Cyber Crime: History and Evolution

Cyber Crime: History and Evolution

1. Introduction

Crime is close sibling of human society; both grew together in the backyard of civilization and evolved progressively. They could never be able to ignore each other. The same is true for the internet. The internet was created for the good of one and all but the good of internet have also brought evil by also creating a space with dark sides to it because the huge potential of cyberspace has also been exploited by humans for committing modern day crimes. Broadly cyber crimes poses two kinds of threats; one is targeting of computers/internet devices (identity theft, hacking, spam, phishing, defacing websites, denial of service attack, bot infection etc.) and two is where computers are used as tool to inflict harm on the individual (stalking, blackmailing, gambling, smuggling, money transactions for trafficking of drug, human, weapons, gold etc.). Cyber crime could easily be stated as the most advanced form of crimes of our times. It is evolving with every new emerging technology and easy accessibility of internet to masses also makes large number of people vulnerable to cyber crimes. The vulnerability of a common man to cyber crime is directly proportional to his/her reliance on internet for sustaining in modern lifestyle. Right from booking train ticket on IRCTC website, to online payment for purchases from e-commerce websites, paying electric and water bills, paying school fees to paying taxes and every daily chores of modern life are taken over by cyber space. The following diagram shows main purposes for which internet is used by majority of people in cyber space.

Cyber crime refers to only those forms of crime that are related to computers and networks. Cyber crime is further defined in detail in later part of this module. Apart from physically committing crimes using computers, cyber crimes are majorly done in cyber space. William Gibson who coined the term cyber space in his literary work 'Neuromancer' (1984) for the first time described about electronic activities that take place in virtual world. To explain the causes of crimes in cyber space, Jaishankar (2008) propounded "Space Transition Theory'. The theory with 7 postulates explains how an individual's behavior differs in physical and cyber space that could lead to commission of crimes in cyber space.

The vulnerability factor of citizens is further raised due to recent stance of Indian government to promote e-governance. We are virtually living in a cyber space, with a mobile in hand and an internet connection; we are connected to other netizens (a habitual internet. user) and are able to pay our bills in few clicks for which we used to stand in long queues earlier. Internet has become a matter of preferential choice over all the other means of doing things that required labor. People are willing to step in cyber space because it offers convenience but the convenience offered by the internet has also its ramification if one is not aware of risks involved and knows ways to mitigate them. Lack of awareness about cyber crimes is a major problem in India. Due to lack of awareness on preventive measures, numerous citizens are falling prey to cyber crimes such as e-mail frauds, phishing, cyber stalking, etc.

2. Definition:

The definition of cyber crime varies as per the evolution of cyber crimes and the way certain organizations has defined it based on their tackling expertise. 

For instance, US Department of Justice broadly refers to cyber crimes as forms of crimes that involve computers and networks (Punia, 2009). Cyber crime can also be defined in terms of its commission, i.e., either using computer as means or as target. 

Parthasarthi (2012) defined cyber crime as "an illegal activity that uses computer to commit crime." Crimes that are committed by using computers includes breaching confidentiality, violation of right to privacy, infringing integrity of data base securely stored in a system, breach in copyrighted content etc. Cyber crimes are different from conventional crimes in one peculiar way, i.e., in the commission of cyber crime; there is an involvement of virtual cyber space.

In order to define cyber crimes elaborately, Santanam et. al. (2011) extended the classification of cyber crimes beyond tool and target by further classifying cyber crimes into person, property and victimless crimes. In terms of cyber crimes, wherein computer is used as tool, a victim is targeted to inflict psychological pain/discomfort. 

The modus operandi is usually subtle and ambiguous. In cases of cyber crime where computer is used as tool, it is hard to apprehend the offender because usually the act is done from remote location or at times it may be a case of cross-border/international origins. The factor of anonymity from offender side and high vulnerability from victim side increases the propensity of cyber crimes where computer is used as tool. Halder and Jaishankar (2011, p. 15) have provided a holistic definition of cyber crimes. 

They have defined cyber crimes as: "Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm, or loss, to the victim directly or indirectly, using modern telecommunication networks such as Internet (Chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups) and mobile phones (SMS/MMS)".

Interestingly, unlike cyber crimes where computer is used as tool, in cases where computer is used as target, it is mostly committed by perpetrators in group. These forms of cyber crimes are even more complex than previous category because in order to target computers, usually a group of individuals with high and varying level of skill sets with common mal-intention is required. Some of the examples where a group of experts could target a uniform public system to cause disruption are city wide power grid shut down, creating anomalies in digital banking sector, breaking down hospital emergency services or public transportation system.

post In cyber crime against people, cyber harassment is quite common. The onslaught of

cyber space to discriminate and harass people from diverse or minor groups in terms of sexuality, race, skin color, nationality or socio-economic background is leading cause of victimization in 21" century. Similarly, cyber crimes are carried against private institutions, businesses or corporate houses for gaining financial edge through unfair means or causing harm to brand's reputation by unethical use of cyber space. On a more severe scale, cyber space is also exploited to target governments in power. 

Cyber terrorism is major cause of concern for all the governments across the world. Cyber space has already become an effective tool to terrorize the citizens by organizations with terror propaganda/terrorist outfits. Cyber space is not only used to terrorize people but it is also used as a means to render terrorist services uninterrupted, may it be international funds transactions for weapon trafficking or financing terrorist activities. 

Detection and prevention of such illicit activities in cyber space is crucial to smother cyber terrorism at all levels.

3. History and Evolution

Human civilization came a long way from abacus to modern high speed computers. This transition is one of the crucial developments witnessed by humanity because it has changed the ways of living and except select few remotely located people, it has affected everybody's life. 

Although this transition took its time and it was long enough to make evolution in cyber crimes quite visible. Cyber criminals evolved with time, they changed their strategies in consonance with advancement in technology to commit cyber crimes. 

The technically skilled criminals prefer to work in cyber space because there's not much physical exertion involved and seemingly cyber crimes yield maximum financial rewards with minimal risk of being caught, given the anonymity factor involved in cyber crimes. The cyber criminals have made use of developing or developed nation's propaganda of computerization as means for sustainable growth for the country. 

In past few decades, there has been a continuous upsurge in recorded number cyber crimes across the world. The more people are connected to the e-world networking, the more are chances of victimization from malwares, viruses and phishing. There has been very little work done at the international level to ascertain the country trends of cyber crimes. In one such comparative study of country trends (shown in diagram below) carried by an organization named Bluecoat reported trends of cyber crimes across the world, as on December 2013.

Over the decades, the evolution of cyber crime can be categorized in four major 

segments that have variations in terms of type of threat posed to the target.

Hacking holds a prominent position in the history of cyber crimes. The term 

‘hacking’ was used for the first time in the year 1960 when a group of people modified MIT 

model train to fix its problem. Dennis Ritchie and Keith Thompson were part of that team 

who later went on to develop UNIX operating system in Bell Labs- a hack to improvise 

original computer codes. Until then hacking was synonymous to fixing a problem or 

improvising the efficiency of existing system. After a decade, in 1970’s the meaning of 

hacking changed from good to bad. The first notable incident of hacking done with mal-

intention was by a group called as ‘phreakers’ who modified codes of computerized phone 

system to steal free time in long distance calling services.