Cybercrime

We all use a variety of different technology such as mobile phones, e-mail, online shopping and social networks. However, using this technology can put stalking victims at risk. It is important that support professionals and victims understand how technology works, why it puts them at risk and what steps they can take to reduce those risks. These guidelines review the most commonly used technologies and their risks. There is a section on spoof text (SMS) and global positioning satellite (GPS) car tracking devices, but the key risks are set out below.

With the emergence of new technologies and innovations the World is also facing alarming increase in the crimes and a cyber crime is one of the most vulnerable crimes emerging now a day. India too is no exception in the paradigm of cyber crime. Cyber crimes in India are gaining momentum from simple e-mail type of crime to serious crime like hacking, source code theft etc. Cyberstalking is on the rise and women, senior citizens and children are the most likely targets. This paper examines cyber stalking as an example of a crime that is simultaneously both amenable to, and resistant of, traditional forms of legislation, depending upon the way in which the possibilities of the Internet are exploited. The paper attempts to discuss the modes of cyber crimes, categories of cyber stalkers, psychology of cyber stalkers, motives of cyber stalkers and the nature victims. The paper also attempts to suggest measures to prevent the crime and deal cyber stalkers.

Federal and state laws have always played a role in protecting minors from criminal victimization. For example, Congress has enacted laws dealing with child pornography, child luring, and child sexual exploitation. However, given its immediacy, anonymity, and accessibility, the Internet offers a forum, through social networking sites,1 for harassment and other social ills committed against minors. The Internet’s nuances present new challenges for federal and state legislators and law enforcement personnel responsible for defining and prosecuting criminal use. This is especially true with the relatively new crime of Internet “harassment.” The term Internet harassment usually encompasses “cyberstalking,” “cyberharassment,” and/or “cyberbullying.” These activities, when committed against minors, may cause emotional harm. Recent high-profile cases involving teen suicides demonstrate the potentially severe consequences of this emotional harm. As such, legislators are faced with determining how to handle the problem.
 
Various laws, not specific to minors, govern traditional crimes such as stalking and harassment, which generally include a threat of harm. These laws generally criminalize unlawful conduct that fails to rise to the level of assault or battery.2 Recognizing that the Internet can be used to stalk or harass individuals, Congress and some states have amended “traditional” stalking and harassment statutes to include Internet activity. However, these statutes are generally inapplicable in situations in which minors suffer emotional harm due to embarrassment or humiliation. When, if ever, should criminal sanctions be imposed for these incidents? Should legislators amend traditional stalking and harassment statutes to cover these situations? Or should legislators create new crimes covering such activity? Should such activity conducted by a neighbor, for example, be prosecuted on the federal level because the Internet was used? Or should prosecution of such activity remain at the state level? These are just some of the questions legislators may consider in addressing the problem of Internet harassment of children. While these policy considerations are noteworthy, this report focuses on the applicable constitutional constraints legislators may consider in drafting legislation in this area.

This paper aims to provide an introduction to a range of abusive behaviours that young people may encounter online, including cyber stalking, abusive cyber sex and online grooming. The principle author has spent over eight years researching various aspects of online activity, including both criminal behaviours.
 
A number of legal definitions of these particular deviant online behaviours have been developed, for example, UK’s Protection From Harassment Act 1997 and most recently within the UK, under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. However, there is a shortage of programmes of education designed to address these online behaviours. The aim of this paper is to propose a blueprint for the development of Internet safety programmes designed to educate young people about the nature of abusive online activities. Currently, there is a clear need for information that summarises abusive online activities in a way that is accessible both to young people and also to those who are responsible for children’s well being, including parents, carers and teachers. It is also vitally important that those in a position to mediate these activities, for example chat room moderators and also policy makers interested in addressing abusive online behaviours, have a clear insight into not only the nature of abusive online activities, but crucially possible proactive and reactive strategies.

Since the dawn of the Information Age, individuals have used technology to commit crimes. Initially such acts were committed by those with specific skills or knowledge to break or hack into computer1 systems and/or manipulate them to steal services, data and/or funds. Some also used their skills to simply destroy systems and/or data. Increased computer availability, use and connectivity particularly with the advent of the Internet, has made the general population, including criminals, accustomed to computers and their uses.

Technology can dramatically increase the effects of criminal behavior and therefore poses a unique risk to the community. For example, near perfect counterfeit checks and currency can be easily created with today’s technology. As a result, juveniles committ delinquent acts that in the past only sophisticated adult criminals could accomplish (Bowker, 1999 and 2000).

Furthermore, technology is being used by other types of criminal offenders. The 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment reflects:

“Gang members often use cell phones and the Internet to communicate and
promote their illicit activities. Street gangs typically use the voice and text messaging
capabilities of cell phones to conduct drug transactions and prearrange meetings
with customers. Members of street gangs use multiple cell phones that they frequently
discard while conducting their drug trafficking operations. For example, the leader
of an African American street gang operating on the north side of Milwaukee used
more than 20 cell phones to coordinate drug-related activities of the gang; most
were prepaid phones that the leader routinely discarded and replaced. Internetbased
methods such as social networking sites, encrypted e-mail, Internet telephony
and instant messaging are commonly used by gang members to communicate
with one another and with drug customers. Gang members use social networking
Internet sites such as MySpace®, YouTube®, and Facebook® as well as personal
web pages to communicate and boast about their gang membership and related
activities” (pg. 10).

The internet is revolutionising our society by driving economic growth and giving people new ways to connect and co-operate with one another. Falling costs mean accessing the internet will become cheaper and easier, allowing more people in the UK and around the world to use it, ‘democratising’ the use of technology and feeding the flow of innovation and productivity. This will drive the expansion of cyberspace further and as it grows, so will the value of using it.
 
Chapter 1 describes the background to the growth of the networked world and the immense social and economic benefits it is unlocking. As with most change, increasing our reliance on cyberspace brings new opportunities but also new threats. While cyberspace fosters open markets and open societies, this very openness can also make us more vulnerable to those – criminals, hackers, foreign intelligence services – who want to harm us by compromising or damaging our critical data and systems.
 
Chapter 2 describes these threats. The impacts are already being felt and will grow as our reliance on cyberspace grows. The networks on which we now rely for our daily lives transcend organisational and national boundaries. Events in cyberspace can happen at immense speed, outstripping traditional responses (for example, the exploitation of cyberspace can mean crimes such as fraud can be committed remotely, and on an industrial scale). Although we have ways of managing risks in cyberspace, they do not match this complex and dynamic environment. So we need a new and transformative programme to improve our game domestically, as well as continuing to work with other countries on an international response.
 
Chapter 3 sets out where we want to end up – with the Government’s vision for UK cyber security in 2015.

In 2010, the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee continued to refine the process by which domestic violence homicides and homicide-suicides were reviewed. In particular, the process and methods used for gathering, calculating and presenting statistical information pertaining to the cases reviewed by the DVDRC are being re-examined in order to ensure consistency, accuracy and reliability. As such, all data collected to date will undergo further analysis and refinement, as necessary. For this reason, this 2010 Annual Report of the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee will only contain statistical information pertaining to the actual cases reviewed in 2010...
...Chapter Four of this annual report touches on some of the recurring themes that emerged from the cases reviewed in 2010. The following themes are examined in further detail: domestic violence in the workplace, the utilization of information and communication technologies to further abuse victims of domestic violence and safe separation.

The problem of stalking has probably been around since the earliest communities gathered. Newspaper reports and television news channels have reported for many years cases in which stalking ultimately led to a fatality or serious injury, especially in cases where one of the parties was famous, or indeed infamous. However these reports were not initiated due to the concern of stalking behaviour, but rather the act that it resulted in, generally involving violence. It is only relatively recently that legislation has been introduced in the United Kingdom to address stalking and harassment, with the introduction of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. In America the first stalking legislation was passed in California in 1990, and by 1999 every other state and the District of Columbia had passed laws that criminalised stalking.

Network for Surviving Stalking is internationally recognised as the leading Registered Charity in the United Kingdom dedicated to supporting victims of stalking, free of cost or commercial gain. It aims to provide support to victims, potential victims and others affected by stalking or harassment throughout the UK, to raise awareness of the subject and to provide information about stalking and harassment to professionals, relevant agencies and the public.

As we have moved into an age of electronic information and communication, stalkers have found new, more effective and efficient means to perpetrate their malicious acts; stalkers have become Cyberstalkers. Cyberstalking has become somewhat of an epidemic stretching across the globe. Network for Surviving Stalking began to notice that an increasing number of people searching for support were being stalked or harassed online, making the charity concerned as to the prevalence, nature and impact of cyberstalking. The charity commissioned a team of researchers and together developed an online questionnaire to establish answers to these questions. This report provides an analysis of the responses to the questionnaire.

Most Canadians use the Internet regularly (Middleton 2010). According to results from the 2010 Canadian Internet Use Survey, 8 out of 10 Canadian households had access to the Internet (Statistics Canada 2011).1 However, the advent of new information technologies is also creating new opportunities for crime and new risks of victimization (RCMP 2011; Public Safety 2011). In recent years, governments and institutions, as well as users, have identified the need to address the risk of victimization on the Internet (Kowalski 2002). However, to date, it remains difficult to measure the nature and extent of the issue. While police records provide some information, self-reported data show that only a small proportion of victimizations are reported to authorities (Perreault and Brennan 2010).
 
In 2009, the General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization was conducted on a sample of Canadians aged 15 years and older living in the provinces. For the first time, the GSS collected information from Canadians about their perceptions and experiences of victimization on the Internet, with a particular focus on cyber-bullying, Internet bank fraud and problems encountered with making online purchases (see Text box 1).
 
Drawing on the GSS data, this Juristat article2 presents information on Internet victimization as self-reported by Canadians. In particular, it examines the socio-demographic and economic characteristics (such as age, level of education and income status) and Internet use characteristics of those who have been victimized. This article also examines security concerns of Canadian Internet users as well as hate content found on the Internet.

In this article I argue that there is a direct link between existing debates about unauthorised visual images and the issue of sexual assault. In particular, it considers the adequacy of current Australian legislation to properly respond to this issue and to reflect the additional harm caused to victim/survivors of sexual assault when a visual image of the assault is recorded and distributed. This is not to undermine the importance of securing justice and support for victims regarding the original sexual assault. Rather, I argue that it is a continued assault on the victim, facilitated by advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs), when an image of the assault is recorded and distributed.