Typology of Cyber
Crimes

 1: a doctrine of theological
types; especially : one holding that things in
Christian belief are prefigured or symbolized
by things in the OldTestament
 2: study of or analysis or classification based
on types or categories.

 Cybercrime is defined as a crime in which a computer
is the object of the crime (hacking, phishing,
spamming) or is used as a tool to commit an offense
(child pornography, hate crimes).
 Cybercriminals may use computer technology to
access personal information, business trade secrets,
or use the Internet for exploitive or malicious
purposes. Criminals can also use computers for
communication and document or data storage.
 Criminals who perform these illegal activities are
often referred to as hackers.
 Cybercrime may also be referred to as computer
crime.

Types of Cyber Crimes Can be Classified
into the Categories which we will see
further.

Cyber crimes are broadly categorized into three
categories, namely crime against
1. Individual
2. Property
3. Government

 This type of cyber crime can be in the form of:
1. Cyber stalking,
2. Distributing pornography,
3. Trafficking and Grooming.
Today, law enforcement agencies are
taking this category of cyber crime very
seriously and are joining forces
internationally to reach and arrest the
perpetrators.

 Just like in the real world where a criminal can steal
and rob, even in the cyber world criminals resort to
stealing and robbing.
 In this case, they can steal a person’s bank details and
siphon off money; misuse the credit card to make
numerous purchases online; run a scam to get naïve
people to part with their hard earned money; use
malicious software to gain access to an organization’s
website or disrupt the systems of the organization.
 The malicious software can also damage software and
hardware, just like vandals damage property in the
offline world.

 Although not as common as the other two
categories, crimes against a government are
referred to as cyber terrorism. If successful, this
category can wreak havoc and cause panic amongst
the civilian population.
 In this category, criminals hack government
websites, military websites or circulate propaganda.
 The perpetrators can be terrorist outfits or
unfriendly governments of other nations.

 It is important to note that a computer,
Internet or computer technology has to be
involved, and when the use of any of the
following techniques or activities is made to
carry out a crime or illegal activity – only then
can it be classified as a Cybercrime.

 This is a type of crime wherein a person’s
computer is broken into so that his personal or
sensitive information can be accessed.
 In the United States, hacking is classified as a
felony and punishable as such. This is different
from ethical hacking, which many organizations
use to check their Internet security protection.
 In hacking, the criminal uses a variety of
software to enter a person’s computer and the
person may not be aware that his computer is
being accessed from a remote location.

 This crime occurs when a person violates
copyrights and downloads music, movies,
games and software. There are even peer
sharing websites which encourage software
piracy and many of these websites are now
being targeted by the FBI. Today, the justice
system is addressing this cyber crime and
there are laws that prevent people from
illegal downloading.

A 44YEAR OLD
PUBLISHING
EXECUTIVE NAMED
CLAIRE MILLER WAS
HARASSED BY
STRANGERS WHO
WERE RESPONDING
TOVERGING-ON-
PORNOGRAPHIC
PROMISES
SOMEONE HAD
MADE IN HER NAME
ONLINE.THESE
POSTINGS
INCLUDED HER
HOME ADDRESS
ANDTELEPHONE
NUMBER
 This is a kind of online harassment
wherein the victim is subjected to a
barrage of online messages and
emails.
 Typically, these stalkers know their
victims and instead of resorting to
offline stalking, they use the
Internet to stalk.
 However, if they notice that cyber
stalking is not having the desired
effect, they begin offline stalking
along with cyber stalking to make
the victims’ lives more miserable.

 This has become a major problem with
people using the Internet for cash
transactions and banking services. In this
cyber crime, a criminal accesses data about a
person’s bank account, credit cards, Social
Security, debit card and other sensitive
information to siphon money or to buy things
online in the victim’s name. It can result in
major financial losses for the victim and even
spoil the victim’s credit history.

 These are Internet-based software or
programs that are used to disrupt a network.
The software is used to gain access to a
system to steal sensitive information or data
or causing damage to software present in the
system.

 This is also a type of cyber crime wherein
criminals solicit minors via chat rooms for the
purpose of child pornography. The FBI has
been spending a lot of time monitoring chat
rooms frequented by children with the hopes
of reducing and preventing child abuse and
soliciting.

 This is one of the detestable malware-based
attacks. Ransomware enters your computer
network and encrypts your files using public-
key encryption, and unlike other malware this
encryption key remains on the hacker’s
server. Attacked users are then asked to pay
huge ransoms to receive this private key.

 DDoS attacks are used to make an online service
unavailable and bring it down, by bombarding or
overwhelming it with traffic from multiple
locations and sources.
 Large networks of infected computers, called
Botnets are developed by planting malware on
the victim computers.
 The idea is normally to draw attention to the
DDOS attack, and allow the hacker to hack into
a system.
 Extortion and blackmail could be the other
motivations.

 Botnets are networks of compromised
computers, controlled by remote attackers in
order to perform such illicit tasks as sending
spam or attacking other computers.
 Computer Bots can also be used act like
malware and carry out malicious tasks. Then
can be used to assemble a network of
computers and then compromise them.

 Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire sensitive
information like usernames, passwords and credit card
details by disguising as a trustworthy source.
 Phishing is carried out through emails or by luring the
users to enter personal information through fake
websites.
 Criminals often use websites that have a look and feel of
some popular website, which makes the users feel safe to
enter their details there.
 Attacks are increasing, with financial services accounting
for over 93% of impersonated or hijacked brands through
bogus websites and emails. Almost all of the UK’s high
street banks have been affected by phishing.

 Vishing is the criminal practice of using social
engineering andVoice over IP (VoIP) to gain access to
private personal and financial information from the
public for the purpose of financial reward.
 The term is a combination of “Voice" and phishing.
 Vishing exploits the publics trust in landline telephone
services.
 Vishing is typically used to steal credit card numbers
or other information used in identity theft schemes
fromMonday, September 24, 2012 individuals.

VIRUS
 Viruses are programs that
attach themselves to a
computer or a file.
 They then circulate
themselves to other files
and to other computers on
a network.
WORMS
 Worms, unlike viruses do
not need the host to attach
themselves to.
 They merely make
functional copies of
themselves and do this
repeatedly till they eat up
all the available space on a
computer's memory.

 These attacks occur when a person or a group
of people try to prevent a internet site from
functioning effectively either temporarily or
on a long term basis.

 Apart from inculcating safe browsing
habits, maintain good system hygiene. Avoid
leaving Digital Footprints.
 You must secure your Windows system with a
fully updated operating system and installed
software, and ensure that you install a good
Internet Security Software to protect your
Windows computer.
 Using the Enhanced Mitigation Experience
Toolkit on Windows is a great way to protect
your system against zero-day attacks.

 Although it will not be possible to eliminate all
the Cyber crime from the world, because new
crimes keep cropping up every day, it is possible
to keep a check on them.
 History is the witness that no government has
succeeded in totally eliminating crime from the
globe.
 The only possible step is to make people aware
of their rights and duties, and further making the
application of the laws more stringent to check
crime

Stay safe …
it’s a bad world out there!
…Advocate Gaurav M Patel