The Paradox Of Cyber Crimes In Pakistan
By: Shahid Ilyas Khan
Cyber Crime is not a traditional offense. It is a crime which has transnational and trans borders ramifications. It affects society in different ways. Cyber crime is a term for any illegal activity that uses a computer, cell phone or any other electronic device as its primary means of commission. The computer or electronic device may be the agent of the crime, the facilitator of the crime, or the target of the crime. The crime may take place on the computer alone or in addition to other locations. Cyber criminals use computer technology to access personal information, business trade secrets, or use the Internet for exploitative or malicious purposes. They use computers for communication and document or data storage. Common types of cyber crime include online bank information theft, online predatory crimes, theft of one’s personal identity (identity theft) or financial resources, spread of malicious software code such as computer viruses; use of others’ computers to send spam email messages (botnets), Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on computer networks or websites by the hacker, activism, or attacking computer servers of those organizations felt by the hacker to be unsavory or ethically dubious, cyber stalking by which sexual predators use Internet chat rooms, social networking sites, and other online venues to find and harass their victims, cyber bullying, where individuals are harassed by others, causing severe mental anguish, cyber pornography, the use of the Internet to spread child and adult pornography; Internet gambling and software piracy and cyber terrorism, the use of the Internet to stage intentional, wide-spread attacks that disrupt computer networks, using the Internet to spread violent messages, recruit terrorists, and plan attacks. Sometimes computers and networks are used as a tool to commit an offence such as child pornography and hate crimes are conducted through the Internet. Cyber crimes cover a wide range of activities, but these can generally be broken into two categories, (i) crimes that target computer networks or devices. These types of crimes include viruses and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and (ii) crimes that use computer networks to advance other criminal activities. These types of crimes include cyber-stalking, phishing and fraud or identity theft. Criminals committing cyber crime use a number of methods, depending on their skills and their objectives.
Cyber crime can be divided into four sub-categories cyber-trespass (hacktivism, viruses, Denial of Service attacks), cyber-deceptions (identity theft, fraud, piracy), cyber-pornography, cyber-violence (cyber bullying, cyber stalking). he broad range of cyber crime can be better understood by dividing it into two overall categories.
IMPACTS OF CYBER CRIME:
The impacts of a single, successful cyber attack can have far-reaching implications including financial losses, theft of intellectual property, and loss of consumer confidence and trust. The overall monetary impact of cyber crime on society and government is estimated to be billions of dollars a year. Criminals take advantage of technology in many different ways. The Internet, in particular, is a great tool for scammers and other miscreants, since it allows them to ply their trade while hiding behind a shield of digital anonymity.
Cyber crime affects society in a number of different ways, both online and offline. Becoming the victim of cyber crime can have long-lasting effects on life of an individual in particular and society in general. One common technique scammers employ is phishing, sending false emails purporting to come from a bank or other financial institution requesting personal information. If one hands over this information, it can allow the criminal to access one’s bank and credit accounts, as well as open new accounts and destroy credit ratings.
SECURITY COSTS:
Cyber criminals attack on businesses, both large and small. Hackers attempt to take over company servers to steal information or use the machines for their own purposes.. It compels companies to hire new staff and update software to keep intruders out. According to E-Week, a survey of large companies found an average expenditure of $8.9 million per year on cyber security, with 100 per cent of firms surveyed reporting at least one malware incident in the preceding 12 months and 71 per cent reporting the hijacking of company computers by outsiders.
MONETARY LOSSES:
The overall monetary losses from cyber crime can be immense. According to a report, more than 1.5 million people fall victim to some sort of cyber crime every day, ranging from simple password theft to extensive monetary swindles. With an average loss of $197 per victim, this adds up to more than $110 billion dollars lost to cyber crime worldwide every year. As consumers get wise to traditional avenues of attack, cyber criminals have developed new techniques involving mobile devices and social networks to keep their illicit gains flowing.
PIRACY:
The issue of piracy has affected the entertainment, music and software industries in recent times. Claims of damages are hard to estimate and even harder to verify, with estimates ranging widely from hundreds of millions to hundreds of billions of dollars per year. In response, copyright holders have lobbied for stricter laws against intellectual property theft, resulting in laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These laws allow copyright holders to target file sharers and sue them for large sums of money to counteract the financial damage of their activities online. Major Film Industries like Hollywood, Bollywood are trying their best to stop the release of pirated versions of their billion dollar movies over the internet especially YouTube
SOCIAL IMPACTS:
Cyber criminals take full advantage of anonymity, secrecy, and interconnections provided by the Internet, therefore, attacking the very foundations of our modern information society. Law enforcement officials have struggled to keep pace with cyber criminals, who cost the global economy billions annually. All over the world, Police and other Law enforcement agencies are attempting to use the same tools cyber criminals use to perpetrate crimes in an effort to prevent those crimes and bring the guilty parties to justice. In a traditional society like Pakistan, cyber crimes have a far reaching effect. Incidents like Qasur Scandal have shaken the very fabric of our society.
EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF CYBER CRIME:
The emotional impact of cyber crime shows that victims’ strongest reactions are feeling angry, annoyed, dejected and cheated, and in many cases, they blame themselves for being attacked. Only few people don’t think it will happen to them, and majority d not expect cyber criminals to be brought to justice resulting in an ironic reluctance to take action and a sense of helplessness. Despite emotional burden, the universal threat and incidents of cyber crime, few people dare to report such crimes to FIA. In such state of affairs, Cyber crime is becoming a business opportunity open to everybody driven by profit and personal gain.
PROBLEMS IN CYBER CRIME INVESTIGATION
There are many challenges to overcome cyber-crimes successfully. To prevent such crimes education and public awareness is necessary. Due to lack of awareness of existing cyber crimes in Pakistani society, the general public is facing many problems. Even the law enforcement agencies are unaware of these crimes due to complex nature of these crimes. Therefore, the proper understanding of such crimes is necessary to control them. Without knowing them, we cannot make adequate laws to punish the criminals. New tools for enforcing gambling laws on the Internet are necessary and to enact law to prohibit wire transfers to Internet gambling sites or the banks which represent such sites. Besides, online consumer protection legislation should be introduced to protect the online consumer and online business industry. Moreover, goods are not provided as per standard or not delivered, consumer protection is also mandatory. Illegal purchase and sale of goods on the internet shall also be prohibited. The telecommunication is directly involved for providing services to the internet user, data is transmission is very fast. There is a dire need to get the information as early as possible for the investigation purposes. However, if the telecommunication industry is not providing latest data and detail of it, then it will make very difficult for law enforcement agencies especially FIA to investigate the crimes expeditiously. The problem is that many investigators have neither requisite expertise nor the required experience to deal with investigation, evidence collection, evidence preservation and presentation to the court. Therefore, the offender cannot be punished properly. Technology is constantly evolving, investigating electronic crimes will always be difficult because of the ease of altering the data and the fact that transactions may be done anonymously. Due to alteration of data, the investigation of cyber crimes is very complicated as compare to manual crimes. However, by adopting latest techniques the complexity of the digital crime can be reduced.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Cyber crime is indeed getting the recognition it deserves. Cyber criminals always try to develop and upgrade themselves by staying ahead of the law. Cyber space offers a plethora of opportunities for cyber criminals either to cause harm to innocent people, or to make money at the cost of unsuspecting citizens. We know that forensic evidence is important in normal criminal investigations. But collection and presentation of electronic evidence to prove cyber crimes have posed a challenge to investigation and prosecution agencies and the judiciary. We need a good combination of traditional investigation techniques, modern cyber laws and technology in harmony with the laws of other countries developing common security standards. In the era of e-governance and e-commerce, a lack of common security standards can create havoc for global trade as well as military matters.
⦁ As a society we need to take necessary steps to not only to enact legislation covering every aspect of cyber crime but also evolving ways and means to keep amending the laws at par with the changing nature of such high tech crimes.
⦁ We should change our traditional laws especially the Pakistan Penal Code in the backdrop of modern day crimes which involve sophisticated technology.
⦁ We should harmonise our laws on cyber crime in conformity with International Conventions, treaties and agreements in such a way as to facilitate international cooperation in preventing and combating these illegal cyber activities;
⦁ The Government should focus on capacity building of its law enforcement agencies especially FIA in the area of cyber crime and explore bilateral, regional, and multilateral cooperation mechanisms to enhance the same;
⦁ Necessary steps should be taken to create awareness of regarding this menace among the masses, with a focus on law enforcement agencies, judiciary and legislature.
⦁ To establish a cyber crime victim support fund to restoration and rehabilitation of the affected people of such crimes.
⦁ To establish a Research Fund, to support efforts to for exploring new methods to tackle this menace.
⦁ To formulate a manual of guidelines for government offices and its functionaries regarding usage of internet especially social media
The author is an Assistant Director in the Federal Investigation Agency .He is the first ever cyber crime investigation officer in Pakistan. The author can be contacted at shahidilyas1@gmail.com