Module 2

MODULE 2
Cyber – crime and Cyber law:
 In Simple way we can say that cyber crime is unlawful acts wherein the computer is
either a tool or a target or both.
 Cyber crimes can involve criminal activities that are traditional in nature, such as theft,
fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief, all of which are subject to the Indian Penal
Code.
 Cybercrime can be defined as any criminal conduct involving a computer, networked
device, or any other similar equipment.
It can be classified in to 4 major categories as

1. Cyber crime against Individual

2. Cyber crime Against Property
3. Cyber crime Against Organization
4. Cyber crime Against Society

1. Against Individuals
1. Email spoofing:
A spoofed email is one in which e-mail header is forged so that mail appears to originate
from one source but actually has been sent from another source

2. Spamming:
Spamming means sending multiple copies of unsolicited mails or mass e-mails such as
chain letters.

3. Cyber Defamation:
This occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and / or the
Internet. E.g. someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends
e-mails containing defamatory information.

4. Harassment & Cyber stalking:

Cyber Stalking Means following the moves of an individual‘s activity over internet. It
can be done with the help of many protocols available such at e- mail, chat rooms, user
net groups.

2. Against Property:
1. Credit Card Fraud :
2. Intellectual Property crimes : These include Software piracy: illegal copying of
programs, distribution of copies of software.
1. Copyright infringement:

2. Trademarks violations:
Theft of computer source code:

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3. Internet time theft:

the usage of the Internet hours by an unauthorized person which is actually paid by
another person.

4. Against Organisation:
3. Unauthorized Accessing of Computer:
Accessing the computer/network without permission from the owner.
it can be of 2 forms:
1. Changing/deleting data:
Unauthorized changing of data.
2. Computer voyeur:
The criminal reads or copies confidential or proprietary information, but the data is
neither deleted nor changed.

2. DenialOf Service:
When Internet server is flooded with continuous bogus requests so as to denying
legitimate users to use the server or to crash the server.

3. Computer contamination/Virus attack:

A computer virus is a computer program that can infect other computer programs by
modifying them in such a way as to include a (possibly evolved) copy of it.
Viruses can be file infecting or affecting boot sector of the computer.
Worms, unlike viruses do not need the host to attach themselves to.

4. Email Bombing:
Sending large numbers of mails to the individual or company or mail servers thereby
ultimately resulting into crashing.

5. Salami Attack:
When negligible amounts are removed & accumulated in to something larger. These
attacks are used for the commission of financial crimes.

6. Logic Bomb:
Its an event dependent programme , as soon as the designated event occurs, it crashes the
computer, release a virus or any other harmful possibilities.

7. Trojan Horse:
an unauthorized program which functions from inside what seems to be an authorized
program, thereby concealing what it is actually doing.

8. Data diddling:
This kind of an attack involves altering raw data just before it is processed by a computer
and then changing it back after the processing is completed.

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4. Against Society:
1. Forgery: currency notes, revenue stamps, mark sheets etc can be forged using computers
and high quality scanners and printers.

2. Cyber Terrorism: Use of computer resources to intimidate or coerce others.

3. Web Jacking: Hackers gain access and control over the website of another, even they
change the content of website for fulfilling political objective or for money.

Most Common Cyber Crimes:

1. Phishing and Scam:
 Phishing is a type of social engineering attack that targets the user and tricks them by
sending fake messages and emails to get sensitive information about the user or trying to
download malicious software and exploit it on the target system.

2. Identity Theft
 Identity theft occurs when a cybercriminal uses another person‘s personal data like credit
card numbers or personal pictures without their permission to commit a fraud or a crime.

3. Ransomware Attack
 Ransomware attacks are a very common type of cybercrime.
 It is a type of malware that has the capability to prevent users from accessing all of their
personal data on the system by encrypting them and then asking for a ransom in order to
give access to the encrypted data.

4. Hacking/Misusing Computer Networks

 This term refers to the crime of unauthorized access to private computers or networks and
misuse of it either by shutting it down or tampering with the data stored or other illegal
approaches.

5. Internet Fraud
 Internet fraud is a type of cybercrimes that makes use of the internet and it can be
considered a general term that groups all of the crimes that happen over the internet like
spam, banking frauds, theft of service, etc.

Cyber crime targeting computers and mobiles:

Unsecured Wi-Fi
 Free wi-fi is easily attractive to people, if anyone connects to the free wifi, then the
hackers might steal your data.
 Never use the free wifi when accessing confidential services like banking and
transactions, there might be a chance of stealing your money.

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Phishing Attacks
 Phishing attacks are mostly seen in emails and messages.
 When the user clicks on a suspicious link, there might be a chance of virus files
download which can corrupt and hack your devices which results in data loss.
 In some cases, they will send a form to fill in the confidential information.

Malicious Apps and websites

 When you download any app manually from the websites, there might be a chance that
the app can accomplish some objectives like stealing data, encrypting the data, etc.

Weak Passwords

 If the passwords of the mobile devices are weak there might be a change of others
accessing the data.
 This might result in data leakage and privacy issues. So make sure that the passwords for
mobile devices or apps must be strong.

Iot Mobile security threats

 As we all know most of the things are correcting to the internet and works easily, fast
with the internet from wearable tech like smartphones, watches, etc.
 If these devices are hacked then misuse of these devices might result in huge costs.

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Cyber-crime against women and children:

Cyber violence uses Computer Technology to access women‘s personal information and use
the internet for harassment and exploitation.

Types of Cyber Crime:

 Cyber Stalking: It includes attempting to contact the women via social networking sites
without any legitimate purpose, putting threatening messages on the chat page, and
constantly disturbing the victims with objectionable emails and messages to create mental
distress.
 Cyber Defamation: This activity involves defaming the victim through blackmailing and
disclosing their details or modified pictures. It often involves extorting and seeking sexual
favors from the victim.
 Cyber Hacking: When asked to click on unauthorised URLs or download apps that leak
all their personal information on their phones, the women became victims of cyber hacking.
The criminals utilise these details for unauthorised monetary transactions and other
unlawful activities.
 Cyber Bullying: It is an act of regular harassment and bullying of the victim through the
digital communication device by posting abusive and misleading content, pictures, or
videos and sending rape and death threats.
 Pornography: This criminal activity involves posting morphed images of victims and
using them for pornographic purposes, sometimes demanding money to remove them from
social networking sites.
 Cyber Grooming: In this case, a person builds a relationship with a woman through an
online platform and pressurizes her for undue favors or doing sexual acts.

 CYBERCRIME IN FINANCE:
 Cybercrime in finance is the act of obtaining financial gain through profit-driven criminal
activity, including identity fraud, ransomware attacks, email and internet fraud, and
attempts to steal financial accounts, credit cards, or other payment card information.
 In other words: Financial cybercrime includes activities such as stealing payment card
information, gaining access to financial accounts in order to initiate unauthorized
transactions, extortion, identity fraud in order to apply for financial products, and so on.
 Financial crime is a crime against property involving the unlawful conversion of
ownership of property belonging to one person to one‘s personal use and benefit.
Cybercrime in finance includes acts such as stealing payment card information, gaining
access to financial accounts in order to initiate unauthorised transactions, extort and
impersonate.

Social engineering attack techniques

Social engineering attacks come in many different forms and can be performed anywhere where
human interaction is involved. The following are the five most common forms of digital social
engineering assaults.

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Baiting

 As its name implies, baiting attacks use a false promise to pique a victim‘s greed or
curiosity.
 They lure users into a trap that steals their personal information or inflicts their systems
with malware.
 The most reviled form of baiting uses physical media to disperse malware.
 For example, attackers leave the bait—typically malware-infected flash drives—in
conspicuous areas where potential victims are certain to see them (e.g., bathrooms,
elevators, the parking lot of a targeted company). The bait has an authentic look to it,
such as a label presenting it as the company‘s payroll list.

Scareware

 Scareware involves victims being bombarded with false alarms and fictitious threats.
 Users are deceived to think their system is infected with malware, prompting them to
install software that has no real benefit (other than for the perpetrator) or is malware
itself.
 Scareware is also referred to as deception software, rogue scanner software and
fraudware.
 A common scareware example is the legitimate-looking popup banners appearing in your
browser while surfing the web, displaying such text such as, ―Your computer may be
infected with harmful spyware programs.‖ It either offers to install the tool (often
malware-infected) for you, or will direct you to a malicious site where your computer
becomes infected.

Pretexting
 Here an attacker obtains information through a series of cleverly crafted lies.
 The scam is often initiated by a perpetrator pretending to need sensitive information
from a victim so as to perform a critical task.
 The attacker usually starts by establishing trust with their victim by impersonating co-
workers, police, bank and tax officials, or other persons who have right-to-know
authority.
 The pretexter asks questions that are ostensibly required to confirm the victim‘s
identity, through which they gather important personal data.
Phishing

 As one of the most popular social engineering attack types, phishing scams are email and
text message campaigns aimed at creating a sense of urgency, curiosity or fear in victims.
 It then prods them into revealing sensitive information, clicking on links to malicious
websites, or opening attachments that contain malware.
 An example is an email sent to users of an online service that alerts them of a policy
violation requiring immediate action on their part, such as a required password change..

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Ransomware and malware:

 Ransomware is a type of malware and cybercrime that holds data for ransom.
 Access to data on computer networks, mobile devices, and servers is locked until the victim pays
a ransom.
 Common ransomware targets include individuals, companies, organizations such as h Locker
ransomware.
 This type of malware blocks basic computer functions. For example, you may be denied access
to the desktop, while the mouse and keyboard are partially disabled.
 Crypto ransomware. The aim of crypto ransomware is to encrypt your important data, such
as documents, pictures and videos, but not to interfere with basic computer functions.
 This spreads panic because users can see their files but cannot access them.
 Crypto developers often add a countdown to their ransom demand: "If you don't pay the ransom
by the deadline, all your files will be deleted."

Zero-click attack definition:

 Zero-click attacks, unlike most cyberattacks, don‘t require any interaction from the users
they target, such as clicking on a link, enabling macros, or launching an executable.
 They are sophisticated, often used in cyberespionage campaigns, and tend to leave very few
traces behind—which makes them dangerous.

How zero-click attacks work

 Zero-click attacks have become increasingly popular in recent years, fueled by the rapidly
growing surveillance industry.
 One of the most popular spyware is NSO Group‘s Pegasus, which has been used to monitor
journalists, activists, world leaders, and company executives.
 While it‘s not clear how each victim was targeted, it is believed that at least a few of them
have received a WhatsApp call they didn‘t even have to answer.
 Messaging apps are often targeted in zero-click attacks because they receive large amounts of
data from unknown sources without requiring any action from the device owner.

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Modus Operandi in Cyber Crimes:

 Victims are lured through part-time job offers and other advertisements on Internet and /
or messaging platforms, etc. and are promised high commissions / returns.
 The advertisements / SMS messages usually contain a link, prompting for chat. Mobile
applications, bulk SMS messages, SIM-box-based Virtual Private Network (VPNs),
phishing websites, cloud services, virtual accounts in banks, Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs), etc. are used to carry out financial frauds.
 Earn Online‘, ‗Part Time Job‘, etc. are the key words used by fraudsters and criminals to
match their advertisements.
 Such advertisements are generally displayed from 10 am to 7 pm, i.e. the peak time for
internet use by Indian public.
 These websites used by fraudsters generally have domains – ‗xyz‘ and ‗wixsite‘.
 Multiple Indian numbers were used for communications with victims.
 In some cases, the mobile number holder knowingly shares OTP in return for some
money from the fraudsters.
 A screen-shot needs to be sent to the person over the messaging platform to activate the
account. Once the account is activated, a task is given to the user to gain confidence of
the person.
 Once the task is completed, the victim is asked to withdraw the money. Money is
withdrawn through various Payment Aggregators.
 On getting the first refund, the victim is now lured to do more tasks which involve
loading of more money.
 The process continues and once a big amount is loaded by the victim, the person
(fraudster) stops responding over chat.

Reporting cybercrime:
 While filing a complaint, ensure that you have necessary documents, like your bank
account number, account to which you transferred the amount and your contact number
which is linked to the bank. You can also track the status of your complaint once you file
it.
 In case of anonymous complaints, you do not need to provide any personal information.
 However, information related to the incident / complaint should be complete for the
police authorities to take necessary action.
 You will need to register yourself using your mobile number. You will receive a One
Time Password (OTP) on your mobile number.
 The OTP remains valid for 30 minutes only. Once you successfully register your mobile
number on the portal, you will be able to report the complaint.

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Remedial and mitigation measures:

 Mitigation and remediation are a result of risk assessment, following either a new or
advanced persistent threat (APT).
 Mitigation includes reducing the impact of a threat when it cannot be eliminated.
Remediation completely removes the threat when it‘s possible.
 Vulnerability remediation refers to the process of identifying the gaps in a potential
vendor‘s security controls and prioritizing the vulnerabilities that your organization
would like to fix.
 For example, an organization decides to employ a vendor to deliver office supplies to the
workplace. Since the organization wants to reduce security risks posed by the vendor, it
requires the vendor‘s employees to sign in at the front desk and wear a visitor‘s badge
upon arrival.

4 Steps to Remediation

Vulnerability remediation includes four basic steps:

 Find. Finding vulnerabilities at scale is best done through a vulnerability management

solution or penetration testing exercise.
 Prioritize. Determine which vulnerabilities present a real and present security risk, and
which are low priority or do not need to be addressed.
 Fix. Implement patches, update software or block vulnerabilities to mitigate risk.
 Monitor. Since the process of vulnerability mitigation is ongoing, you‘ll need to find
automated tools that deliver alerts and notifications at scale.

What is Mitigation?
 Mitigation is the process of dealing with risk or vulnerabilities after the fact and setting
controls around a supplier so that your organization can defend against those
vulnerabilities internally.
 Let‘s take a company that has calculated that the inherent risk minus control effectiveness
for a supplier equals a residual risk of 3 out of 5, which is not satisfactory.
 Mitigation offers a method for reducing that risk through an internal process of setting
controls around a supplier to internally defend against any risk presented.

Legal perspective of cyber crime:

 The Information Technology Act, 2000 also Known as an IT Act is an act proposed by
the Indian Parliament reported on 17th October 2000.
 It is the most important law in India dealing with Cybercrime and E-Commerce.
 The main objective of this act is to carry lawful and trustworthy electronic, digital and
online transactions and alleviate or reduce cybercrimes.

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The IT Act, 2000 has two schedules:

 First Schedule–
Deals with documents to which the Act shall not apply.
 Second Schedule–
Deals with electronic signature or electronic authentication method.
Amendments:
 A major amendment was made in 2008. It introduced Section 66A which penalized
sending "offensive messages".
 It also introduced Section 69, which gave authorities the power of "interception or
monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource".
 Additionally, it introduced provisions addressing - pornography, child porn, cyber
terrorism and voyeurism.
 The amendment was passed on 22 December 2008 without any debate in Lok
Sabha. The next day it was passed by the Rajya Sabha.
 It was signed into law by President Pratibha Patil, on 5 February 2009.[3][4][5][6]

Cyber crime and offences: Offences

Cyber offences are the illegitimate actions, which are carried out in a classy manner where either
the computer is the tool or target or both.

Cyber-crime usually includes the following −

 Unauthorized access of the computers
 Data diddling
 Virus/worms attack
 Theft of computer system
 Hacking
 Denial of attacks
 Logic bombs
 Trojan attacks
 Internet time theft
 Web jacking
 Email bombing
 Salami attacks
 Physically damaging computer system.

The offences included in the I.T. Act 2000 are as follows −

 Tampering with the computer source documents.
 Hacking with computer system.
 Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form.
 Power of Controller to give directions.
 Directions of Controller to a subscriber to extend facilities to decrypt information.
 Protected system.

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 Penalty for misrepresentation.

 Penalty for breach of confidentiality and privacy.
 Penalty for publishing Digital Signature Certificate false in certain particulars.
 Publication for fraudulent purpose.
 Act to apply for offence or contravention committed outside India Confiscation.
 Penalties or confiscation not to interfere with other punishments.
 Power to investigate offences.

Organizations dealing with cyber crime and cyber security in india.

 Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) was established by MHA, in New Delhi to
provide a framework and eco-system for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) for dealing
with Cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
 I4C is envisaged to act as the nodal point to curb Cybercrime in the country.

[Link] Investigation Act 2008 (NIA) :

 An Act to constitute an investigation agency at the national level to investigate and

prosecute offences affecting the security and integrity of India.,
 Security of State, friendly relations with foreign States and offences under Acts enacted
to implement international treaties, agreements, conventions and resolutions of the United
Nations, its agencies and other international organizations and for matters connected
therewith or incidental thereto.
 This Institution is also related with Interstate and International offences. Related to
terrorism and other offences.

[Link] Technical Research Organization (NTRO):

 The organization was founded in 2004. The main thrust is Development of Technology
and Technological Development.
 This covers areas like aviation, remote sencing, cryptography and cyber security.
 The NTRO acts as the primary advisor on security issues to the Prime Minister and the
Union Council of Ministers of India.
 It also provides technical intelligence to other Indian agencies. NTRO‘s activities include
satellite and terrestrial monitoring.

3. National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre :

 It is an organisation of the Government of India created under the Section 70A of the
Information Technology Act, 2000 (amended 2008), through a gazette notification on 16
January 2014.
 Based in New Delhi, India, it is designated as the National Nodal Agency in terms of
Critical Information Infrastructure Protection.
 It is a unit of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and therefore comes
under the Prime Minister‘s Office (PMO). NCIIP has identified

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