Cyber Crime: Edward Snowdens leaks - Essay Example

Cyber Crime: Edward Snowden’s leaks The unauthorized disclosure of the classified information on the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance was illegal and an act of treason. The director of the agency Keith Alexander during congressional hearings said that the leakage had caused profound and irreversible damage to the interests of national security (Forbes 2013, September). Due to this, the president and the government branded him a threat to national security. However, the actions of Snowden acted as a whistleblower on the agency and encouraged the public demand for increased transparency around the foreign and domestic surveillance. Edward Snowden worked for the NSA for a few years. He realized that the government had breached the FISC rules in 2009 regarding the surveillance of phone numbers without suspicion. In his defense, Snowden says he hacked into the NSA and released sensitive information to the internet in order to show the public what the government was doing so that they would decide for themselves whether or not these policies and programs were justified (Aly, 2013, October). He believed that if he had chosen to report his concerns through an internal reporting mechanism the government would have silenced him and buried his message. In his opinion, reporting wrongdoing to the perpetrators responsible for it just meant the system would not work to address his issues (Pilkington, 2013, October). As a result of his whistleblower actions, there has been a public demand for the transparency of the rulings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) as well as other reforms in the agency. In my opinion, Snowden’s actions brought more good than bad. While his actions were criminal, his intentions were for the good of the public. He should be tried fairly for the release of sensitive government information but should be protected by whistleblower legislation. This is because despite doing the right thing, he used illegal means and posed a national security. References Aly M., 2013 (October 26). Snowden's Secrets. Retrieved from http://prezi.com/yyaemtwr2sk3/snowdens-secrets/ Pilkington E., 2013 (October 20). Edward Snowden: US would have buried NSA warnings forever. New York, NY: Retrieved from the Guardian UK: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/18/edward-snowden-us-would-have-buried- nsa-warnings-forever 2. The most dangerous threats a) Malware shopping spree. This threat to mobile devices entails the action of criminals of automating a profit-making technique such as a Trojan horse program that buys apps from the app store without the permission of the user. These criminals develop mobile worms that without necessarily installing them provide the platform for malware that buys these apps. This problem causes a concern for all phone users since the automation of these criminal activities reduces the interaction of the user making it difficult to prevent the mobile worm from shopping using the mobile. b) The availability of malware kits. The underground market has provided a large amount of windows-based malware to cybercriminals. Their easy availability places windows users at a risk since they make it easy for criminals with basic knowledge about operating systems to access information stored on computers through public networks and by hacking into the computers. c) Ransomware. This system of malware does not depend on the use of infected systems by the victim to conduct financial transactions in order to prey on them. These criminals hijack the victim’s ability to access data or communicate and they prevent the victim from accessing the system completely. Thus the victim is forced to pay a ransom in order to regain access. This is a risk to all users of online accounts either on phone or computers. d) Big scale attacks. This entails the implementation of an attack using worms to cause as much damage to a company system or a public system. The installation of destructive malware on a large number of machines can be devastating for the users since they may lose important data stored on the local machines. e) SMS spam. Cell phone providers rely on forwarded messages from their consumers to block the numbers sending the spam. However, spammers infect phones to send the spam text messages. The victims face the problem of having their accounts blocked by their providers. This could be a great inconvenience to anyone especially since the victim wouldn’t know the reason for being blocked. 3. Cybercrime case. (Reuters, 2013, May 9) In a bloodless bank heist that impressed cyber experts, perpetrators the US hacked into bank accounts with advanced technical sophistication changing the bank balances and making away with more than 45 millions dollars. A small team of skilled hackers erased withdrawal limits on prepaid credit cards and stole account numbers. Handheld devices were used to alter the information on the magnetic strips of used credit cards stolen form the Middle Eastern banks and these were used to carry out theft at ATMs in 27 countries. This story is important to me since it shows the vulnerability of the customer with a bank account since the criminals were able to hack into the bank system and change the account balances with the stolen account numbers. (Ashford W. 2012, August) A hacking group known as D33D Company hacked into Yahoo and stole an unencrypted file that contained the login details for Yahoo accounts as well as others such as Gmail and Hotmail. Jeff Allan a Yahoo user from New Hampshire, filed a complaint in a federal court in San Jose complaining of the lack of the email provider to secure his personal information. He was seeking compensation for himself as well as for other users for account fraud and for having to undertake personal measures to protect his account which should have been the responsibility of Yahoo. This story is of importance to me since I am a frequent user of Yahoo and other email providers in my daily activities and a breach of this confidentiality is an eye opener that the internet is not as safe as I perceive it to be. (Tangel, 2013, January) the US prosecutors brought before a court in New York a cybercrime case against three suspects, a Russian, a Latvian and a Romanian. They were alleged to have created and distributed a computer virus called Gozi virus that infected thousands of computers in the United States in a bid to steal the bank account data of victims. The virus was used to steal millions of dollars. Risks such as this are eye openers and they increase the fear of customers banking online. References Ashford W. 2012(August 2). Yahoo user sues over personal data breach. Available at http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240160748/Yahoo-user-sues-over-personal-data-breach Reuters, (May 10). US Charges 8 in $45 Million Cyber Crime Scheme. Voice of America. Available at http://www.voanews.com/content/us-cyber-crime-eight-scheme/1657912.html Tangel A, 2013 (January 23). Cyber-crime ring targeted U.S. bank accounts, feds say. Los Angeles Times. Available http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/23/business/la-fi-mo-cybercrime-ring-targeted-us-bank-accounts-feds-say-20130123 Read More