Research Paper
CS-310
Summer, 2013

People all over the world use computers and the Internet for just about everything from shopping to paying bills, and research to leisurely searching for whatever their interests lay. Computers are now in almost every school, home, and business. They have helped increase productivity and made our lives so much easier. Due to the ease computers have made, it has also opened a door for a new breed of criminal.

Cybercrime is on the rise. Cybercriminals use the Internet to spread their viruses, worms, and other hacking tools, like phishing, to steal people’s identity or sign them up for expensive services, which they reap the profits. However, some of these criminals do it for thrill of the chase. According the reading CompCriminal.doc there are two types of cybercriminals, the non-professional hacker and the professional hacker.

Another form a cyber-attack called the DoS attack or denial-of-service. “The attack is designed to paralyze websites, financial networks and other computer systems by flooding them with data from outside computers.” (James, 2009). The first document case of a DoS attack was in 2000 by a 15-year old Canadian boy nicknamed “Mafiaboy”. This attack was against several e-commerce sites including eBay.com and Amazon.com.

There have been several other hackers prior to “Mafiaboy”. Two of the notorious cybercriminals were Kevin Mitnick and Robert Morris. In 1982, Mitnick broke into the North American Air Defense Command’s computer system. Mitnick was arrested, and convicted for his cybercrimes 1989, which was the first time he was convicted. In 1988, Morris created an Internet worm, which halted almost all Internet activity. He claimed it was an experiment, which he lost control of, and was sentenced to probation and community service.

With the use of the Internet to pay bills or shop, it has opened a window for cybercriminals to find a new way to steal your identity; this can cost you thousands of dollars in damages. Cybercriminals will try to steal valuable information like your credit card number by either hacking into a database of stored card information or by sending out phishing emails. This form of identity theft has proven to be very effective for cybercriminals and is on the rise in number of phishing emails. “Between January 2005 and January 2006, more than 190,000 different phishing scams were reported.” (Privacy Matters, 2012).

In 2000, Robert Gray, hacked into e-commerce websites and stole thousands of credit card numbers. The estimated number of credit card numbers he stole approximately 26,000. In the interview with Gray, he stated he stole the credit card information as a message. He explained the message was, “There are a lot of people out there who won't even safeguard their own safety, let alone the safety of their customers. At the end of the day, it's the fault of these companies. The buck does stop with them. . . . But they're not even trying to protect their own business from that.” (PBS, 2001). Gray would be classified as a non-professional hacker because he did not intend to use the card information for his own personal gain. It was a mischievous act he enjoyed doing.

So how do we protect ourselves from cybercrime? One way is to make sure you have installed a dependable and know antivirus software onto your computer. If the software is working as it should, and the virus database is update, it can be used to scan your computer for any existing threats. Also, it will notify you if a virus is attempting to load onto your computer through a corrupted file that you received.

Another way is to know what to look for in a phishing email. Sometimes these emails seem to be legitimate and look very real. However; do not be fooled. “Spoofed brands have included companies like Bank of America, eBay, CitiBank and PayPal.” (Privacy Matters, 2012). Also, do not give out personal information like credit numbers, social security numbers over unsecured electronic communication. There is still a threat even if sent through secured e-mail, however, it is much less due to the security settings within the company you are passing the information to.

This subject interested me the most because a virus recently hijacked my computer. I had performed an Adobe Reader update that popped up on my screen. I accepted the update since it stated it was for Adobe Reader. Little did I know, I just downloaded a Trojan virus to my computer. This virus attacked my antivirus, which made it time out while scanning my computer. It also installed two administrative profiles, which caused me to have zero administrative rights to my folders and documents.

Because of this virus, I ended up losing approximately three weeks’ worth of homework saved to my computer. Including an Access database project and research paper, this took me all week to complete. Once I received my computer, back these files were corrupted and I was forced to delete the files.

From this experience, I have learned to ALWAYS double check the source of the update. If it states “unknown”, I will not be downloading it. In addition, because this I will be doing all of my Adobe updates directly from the Adobe website.

I really do not understand people who do these types of acts. I cannot comprehend writing something that I know will maliciously attack another person’s computer. I feel these people should be using the talents for something good, something positive. However, I guess that is just wishful thinking.

Works Cited

James, R. (2009, June 09). A brief history of cyber crime. Retrieved July 17, 2013 from Time: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1902073,00.html

Privacy Matters. (2012). Phishing and identity theft. Retrieved July 22, 2013, from Privacy Matters: http://www.privacymatters.com/identity-theft-information/phishing.aspx

PBS. (2001). Inverview: raphael gray a.k.a. curador. Retrieved July 23, 2013, from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hackers/interviews/curador.html