CYBER ASSAULT & CYBERCRIMES

BY

SHRI PAVAN DUGGAL, CYBERLAW CONSULTANT,

PRESIDENT, CYBERLAWS.NET

MEMBER, MAC, ICANN

Following the recent Internet attacks on popular web sites, on March 3, 2000, President  Clinton  of  the  United  States  of  America   has   called  upon  the  Heads  of Executive Departments and  Agencies  to  take  appropriate action  to  safeguard  against  Internet attacks. The  memorandum   issued  by  the  White  House of even date directs that "each Cabinet Secretary and agency head renew their efforts to safeguard their department or agency's computer systems against denial-of-service attacks on the Internet. Within legal and administrative limits, attention should also be paid to contractors providing services".

The last few weeks have stunned the entire world with Cyber assaults on various popular web sites grabbing news headlines and people's attention. Several major Websites  reported  denial  of  service attacks over the past few weeks that rendered their sites largely inaccessible.

E-commerce heavy weights like Amazon.com, eBay and Buy.com, along with Yahoo, news portal CNN.com, online trading vortals E-Trade and Datek and ZDNet etc. all reported similar attacks. So much so that these Cyber assaults did not even spare Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In a similar repeat performance, electronic vandals, by transmitting spurious signals, engineered a scheme of things that the FBI's Website  remained inaccessible for more than three hours on February 18, 2000.

These various Cyber assaults have once again highlighted the absolute vulnerability of the entire scheme of E-Commerce in Cyberspace. The most important thing emerging out of the said attacks is the bold realization of the fact that there is an absolute need to have a global law relating to Cyber Assault and Hacking. Also the realization is drawing that Internet and Cyberspace can be the play field for many an ingenious and perverse criminal minds. The real power of today's Internet is that it is available to anyone with a computer and a telephone line. Internet places at an individual's hands the power of information and communication. At the same time, Internet also opens up unlimited horizons of its misuse by fertile brains.

Internet usage has significantly increased over the past few years. The number of data packets which flowed through the Internet increased from 153 million in 1988 to 60,587 million in 1994 and the number of host computers increased from 235 in 1982 to 3.2 million in 1994. According to International Data Corporation ("IDC"), approximately 233.3 million devices are estimated to be connected to the Internet by this present year 2000 versus approximately 12.6 million devices in 1995. IDC also estimates that approximately 163 million individuals or entities will use the Internet by the year 2000 as opposed to 16.1 million in 1995. If left to its own measure, it is highly unlikely that such a trend can reverse itself.

Given the present growth rate of Internet and the ever changing scenario, numerous legal issues arise. One of the most important issues concerning cyberspace today is that of Cybercrime.

When Internet was developed, the founding fathers of Internet hardly had any inclination that Internet could also be misused for criminal activities. Today, there are many disturbing things happening in cyberspace. Cybercrime refers to all the activities done with criminal intent in cyberspace. These could be either the criminal activities in the conventional sense or could be activities, newly evolved with the growth of the new medium. Because of the anonymous nature of the Internet, it is possible to engage into a variety of criminal activities with impunity and people with intelligence, have been grossly misusing this aspect of the Internet to perpetuate criminal activities in cyberspace. The field of Cybercrime is just emerging and new forms of criminal activities in cyberspace are coming to the forefront with the passing of each new day.

There can be no one exhaustive definition about Cybercrime. However, any activities which basically offend human sensibilities, can also be included in its ambit. Child Pornography on the Internet constitutes one serious Cybercrime. Similarly, online pedophiles, using internet to induce minor children into sex, are as much Cybercriminals as any other.

Cybercrimes can be basically divided into 3 major categories being Cybercrimes against persons, property and Government.

Cybercrimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail, and cyber-stalking.

The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography, indecent exposure, and child pornography, constitutes one of the most important Cybercrimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity can hardly be overstated. This is one Cybercrime which threatens to undermine the growth of the younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled.

Similarly, Cyber harassment is a distinct Cybercrime. Various kinds of harassment can and does occur in cyberspace, or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious  or other. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also guilty of cybercrimes. Cyber harassment as a crime also brings us to another related area of violation of privacy of netizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a Cybercrime of a grave nature. No one likes any other person invading the precious and extremely touchy area of his or her own privacy which the medium of internet grants to the netizens.

Another Cybercrime against persons is that of Cyberstalking. The Internet is a wonderful place to work, play and study. The Net is no more and no less than a mirror of the real world, and that means it also contains electronic versions of real life problems. Stalking and harassments are problems that many persons especially women, are familiar with in real life. These problems also occur on the Internet, in what has become know as "Cyberstalking" or "on-line harassment".

The second category of Cybercrimes is that of Cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes include unauthorized computer trespassing through cyberspace, computer vandalism, transmission of harmful programs, and unauthorized possession of computerized information.

Hacking and cracking are amongst the gravest Cybercrimes known till date. It is a dreadful feeling to know that a stranger has broken into your computer systems without your knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential data and information. Coupled with this , the actuality is that no computer system in the world is hacking proof. It is unanimously agreed that any and every system in the world can be hacked. The recent denial of service attacks seen over the popular commercial sites like e-Bay, Yahoo, Amazon and others are a new category of Cybercrimes which are slowly emerging as being extremely dangerous. Using one's own programming abilities as also various programmes with malicious intent to gain unauthorized access to a computer or network are very serious crimes. Similarly, the creation and dissemination of harmful computer programs or virii which do irreparable damage to computer systems is another kind of Cybercrime. Software piracy is also another distinct kind of Cybercrime which is perpetuated by many people online who distribute illegal and unauthorised pirated copies of software.

The third category of Cybercrimes relate to Cybercrimes against Government. Cyber Terrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category. The growth of Internet has shown that the medium of Cyberspace is being used by individuals and groups to threaten the international governments as also to terrorise the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself into terrorism when an individual "cracks" into a government or military maintained website.

Since  Cybercrime  is  a newly specialised field, growing in Cyberlaws, a lot of development has to take place in terms of putting into place the relevant legal mechanism  for  controlling  and  preventing  Cybercrime.  As  of  now, there is absolutely no comprehensive law on Cybercrime any where in the world. This is reason that the investigating agencies like FBI are finding the Cyberspace to be an extremely difficult terrain. These various Cybercrimes fall into that grey area of Internet law which is neither fully nor partially covered by the  existing  laws and that too in some countries.  The  courts in United States of America  have already begun taking cognizance of various kinds of fraud and Cybercrimes being perpetuated in Cyberspace. For the victims of various Cybercrimes, there is no one healing remedy. They can either file for civil damages or wait for the culprits  to  be  nabbed  and  then  to  be   tried   under  provisions,  existing or envisaged which are not comprehensive at all. However, a lot of work has to be done in this field.  Just  as  human   mind  is   ingenious  enough  to  devise  new  ways for perpetuating crime, similarly  human  ingenuity needs to be channelised into developing  effective  legal  and  regulatory mechanisms to control and prevent Cybercrimes.

We all must remember that Cyberspace is a common heritage of ours which we have inherited in our life times from the benefits of ever  growing  technologies. This Cyberspace is the lifeline of the entire universe  and given  its irreversible position today, it is the duty of  every netizen  to contribute toward  making  the said cyberspace free of any  trouble or  cybercrime.  To   rephrase the   famous words of Rabindra Nath Tagore in today's  context, "Where the Cyberspace is without fear or crime and the head is held high, where knowledge is free, where tireless  striving  stretches  its  arms  towards  perfection,  …..  into that cyber heaven of freedom, O my father, let our humanity awake."

    For any further query, kindly contact

   Pavan Duggal, Cyberlaw Consultant at

     pduggal@vsnl.com pavanduggal@hotmail.com