. cybercrimelaw. net/content/cybercrime. html). From the previous experiences, it is notable that cyber crimes are done by various groups of people in the community. Some of this groups are justified depending on the intention of what they are doing in the cyber. These groups include children and adolescents at the age of 6-18 years. This group is normally active and inquisitive and therefore tend to be very curious to explore and know beyond what they are not aware of in life. This makes them to engage in these types of crimes. In addition, this group likes being popular and achieving unique things something which predisposes them to this kind of delinquency. The second category consists of organized hackers who form groups with a defined goal which may be settling political scores or to gaining competitive edge in the business world. The third and the last group consist of professional hackers/crackers. This are cyber criminals who are out to make money by using their expertise to damage other people’s information systems. They are often hired to crack the sites of competitors or rivals and access vital information related to their organizational, production, marketing and operational strategies. The fourth group in some instances is composed of dissatisfied employees. In this case, the employees may have been sacked or demoted or denied a higher position or may be underpaid and they use cyber rimes as away of revenging (http://www. crime-research. org/analytics/702/). There are various forms of unlawful activities that are done via the computers and they include: unauthorized access to computer systems or net works which is popularly known as hacking. This involves the use of sophisticated technology to penetrate to the computer systems. Theft of information from electronic devices or in electronics is another form of cyber crime. These electronic gadgets include hard disks and removable computer devices. This form of crime is done by interfering with the data in the devices through virtual medium. Email bombing is also another common crime. It involves sending of emails to an individual or organization in bulk such that they derail the functioning or crashing of the computer system. Data diddling is also a form of cyber crime and is conducted before the raw data is processed by the computer. Here, the data is altered prior to being processed and then this is followed by changing it back after the processing. Closely related to this are the salami attacks. These are cyber crimes that are common in financial organizations and they are done with an aim of committing financial crime. It involves the alteration of the computer systems slightly such that the damages go unnoticed. Denial of service which is overstretching of victims computer system with a lot of work than it can handle is also a cyber crime that has been identified. This overstretching of computer leads to its crash. The frequent disturbing viruses and worms are forms of cyber crimes. The difference between the two is that while viruses need a file to attach to, alter and delete. The worms do not need this and they just use all the available space in the memory of the computer. The other forms include: the unauthorized soft wares known as Trojans, logic bombs, and internet time theft which involves stealing of another persons time for browsing which is done by getting the password and login ID. Lastly, is the web hijacking which is involves use of technology to access and gain control of another person’s website and mutilating or changing the information in it. This cyber crime is usually done to people who are looking for money or want to politically destroy their rivals (http://www. usdoj. gov/criminal/cybercrime/). As it is widely known, prevention is better than cure and the same case applies in cyber crimes . The fundamental preventive measure uses the 5P strategy to control and prevent this crime. The 5P stands for prevention, preservation, precaution, protection and perseverance. In addition, one should put the following in mind so as to prevent cyber crime. Firstly, avoid revealing personal information at the cyber, do not sent photographs online and stop chatting to unfamiliar people over the net. Elsewhere, web servers for the public must be separated from the internal corporate network. Always update your antivirus and keep back ups of your information in the computer in other devices, use of firewalls. Additionally, do not ever send your credit card number to any site that is insecure and the use intrusion detection gadget may also help significantly. In conclusion therefore, since humans are rationally thinking, there is no way in which cyber crimes can be completely eliminated from the cyber space. What is most important in this case is to develop very stringent laws to protect the people from the effects of cyber crime and also sensitizing the people to observe morals while embracing the world of information communication technology