Cybercrime Issues Research Articles

Digital culture and society: problems of their relationship in the conditions of globalization

This article considers problems of relationship of digital culture and society in the conditions of globalization. The author fully reveals the problems that are indicated in the Concept of the national strategy "Digital Uzbekistan 2030". The negative consequences that can be caused by digital transformation in the period of globalization are also indicated. The problem of the disappearance of traditional labor markets is touched upon, which causes major socio-economic shifts, including in the sphere of labor relations, while the type of professional activity and the nature of labor itself are changing. In the digital economy, the very process of recruiting is changing, i.e. there is a replacement of professions with machines.Digital culture is a world based on computers operating on the principle of digital binary coding. Its origins are the result of a long history of automation. The Republic of Uzbekistan is represented in many foreign and international indices and studies that indirectly assess the level of the country's readiness for digital transformation. And here the author raises the issue of cybercrime, where the problems of vulnerability of human rights and the protection of his personal data are highlighted. Thus, the study of the impact of digital communications on culture and society is associated with the presence and need to solve a number of emerging problems, where our state pays special attention to determining the goals, objectives and measures for the implementation of the domestic and foreign policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the field of application of information and communication technologies.

Effectiveness of OSForensic in Digital Forensic Investigation to Curb cybercrime

With the rapid development and higher level of dependence on new information and technology by various organizations across the world, cybercrime issues are increasing, and there are no technologies that seem flawless in combatting the issue. The use of concepts relating to digital forensic investigation of criminal activities and digital forensics will, therefore, tackle the problem with finding digital evidence in cybercrimes. OSForensics is one of the various digital forensic investigation tools that allows the use of Hash Sets for identifying known safe files in program and operating system files. The tool is essential for identifying suspected files like Trojans, viruses, and hacker scripts. The problem presented in this paper, therefore, entails utilizing combinations of digital forensic investigation of criminal activities and investigation concepts. The paper seeks to establish the effectiveness of OSForensic in Digital Forensic Investigation to curb cybercrime. That is, the capabilities of OSForensics and the accuracy of OSForensics with regards to retrieving and analyzing data from a hard drive in order to investigate and curb cybercrime at the workplace. The researcher investigated a case in which a company security had been threatened by an employee whose contract had recently been terminated. The company suspected that this employee had some serious pictures, locations, and employee details belong to company. The image of the employee’s personal flash was sent to the researcher to help initiate the investigation using OSForensicssoftware so as to establish any evidence that the employee still had pictures, locations, and employee details belong to company. In overall, OSForensic was able to identify company details that the employee was having. The research was able to identify sensitive information about the company that the suspect was having, including the names of the employees, images, company system structure and what seemed to be their respective identification numbers.

Can Zoom video conferencing tool be misused for real‐time cybercrime?

AbstractVideo conferencing tool Zoom has boomed during this COVID pandemic situation. Although Zoom has been very useful for facilitating work‐from‐home and study‐from‐home arrangements, its misuse can result in cybercrime cases. The world has already seen the adverse effect of a Zoom‐related cybercrime, Zoombombing. In this article, we discuss how Zoom can also be misused for launching real‐time cybercrime, such as piracy and real‐time pornography. The end‐to‐end encryption proposed to be used by Zoom can further complicate these cybercrime issues. The existing mechanisms may not be sufficient in dealing with these real‐time issues. New mechanisms need to be found.This article is categorized under: Digital and Multimedia Science > Multimedia Forensics

Improved Multi-Verse Optimizer Feature Selection Technique With Application To Phishing, Spam, and Denial Of Service Attacks

Intelligent classification systems proved their merits in different fields including cybersecurity. However, most cybercrime issues are characterized of being dynamic and not static classification problems where the set of discriminative features keep changing with time. This indeed requires revising the cybercrime classification system and pick a group of features that preserve or enhance its performance. Not only this but also the system compactness is regarded as an important factor to judge on the capability of any classification system where cybercrime classification systems are not an exception. The current research proposes an improved feature selection algorithm that is inspired from the well-known multi-verse optimizer (MVO) algorithm. Such an algorithm is then applied to 3 different cybercrime classification problems namely phishing websites, spam, and denial of service attacks. MVO is a population-based approach which stimulates a well-known theory in physics namely multi-verse theory. MVO uses the black and white holes principles for exploration, and wormholes principle for exploitation. A roulette selection schema is used for scientifically modeling the principles of white hole and black hole in exploration phase, which bias to the good solutions, in this case the solutions will be moved toward the best solution and probably to lose the diversity, other solutions may contain important information but didn’t get chance to be improved. Thus, this research will improve the exploration of the MVO by introducing the adaptive neighborhood search operations in updating the MVO solutions. The classification phase has been done using a classifier to evaluate the results and to validate the selected features. Empirical outcomes confirmed that the improved MVO (IMVO) algorithm is capable to enhance the search capability of MVO, and outperform other algorithm involved in comparison.

Hardware, Biometric and Passwordless Authentication: Vulnerability and Cybercrime Issues

The problem of identification and authentication is relevant. In conditions of crisis manifestations, including in connection with the pandemic, the number of fraudulent actions on the network is increasing, aimed at taking over information -personal data, bank card data, other important information. This raises the question of identification and authentication. At present, in Russia and in the world, some approaches to methods, protocols, and standards of authentication have been developed. Hardware, biometric and passwordless authentication are some of the most promising areas. However, no holistic approaches have been developed to the essence and main directions of development of authentication aimed at reducing vulnerability, which does not contribute to overall security on the Internet. In general, this issue assumes an interdisciplinary approach that takes into account both technical, social, political, economic factors, and, of course, an effective legal mechanism. In search of a solution to the problem, approaches to hardware, biometric and passwordless authentication in Russia and abroad are being investigated.

File fragment recognition based on content and statistical features

Nowadays, the speed up development and use of digital devices such as smartphones have put people at risk of internet crimes. The evidence of present crimes in a computer file can be easily unreachable by changing the prefix of a file or other algorithms. In more complex cases, either file divided into different parts or the parts of a file that has information about the file type are deleted, where the file fragment recognition issue is discussed. The known files are divided into different fragments, and different classification algorithms are used to solve the problems of file fragment recognition. The issue of identifying the type of file fragment due to its importance in cybercrime issues as well as antivirus has been highly emphasized and has been addressed in many articles. Increasing the accuracy in this field on the types of widely used files due to the sensitivity of the subject of recognizing the type of file under study is the main goal of researchers in this field. Failure to identify the correct type of file will lead to deviations of the results and evidence from the main issue or failure to conclude. In this paper, first, the file is divided into different fragments. Then, the file fragment features, which are obtained from Binary Frequency Distribution, are reduced by 2 feature reduction algorithms; Sequential Forward Selection algorithm as well as Sequential Floating Forward Selection algorithm to delete sparse features that result in increased accuracy and speed. Finally, the reduced features are given to 3 Multiclass classifier algorithms, Multilayer Perceptron, Support Vector Machines, and K-Nearest Neighbor for classification and comparison of the results. The proposed recognition algorithm can recognize 6 types of useful files and may distinguish a type of file fragments with higher accuracy than the similar works done.

The Analysis of Computer Crimes Act 1997 in the Circumvention and Prevention of Computer Crimes in Malaysia

Computer Crimes Act 1997 (CCA 1997) was conceded by Malaysia’s legislative body in 1997 and the Act was enforced in June 2000. The purpose of CCA 1997 is to provide for offences related to misuse of computers such as hacking, cracking and phishing. CCA 1997 was modelled after United Kingdom’s Computer Misuses Act 1990 as a response to the emerging computer crimes. This legislation is divided into three parts and 12 Sections. The first part outlines preliminary matters that include short title and relevant definitions, second part provides for the offenses related to misuse of computers and specifies penalties for each offences, and the last part deals with ancillary provisions such as jurisdictional and investigational issues of cybercrime. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the development of computer crimes and its deterrence in Malaysia. Specific sections of CCA 1997 will be analysed in details and detail assessment on the prevention and prosecution of computer crimes in Malaysia will be accessed to determine whether CCA 1997 is so far adequate in preventing computer crimes in Malaysia.

Information Security Awareness among youth in Klang Valley: A Focus Group Discussion

Issues on the lack of understanding on the awareness of information security among the Internet user has become central debate now a day. User’s ignorance and negligence towards awareness of information security, may lead to being the victim of cybercrime syndicates. This can be clearly seen through the increase of number in cybercrime statistics in Malaysia. Internet users has been scammed, cyberbullying and faced loss amount of money due to their unawareness of information security. The purpose of this study is to look at the youth understanding of information security awareness. Based on the focus group discussion with a total of 20 informants among youth, this research try to obtain the youth perspective and understanding on information security awareness. Using convenience sampling, youth were chosen as informants since they are mostly engaged with new media compared to other age groups. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results show that there were few themes emerge on the awareness of information security, such as secure password usage, information sharing, safe online shopping website, and safe online banking website. Generally, most of the youth have a basic knowledge on information security awareness, particularly on having a secure password usage and information sharing. This study on the other hand, creates awareness on the important of information security, thus educated them to become a safe Internet user. Future study emphasizing on the government’s role in regulating the cybercrime issues and educating smart device users towards safe Internet usage is recommended.

Cyber crimes in the banking sector: Case study of Vietnam

The technological revolution 4.0 brings great opportunities, but also cybercrimes to economic sectors, especially to banks. Using secondary data and survey results of 305 bank clients, the main findings of this paper are: (i) there are several types of cybercrimes in the banking sector; (ii) Vietnam is one of the top countries worldwide having hackers and being attacked by hackers, especially the banking sector. Three most common attacks are skimming, hacking and phishing. Number of cybercrime attacks in Vietnam are increasing rapidly over years; (iii) Vietnamese customers are very vulnerable to cybercrime in banking, as more than 58% seem to hear about cybercrimes, and how banks provide services to let them know about their transactions. However, more than 50% do not have any deep knowledge or any measures for preventing cybercrime; (iii) Customers believe in banks, but do not think that banks can deal with cybercrime issues well. They still feel traditional transactions are more secure than e-transactions; (iv) the reasons for high cybercrimes come from commercial banks (low management and human capacity), supporting environment (inadequate), legal framework (not yet strong and strict enough on cybercrimes), and clients (low level of financial literacy). Therefore, several solutions should be carried out, from all stakeholders, for improving the cybersecurity in Vietnamese banks.

Strategies to Prevent and Control of Cybercrime against Women and Girls

The emergence of ICT has provided an unrivalled opportunity for women to exploit their capabilities to improve their quality of life as well as to contribute to the welfare of the society. Internet has also become a social and communication tool with e-mails being an efficient communication tool. Internet offers new possibilities for networking and participative democracy but feminists are failing to challenge the use of the Internet for furthering more dangerous and discriminatory agendas, including Internet crime committed against women and the proliferation of pornography. Many youth are engaging socially through common social network like WhatsApp, Facebook, twitter, msn, my space and are actually addicted to these Internet social activities, making them vulnerable to Internet crimes. The increased dependency of individual / organisations on cyberspace has led to the increase in the cybercrimes. In India we find there is minimal proper training and education regarding such developments and the ignorance towards these advancements has paved way for cybercrimes. Even the authorities and officers who handle such cases have no proper training and the essential expertise for undertaking cybercrimes against women and girls in particular. India should consider adopting a coactive approach wherein technology and proper legislative framework combine to fight the cybercrime in the society. The threatening atmosphere created by such heinous cybercrimes against women and girls need radical change in technology, behaviour and legal affairs; facilitated by proper education and training. This study examines the problems and issues of cybercrime against women and girls in order to exhibit preventive strategies and means to fight back with the support of cohesive forces.

Cryptocurrency-Related Cybercrimes in Ukraine

Cybercrime, including cryptocurrency-related cybercrime, has become widespread in recent years. Despite a thorough study of cybercrime issues, there is still no legislative position on the legal regulation of cryptocurrencies and the responsibility for cryptocurrency-related cybercrime in Ukraine. The authors classify and characterize all cryptocurrency-related cybercrimes into five groups. In view of the spread of cryptocurrency-related cybercrimes, the EU’s counteraction measures have been analyzed. Ways to prevent and counteract to cryptocurrency-related cybercrimes in Ukraine are suggested.

Cyberbullying as a Threat to Young

<p style="text-align:justify">The issue of cybercrime and other anti-social activities is increasingly discussed today. The cause is an increasing number of individuals, companies or states exposed to these threats. This article deals with the issue of cyber aggression as one of the kinds of other anti-social activities. The article presents the results of researches in the Slovak Republic, but also the results of a survey at selected schools conducted by the Faculty of Safety Engineering of the University of Zilina. The main aim of the article is to point out the issue of cybercrime and other antisocial activities among adolescents and to point out the relationship between their education and vulnerability.</p>

STATE ACTION AS AN INDIVIDUAL SECURITY THREAT IN CASE OF CYBERCRIME SECURITIZATION

<p>In the current security concept, there are some changes to the current security object. This is due to the increasingly broad understanding of security objects. This study examines the emergence of cyber issues as a new threat to state security. Cyber actions in the virtual world are developing along with the rapid technology development. Moreover, the state policy on cyber issues is considered as a new threat to individual security. The development of that state security issue is being debated among the theoreticians of international security studies. The concept of securitization explains the phenomenon of cyber issues and receives the attention of many states. Securitization carried out by the United States on Cybercrime issues becomes the initial trigger in viewing cyber actions as a new threat to state security. The object of this paper is more focused on State policy in dealing with cyber threats. Afterward, state policy in facing the cyber threat is seen from the perspective of human security from UNDP. Therefore, there is a debate about the desired security object. State actions to reach state security are then considered as individual privacy security. So, international security now does not only focus on state objects but also on individual, environment, economy, and identity. Thus, every action taken in securing an object does not pose a threat to other security objects.</p><div><p class="Els-keywords">Keywords: Cybercrime, State Security, Human Security, Securitization</p></div>

Crime control in the sphere of information technologies in the Republic of Turkey

Cybercrime is considered an issue of both local and global concern. Therefore, this study focuses on the local experience in cybercrime control of different countries, including the Republic of Turkey. The article discusses issues in cybersecurity policy and analyzes the legislative framework of the Republic of Turkey on cybercrime issues. The findings underlie the continuing education policy for cybersecurity employees. The study concludes that Turkey handles the current cybercrime situation with efficiency.

Geographic profiling for serial cybercrime investigation

Today’s cybercrimes are much more difficult to detect and prosecute than traditional crimes. In the investigation of cybercrimes, law enforcement agencies follow similar techniques to traditional crimes that, however, have to be modified to meet the unique conditions and requirements of virtual space. This paper examines cybercrime profiling techniques prevalent today, and focuses on the feasibility of applying geographic profiling technique to cyber offenders. The primary assumption of the research is that for most types of cybercrime, the steps during the procedure of committing criminal act are not random. For example, the choice of the victim, the choice of crime location, similar characteristics, follow a certain logic, which could provide information about the offender’s crime. Testing the utility of a geographical profiling has been carried out on real cybercrime samples obtained by law enforcement agencies. This paper aims to apply the concept of geographic profiling to the issue of cybercrime that involve a physical world, targeting two types of cybercrimes: credit card skimming and spear phishing. Specially developed GeoCrime geographic profiling software designed to assist in the mapping, spatial and statistical analysis of cybercrime patterns was used. The results of the study have shown the possibility of applying geographic profiling to certain types of cybercrimes and under the certain conditions. The importance of geographic profiling is also emphasized, especially in situations where little is known about the offender, such as in cybercrime, where offenders use the Internet to hide their identities and activities.

The Present and Future of Cybercrime, Cyberterrorism, and Cybersecurity

Cybercriminology combines knowledge from criminology, psychology, sociology, computer science, and cybersecurity to provide an in-depth understanding of cybercrime. Cybercrime and cybersecurity are interconnected across many places, platforms, and actors. Cybercrime issues are continuously and expeditiously changing and developing, especially with the advent of new technologies. The International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime (IJCIC) aims to contribute to the growing field of cybercriminology and cybersecurity. The IJCIC is eager to work with scholars, policy analysts, practitioners, and others to enhance theory, methods, and practice within cybercrime and cybersecurity at the regional, national, and international levels.

Cyber global warming: six steps towards meltdown

There are many inconvenient truths regarding cybercrime. Every second in 2016, someone became a victim of cybercrime, meaning around a million people were affected – whether it was by data breaches, fraud or malware – every single day. Cybercrime is a serious threat to businesses, individuals and even nation states. Every second in 2016, someone became a victim of cybercrime, making it a serious threat to businesses, individuals and even nations. This, of course, makes cybercrime big business. So, how has the issue of cybercrime reached this point and what can be done to stop an already hot issue from heating ever closer towards meltdown? Brian Laing of Lastline explores six seemingly disparate factors that, when combined, provide a telling insight into the state of cyber-security in 2017 and beyond.

Cybercrime and Poverty in Nigeria

Advances in global telecommunication infrastructure, including computers, mobile phones, and the Internet, have brought about major transformation in world communication. In Nigeria, the young and the old now have access to the world from their homes, offices, cyber cafes and so on. Lately, internet or web-enabled phones and other devices like iPods, and Blackberry, have made internet access easier and faster. However, one of the fall outs of this unlimited access is the issue of cybercrime. Consequently, cybercrime, known as “Yahoo Yahoo” or “Yahoo Plus”, is a source of major concern to the country. Nigeria’s rising cybercrime profile may not come as a surprise, considering the high level of poverty and high unemployment rate in the country. What is surprising, however, is the fact that Nigerians are wallowing in poverty despite the huge human and material resources available in the country. With the aid of the human security approach, this paper aims to (i) establish a nexus between poverty and cybercrime in Nigeria; (ii) examine the efforts of the Nigerian government in forestalling cybercrime; and (iii) suggest measures that could be put in place to help in curbing cybercrime as well as bringing about poverty alleviation. The paper suggests that the government must put viable policies and programmes on poverty reduction and eradication in place. However, these policies and programmes need to be judiciously backed by actions.

Legislating for Cybercrimes in the Maldives: Challenges and Prospects

The growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has changed the way of life for many people in the Maldives. Unfortunately, with the benefits also comes the threats. The use of ICT have added new dimensions of threats such as online fraud and forgery, hacking into protected systems and dissemination of pornography. Hence, deterring cybercrime is crucial for the national security of the country. Adoption of an appropriate legislation to protect from abuse of ICTs for criminal purposes should be the highest priority for the legislators, as the speed of advancement of ICTs have challenged many areas of existing legislation. This article studies the legislative approaches used to regulate cybercrime, using the cybercrime offences highlighted in the Cybercrime Convention. The cyber laws of England and Australia are discussed comparatively in order to identify whether the existing law is adequate, needs to be modified or there is a need for new laws to be enacted in the Maldives. This article is divided into five parts. Part one makes a brief introduction to the existing Maldivian regulatory framework. The second part of the article discusses the need for reform in the country and the lacuna in the existing penal legislation. The third part will examine the areas where modification or new laws are required. This will lead to the fourth part of the article which identifies the legislative approaches that needs to be taken in order to regulate cybercrime by relying on the Cybercrime Convention as a guide. Finally, the fifth part of the article concludes by recommending new provisions or modifications whichever is necessary to adequately address the issue of cybercrime.

Perception and Awareness of Young Internet Users towards Cybercrime: Evidence from Malaysia

Abstract: Cybercrime is a criminal (unethical and unlawful) activities using internet facilities such as virus infections, identity theft and hacking. There is high risk of becoming a victim especially for young internet user. The purpose of this study is to protect them by providing empirical evidence to the policy makers in combating cybercrime. The study examines the relationship between perception and gender, age and knowledge as well as the relationship between awareness and gender, age and knowledge towards cybercrime. A field survey is conducted among 342 students in the faculty of accountancy of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) with a structured questionnaire that covers demographic information and seven most known cybercrimes. Percentile analysis, correlation matrix, multivariate regressions are done to test the hypotheses. In addition, Post Hoc test is conducted to locate where the significant differences lies. The study finds: (1) Female students are more aware and have affirmative insights than male, (2) students in the age group of 18-23 years have lower perception and awareness than those aged 24 years and above and (3) those with higher academic qualifications are more aware at cybercrime and perceived the issue of risk differently. The study provides empirical evidence to the top management of the higher level institutions on the needs to improve their policies and procedures to protect young generation reducing the high risk of becoming a victim.Keywords: Cybercrime, Internet Crime, Cyber Security, UiTM, Higher Academic Institutions, Internet Users, MalaysiaIntroductionThe rapid changes in computer connectivity and innovation in digital technology provide numerous benefits to human life but it is not out of side affect such as cybercrime. Cybercrime is a new wave of crimes using internet facilities, which needs to be addressed urgently and earnestly by policy planners to protect the young generation as there is a high risk of becoming a victim of this crime (Asokhia, 2010; Mensch and Wilkie, 2011). Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that every year there is a financial loss of 445 billion dollar in world economy due to cybercrime (The Daily Amar Desh, 2014). Cyber Security Malaysia reported that the total number of cybercrimes was 1038 in 2007 and it increased to 2123 in 2008 (The Star, 200). Cybercrime statistics along with an increasing number of research studies indicate that young people do not always behave ethically in online activities and hence, there is a chance of every internet user becoming a victim (McQuade, 2009). Chen et al. (2008) state that human factors are involved in security awareness process. Human beings are usually the first line of defence to secure information assets, no matter how advanced and rigid the security technology solutions may be. All the security breaches such as virus infections, identity theft and hacking are the direct cause of carelessness and lack of knowledge and action on the part of users (Chen et al., 2008). A high level awareness about information security and cybercrime issues amongst users at home, in government and educational institutions, especially young people, would decrease the occurrence of cybercrime (Sembok, 2003). The effectiveness of combating cybercrime among users' especially young users will work if they are familiar and adroit while using online. Therefore, human factors such as gender, age, knowledge and skills (experience) may assist in augmenting the levels of awareness among young people. Students' perceptions of risk and awareness on security of the internet and information should be profoundly addressed (Wang et al., 2008). Past studies have examined students' attitude towards computer skills and ethics among educators (Shariff and Deni, 2005; Aris et al., 2004; Sembok, 2003). The majority of earlier studies are focused on approaches of law and enforcement agency tools in combating cybercrime. …