Malware, Computer Crime and Fraud - Research Paper Example

Knowledge Question 1 - Computer Crime and Fraud Computer crime can be regarded as the unauthorized access and use of computer data by the users without prior permission. It is increasing day by day and is something which is not legal. It has been found that basically the users neither loose the data nor do they modify any data, and the most interesting thing is that the users doesn’t gives any indication that he has accessed the data. Computer crimes are the activities of hackers and crackers but it has been found that there are certain crime groups who are responsible for stealing of the data. 1 There are different classes of crimes in computer. It is observed that many a times the criminals steal passwords or the user name or may even change data and may delete the data. There are certain programmers who create malicious programs like worms, viruses, trojan horses, logic bombs and hoax. This is also a class of computer crime. Persecution and harassment is another class of computer crime which generally takes place in cyber space. If the criminal keeps sending the email to the person who doesn’t wants to receive such mails then it’s a type of harassments and may be classified as computer crime. There are many such examples of computer crimes. There are serious provisions of punishment for the criminals committing such crime. 2 Criminals, today, have become so expert that they manipulate the computer in order to obtain the information that they want and the user becomes the casualty of computer fraud. In order to cheat the user, the criminal must have access to the users’ personal information. This information can be easily obtained through software known as spyware. Spywares are installed in the computers and it has the capability to control the users’ activity. It collects users’ information without letting user know about it. It collects data like telephone number, name, address and email domain or even the financial credentials. After that the criminal has taken all the data from the user, they commit computer fraud. With the information obtained, the criminal can commit whole lot of malicious activities. Therefore, it is important to preserve and prevent all the important data so that they do not fall in the hand of computer frauds and criminals. 3 Question 2 - Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses (Malware) Even though the terms virus, worms or Trojan horses are used interchangeably but then there is vast difference among all the three of them. They are all computer programs that are responsible to damage the computer system. Viruses are buzz word in today’s world. It is often heard that the computer is infected by viruses. It is important to know what virus is. Viruses are something that gets attached to the programs, folders or files automatically. The main intention of the creator of the virus is to spread those viruses from one computer to another computer automatically. There are different types of viruses, some cause a little damage to the file where as some may damage the system in such a way that goes beyond repair. Viruses alone are not responsible for its spread but it is human activities that carries the infected file and spreads those virus programs. Computer worms are almost akin to the viruses by design. They also spread the way virus files are spread but the main difference between the two is that worms don’t need human involvement to spread themselves. The biggest danger from the worm is that it is able to self reproduce on the users’ computer system. It can send thousands of copies and cause damage to the computer system. As the worms’ moves in a network, it damages the computers’ memory. There are many worms that are designed in such a way that makes the machines zombies. People lose their money as well as privacy as because there system is infected by worms. 4 Trojan horses are the programs that are executable which means that whenever any file is opened some actions are performed. “exe”, “bat”, “com”, etc are the file extensions of executable programs. “dmsetup.exe” is the name of the Trojan file. 5 In the beginning, Trojans cause no damage to the system and might be useful too. But it starts damaging the entire system once it is installed. Whoever receives the Trojan file, opens it up thinking that it is a legitimate program but once those are installed they can cause severe damage to the system like it can change the desktop items, or can even damage the files and folders that are present in the computer. But the most important thing that can be noted is that Trojans don’t reproduce themselves, the way worm does. In order to prevent from such Trojans one must be well aware of the file extension that is hidden. Those files mustn’t be downloaded from websites which might carry Trojans. A thorough study of the file must be done before opening it. 6 Question 3 - Misuse of Confidential Government Records Various data regarding the preservation of records has been gathered through the NSW website. As per the demand of the topic, it is important to understand the key threats of the digital records and how the state archive can be at risk. The website indicates that the possible key threats for the digital records are the loss of authenticity of the records if they are not adequately or properly controlled or protected. Then, it can be unreadable because of the changes in the software application and hardware. Even physical deterioration can also be possible. Now with two practical examples of problems of keeping digital records can be discussed as below. 7 The first issue is regarding the health care sector. The Brumby Government had admitted that the patients’ confidentiality could not be protected through its $323 million computer system. In this regard, the Melbourne physicians had said that the privacy of the patients had been compromised because of the overdue Health Smart Project. The physicians were worried as the intimate details of the patients could be accessible to the Victorians and the Government was quizzed regarding the potential breaches of privacy. 8 The second issue is about records of the biggest pathology lab of the Queensland. It can be considered as an alarming privacy breach as the lab authority had splashed medical histories of the patient over the internet. This event had occurred on 28th March of 2009. The contact numbers, names and private details of hundreds of patients, were plastered on the website of Sullivian Nicolaides which is in Brisbane. The breach has raised a question regarding the safety of electronic patient record systems. The affected angry patients were demanding for answers. The Courier-Mail had revealed that the number is 254 though the CEO of the company stated that it was 103 patients. It has been blamed on a processing error. As per the view of Peter Black, the internet law lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, this case could be analyzed under the Federal Privacy Act whether it was found that it had not complied with data security provisions. 9 In order tom take preventive measures for these issues, an association of government archival authorities from Australia and New Zealand had formed the Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative (ADRI) in 2004. The primary objective behind forming of ADRI is to pool resources and enhance expertise to find best possible ways to ensure that the digital records are preserved efficiently and can be accessed for the future. References Caldwell, Anna. & Earley, David. Sullivan Nicolaides has 254 Patient Profiles on Net.” News. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/sullivan-nicolaides-has-254-patient-profiles-on-net/story-e6freon6-1225698815201. ( accessed 22 July, 2010). Computer Secure. “Virus, Worms and Trojan Horses”. Computer Virus. http://computersecure.net/information/virus_worm_trojan_horse_information_01.html. (accessed July 21, 2010). Lo, Joseph. “Trojan Horse Attacks”. What is Trojans. http://irchelp.org/irchelp/security/trojan.html (accessed July 21,2010). Mariosalexandrou. “Computer Crime Definition”. Definition. http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/definition/computer-crime.asp [accessed July 21, 2010]. Northern Territory Government. “Record Security and Access”. Records. http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/ntas/records/ntg/security.html (accessed July 21, 2010). NSW. “The Digital Records Preservation Challenge”. State Records. http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/topics/digital-recordkeeping/digital-records-preservation-discussion-paper/the-digital-records-preservation-challenge. (accessed 22 July, 2010). Rolfe, Peter. “Health Privacy 'at risk'”. News. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/health-privacy-at-risk/story-e6frf7kx-1111116106473. ( accessed 22 July, 2010). SpamLaw. “Computer Fraud”. Basis of Computer Fraud. http://www.spamlaws.com/computer-fraud.html (accessed July 21, 2010). Standler, Ronald. “Computer Crime”. Crime. http://www.rbs2.com/ccrime.htm. (accessed July 21, 2010). Read More