Cyber Crime

                             Cyber Crime

What is Cybercrime?  

Cybercrime is the use of computers and networks to perform illegal activities such as spreading computer viruses, online bullying, performing unauthorized electronic fund transfers, etc. Most cybercrimes are committed through the internet. Some cybercrimes can also be carried out using Mobile phones via SMS and online chatting applications.

Type of Cybercrime

·       The following list presents the common types of cybercrimes:

·       Computer Fraud: Intentional deception for personal gain via the use of computer systems.

·   Privacy violation: Exposing personal information such as email addresses, phone         numbers, account details, etc. on social media, websites, etc.

·    Identity Theft: Stealing personal information from somebody and impersonating that person.

·   Sharing copyrighted files/information: This involves distributing copyright-protected        files such as eBooks and computer programs etc.

· Electronic funds transfer: This involves gaining unauthorized access to bank                computer  networks and making illegal fund transfers.

·  Electronic money laundering: This involves the use of the computer to launder money.

·   ATM Fraud: This involves intercepting ATM card details such as account number and PINs. These details are then used to withdraw funds from the intercepted accounts.

·  Denial of Service Attacks: This involves the use of computers in multiple locations to attack servers with a view of shutting them down.

What is Ethical Hacking?

Ethical Hacking is identifying weaknesses in computer systems and/or computer networks and coming with countermeasures that protect the weaknesses. Ethical hackers must abide by the following rules.

• Get written permission from the owner of the computer system and/or computer network before hacking.
• Protect the privacy of the organization been hacked.
• Transparently report all the identified weaknesses in the computer system to the organization.
• Inform hardware and software vendors of the identified weaknesses.

The 3 Phases of HackingPhases of Hacking

1.      Information Gathering
2.      Gaining  access
3.      Anti forensics

•    Information Gathering

             information gathering is the preparatory phase for an attack that involves a collection of information to reveal holes in a system. This process is also called reconnaissance which is that some of the military use when asked to gather information to study the enemy.  Reconnaissance can be done in two ways passive or active-passive reconnaissance is the method of gathering, information without directly intruding on the target.  That is by probing a web active reconnaissance involves direct intrusion on the targets to collect information.  Now that the target is fixed let's probe the target for information about what is happening. The talk can track the attacker. What happened when the probe was initiated whenever a request is sent to a server.

So for example what is my IP dot com. It captures the actual IP of the sender. What can be done to avoid being tracked

•         Gaining  access

Gaining access is the most important phase of an attack in terms of potential damage, although attackers don’t always have to gain access to the system to cause damage. For instance, denial-of-service attacks can either exhaust resources or stop services from running on the target system. Stopping a service can be carried out by killing processes, using a logic/time bomb, or even reconfiguring and crashing the system. Resources can be exhausted locally by filling up outgoing communication links.

•      Anti forensics
  

Anti-forensics can be a computer investigator's worst nightmare. Programmers design anti-forensic tools to make it hard or impossible to retrieve information during an investigation. Essentially, anti-forensics refer to any technique, gadget, or software designed to hamper a computer investigation.

Why Ethical Hacking?

• Information is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Keeping information secure can protect an organization’s image and save an organization a lot of money.
• Hacking can lead to loss of business for organizations that deal in finance such as PayPal. Ethical hacking puts them a step ahead of the cybercriminals who would otherwise lead to loss of business.

The legality of Ethical Hacking

Ethical Hacking is legal if the hacker abides by the rules stipulated in the above section on the definition of ethical hacking. The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) provides a certification program that tests an individual’s skills. Those who pass the examination are awarded certificates. The certificates are supposed to be renewed after some time.