Cyber Crime: Investigating Cyber Terrorism - Coursework Example

Cyber Crime: Investigating Cyber Terrorism By Cyber Crime: Investigating Cyber Terrorism Cyber Crime refers to any crime that involves computer systems and computer networks. Dr. Halder and Dr. Jaishankar define Cyber crime as, “Offences that are committed against individuals or a group of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm to the victim directly or indirectly, using modern telecommunication networks such as internet, and mobile phones” (Halder & Jaishankar, 2011). According to this definition therefore, a wide spectrum of criminal acts are subsumed under the umbrella term Cyber Crime. The following are some of the criminal activities regarded as Cyber Crimes: Online Fraud, Spam, Cyber Bullying, Piracy, and Cyber terrorism. This paper looks at Cyber Terrorism in details. The paper focuses on the practices and challenges of investigating terrorism online. Cyber terrorism refers to the use of Information Technology based attacks in terrorist activities (Matusitz, 2005). Cyber terrorism is a controversial term and scholars have differed on the scope of cyber terrorism. For this reason, some scholars have given narrow definitions of cyber terrorism, while other scholars have given wide definitions of cyber terrorism. One of the conventional definitions of cyber terrorism is given by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). The FBI defines Cyber Terrorism as a “premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which result in violence against non-combatant targets by sub-natural groups or clandestine agents” (FBI on Terrorism, web). Unlike the other forms of cyber crimes that we have looked at, that aim at denial of service by paralysing the computer system or network of other people, cyber terrorism aims at causing physical harm or massive financial harm. The Cyber terrorists therefore target areas like banking industry, power plants, military installations, and air traffic control centres. In executing their mission, cyber terrorists mainly hack the computer systems and the computer programs of their targets (Matusitz, 2005). The impacts of cyber terrorism therefore are large scale and affect many people, unlike the impacts of the other six cyber crimes that we have looked above. Having looked at the meaning of cyber terrorism and the impacts catastrophic impacts of cyber terrorism, let us now look at the practice and the challenges of investigating terrorism online. The investigation of any Cyber crime is normally a very hard task. This is because some cyber criminals are highly skilled and this means that it is not easy for the police to investigate and to know the exact methods that they are using in executing cyber rimes, for one to uncover the criminal activities of cyber criminals, one has to be more skilled than the cyber criminals. This is especially so with the cyber terrorists. To be able to attack crucial significant installations like the military installations and the banking industries, Cyber-terrorists must be quite knowledgeable in computer systems and network. A look at the practice and the challenges that investigators of cyber terrorism face in their work shows that the investigation of cyber terrorism is indeed quite challenging. These challenges range from legislative, criminal investigative procedures, private sector cooperation, and international cooperation. The following are the main challenges that the investigators of cyber terrorism face in their practice of trying to detect, to apprehend, and to prosecute cyber terrorist. Let us begin by looking at the legislative challenges of investigating and prosecuting cyber terrorism. One of the main legal challenges of investigating and prosecuting cyber terrorism is lack of enough legislation on cyber terrorism (Weinmann, 2006). As we have seen above, definition of cyber terrorism is a controversial topic. What one country may regard as cyber terrorism may not be regarded as cyber terrorism by another country. This poses a lot of challenges on the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorists. Although there are international agreements among nations on the investigation and prosecution of cyber crimes, due to the different legislations on cyber crimes by different countries, there is a real difficulty in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorism. The second major legislative challenge of investigating cyber terrorism is that cyber terrorism is never constant, for it keeps on evolving (Walden, 2007). For instance, the methods that the cyber terrorists are using today to execute their evil missions may not be the same methods that the terrorist will be using tomorrow. For this reason, the terrorists are able to develop new forms of cyber terrorism that are not covered by the prevailing legislations on cyber crime. For instance, in order to avoid being accused of cyber terrorism, the Muslim terrorist may resort to posting and publish online, information that shows the government, for instance the USA government, as being against the Muslims. The terrorist may upload online videos of the American government brutally killing the Muslims. Although this kind of information may not fit the legal definition of terrorism, the information, however, is meant to incite the Muslim community to rise against the government in protest against the alleged mistreatment of the Muslims. Ultimately, this kind of information may succeed in instilling hatred against the government by the Muslim followers, and these Muslim followers may end up committing terrorist acts physically. This fact therefore shows that cyber terrorist forms are diverse, and it is not possible to come up with exhaustive legislations that would be able to deal with all possible forms of cyber terrorism. This fact therefore posses a big challenge to the government on legislations of laws meant to protect the public against cyber terrorism. The third major legislative challenge of investigating and prosecuting cyber terrorists is due to the fact that investigation of cyber terrorism mainly involves hacking into the websites of the terrorists. Since hacking is unethical and illegal, the government agencies investigating cyber crimes may be accused of infringing upon the rights of other people (Parker, 1983). Hacking is obviously against the individual legal right of privacy. Although, of course, there are legislations allowing government agencies to hack into computer systems and networks that they suspect to be dealing with cyber terrorism, these legislations, however, are not absolute, and in some instances the government investigators may be accused of hacking systems of innocent people. This fact therefore posses a major challenge in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorism. The other legal challenge of investigating and prosecuting cyber criminals is that, the cyber terrorists mainly use pseudonyms in carrying out their activities. For this reason, it is quite difficult to for the government investigators to be able to know the true identities of the cyber criminals, so that they can apprehend them and prosecute them. Again, cyber terrorists mainly use password protected messaging systems, making it very difficult for the law enforcers to break into their systems so that they can intercept their communications. Also, the cyber terrorists use coded language that makes it very difficult for the law enforcers to decode and present the information in courts of law as evidence of cyber crimes. The other legislative difficulty in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorism is in regard to evidence. As is the case with other criminal activities, for a person to be convicted of cyber terrorism there must be hard evidence that the person actually committed crime (Weinmann, 2006). This calls for evidence that is beyond any reasonable doubt. In the investigation of cyber crimes, collection of evidence is quite difficult. This is because collecting of evidence on cyber terrorism claims involves searches and confiscation of cyber materials that need speedy and expert handling. Although the government agencies investigating cyber terrorism therefore may have a reasonable evidence of commission of cyber terrorism crimes by some individuals or groups of people, the government investigators, however, may fail to get the hard evidence required for the conviction of cyber terrorism crimes. This is a major legal challenge in the prosecution of cyber criminals. Also, the government agencies and the judges and the prosecutors handling cyber terrorism crimes need to be highly skilled on Information Technology. This is especially so for the police officers investigating cyber crimes. The prosecutors and the judges handling the cyber terrorism crimes must be highly skilled on Information Technology. But, unfortunately, some government do not train the police, the prosecutors and the judges handling cyber crimes adequately. In most cases, the cyber terrorists are ahead of the police and the judicial officials handling cyber terrorism crimes. Again, the investigation of cyber terrorism may require sophisticated tools that some government agencies may not be in possession of. This indeed poses a great challenge to the fight against cyber terrorism. Besides the legislative challenges of investigating and prosecuting the cyber criminals, there are also challenges related to private sector cooperation. For effective investigation of cyber terrorism, there is indeed a need for the private sector to collaborate in sharing information with the police on cyber terrorism (Parker, 1983). But quite often, due to competitions among many private sector organisations, the private sector organisations may be hesitant to share crucial information with the other private organisations and even with the police for the sake of security. The private sector lack of cooperation on fighting cyber terrorism is as the result on a number of reasons. To begin with, some private organisations may not be willing to share information on cyber terrorism because sharing such information may make the members of the public to lose confidence in their systems. For instance, some banking institutions would never disclose to other public sector organisations that their systems have been broken into by the cyber terrorists; for fear that the other public sector organisations will lose confidence in their systems and will stop banking with them. Many private organisations therefore would not like to be viewed as victims of cyber terrorism for fear of losing their customers/clients. This poses a great challenge to the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorism. Secondly, some private sector organisations would not be willing to share evidence of their systems having been hacked by the cyber terrorists for fear that the evidence may lead to some of their competitors learning some of their crucial business secrets. Some of the private sector organisations feel that sharing some evidence of cyber terrorism with the other private organisations may lead enable their competitors to learn their crucial business secrets, thus having an edge over them. This again is an impediment to the fight against cyber terrorism. Also, many private organisations are unwilling to cooperate with the other private organisations on training on how to prevent cyber terrorism. Despite the fact that some private sector organisations have a lot of resources and are able to train their staff adequately on how to fight cyber terrorism, these organisations are unwilling to partner and to assist other private sector organisations on training their staff on fighting cyber terrorism. This normally happens due to stiff competitions in business, the private sector organisations with resources to fight cyber terrorism feels that by partnering with their competitors on fighting terrorism would be helping their rivals to be more powerful, thus enabling them to outperform them in business. This also is a major challenge in the fight against cyber terrorism. Having looked at the legislative and the private sector cooperation challenges in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorism crimes, let us now look at the challenges posed by the international community cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorists. Although in the contemporary world there is general consensus among nations that cyber crimes knows no boundaries and that cyber criminals should be pursued wherever they are, many countries, however, are not cooperative enough in the investigations and prosecution of cyber crimes (Matusitz, 2005). Also, the procedure of investigating and apprehending cyber terrorists in another country is normally long and complicated. For instance, for the police of Canada to be allowed to apprehend and prosecute cyber terrorists in USA, the police should first inform the Attorney general of USA, and then wait for the attorney general to give them the permission to apprehend and prosecute the cyber terrorists. The attorney general of USA may take long time before he gives the Canadian police the permission to apprehend and prosecute the cyber terrorists. This is a big challenge in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorists, considering the fact that cyber crimes should be investigated within the shortest time possible because the evidence of cyber crimes on the internet can easily disappear from the cyber space. Again, some countries are quite hesitant to allow the police of other countries to arrest and prosecute their citizens. For this reason, the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of cyber terrorists in some uncooperative countries is quite challenging. Also, some countries are not cooperative in the exchange of crucial information on cyber crimes. Without exchange of information among countries on cyber crimes, it is actually quite difficult to uncover criminal activities of cyber criminals. This therefore has been a major challenge in the investigation and prosecution of cyber criminals. Also, some uncooperative countries are not ready for mutual assistance requests in the investigation and prosecution of Cyber terrorists. For instance, countries with bad relations will not cooperate in the investigation and prosecution of cyber criminals. For example, a country like Iran will rarely cooperate with USA In the investigation and prosecution of cyber criminals. Coupled with this, some countries are not willing to conduct joint investigation of cyber crimes with other countries. This also is a major challenge in the investigation and prosecution of cyber criminals. Lastly on cooperation of international community in the investigation and prosecution of Cyber terrorists, the principle of national sovereignty poses a major challenge in the investigation and prosecution of cyber criminals. Although, as we have said above, there is a general agreement among nations that the cyber terrorists will be pursued wherever they are, the pursuing of the cyber terrorists is not done without respecting the sovereignty of the country where the cyber terrorists are operating from. The balancing therefore between pursuing the cyber terrorists mercilessly and respecting the sovereignty of the country where the cyber terrorists are located posses a major challenge in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorists. Besides the international challenges of investigating and prosecuting the cyber terrorists, the social media also has posed a real challenge in the investigation and prosecution of cyber terrorists. The social network has really revolutionized communication in the modern world, and made communication quite easy. The cyber terrorists have capitalized on the social networks in communicating with their fellow cyber terrorists in planning and executing their terrorist acts. The Cyber terrorists have even opened social media pages, like facebook, through which they communicate with their fellow cyber terrorists and keep them abreast of their plans. Investigating cyber terrorism on social media is quite difficult because the cyber terrorists relate like normal friends, and they even interact with other members of the public on the social media, thus making it very difficult for the security agencies to investigate and apprehend the cyber terrorists who are operating on the social media. Investigating and prosecuting the cyber terrorists online also is quite a big challenge because the internet has offered the cyber terrorists a vast source of information, through which they can mine all manner of data that they need and use it for their selfish and evil motives (Moore, 2005). As highly skilled Information Technology experts, the cyber terrorists are able to mine data from the internet, on how to evade being arrested and prosecuted for their terrorist works. The Cyber criminals also are able to search online, and even to hack into the systems of security agencies, with the view of knowing how the security agencies are investigating their activities and pursuing them, so that they can escape the arrest and prosecution by the security agencies. This therefore makes the investigation and the prosecution of cyber terrorists quite difficult. Lastly, the internet has enabled the cyber terrorist to execute their terrorist activities with considerable ease and precision. Through the internet, the cyber terrorists are able to search, for example through the Google maps, the exact location of the places where they want to carry out their terrorist activities on. Again, this has made the investigation and the prosecution of cyber terrorism activities quite difficult because the cyber terrorists are able, through the help of the internet, to execute their mission with considerable ease and precision. References FBI on Terrorism. Web. Retrieved on, 20/04/2014, from: www. infragard.net. Halder, D., & Jaishankar, K. (2011). Cyber crime and the Victimization of Women: Laws,Right s, and Regulations.USA: Hershey Global Publishers. Print. Matusitz, J. (2005). "Cyber terrorism:” American Foreign Policy Interests 2: April. Pgs. 112– 139. Print. Moore, R. (2005). "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," USA, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing Press. Print. Parker, D. (1983). Fighting Computer Crime. U.S. Charles Scribner’s Sons Publishers. Print. Walden, I. (2007). Computer Crimes and Digital Investigations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Print. Weimann, G. (2006). Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges. USA: United States Institute of Peace Press. Print. Read More