Anallyzing the Cyber Terrorism Phenomenon

Cyber Terrorism What is cyber-crime? Cybercrime denotes an illegal action committed primarily by deploying technology (or, to be more precise, a computer and internet). America's justice department expands this definition to cover all illegal actions employing computers to store evidence of crime (Tech Target, 2016). What is cyber space? Cyberspace represents a domain characterized by application of electromagnetic spectrum and electronics for storing, altering, and communicating information through networked structures and related physical infrastructures.

Basically, one may regard cyberspace as an interlinking of people by means of telecommunication and computers, with no connection with their physical geography (Rouse, 2016). Problems in prosecuting cyber-crime cases The internet, when it was first commercialized and made easily accessible and affordable to everyone (earlier, it was accessible only to the government and academicians), was a novel frontier. Akin to the old Wild West, the Internet was chiefly unregulated.

Lawmakers did not expect it to flourish at such a rapid pace, nor did they predict that new laws would be needed for protecting innocent internet users from the diverse types of unscrupulous online behaviors (Shinder, 2011). Prior to bringing jurisdiction into this discussion, identifying who and where the cybercriminal is essential for beginning any arrest action. This is one key issue with web-based crimes, as cybercriminals have numerous ways for concealing their identity.

Several services are available that effectively cloak the IP address of an internet user, by directing traffic across multiple servers, typically by paying some set fee, making it tough to trace these offenders (Shinder, 2011). Another aspect that hinders investigation of cybercrime and prosecution of cybercriminals, when compared to a majority of other crimes in the "real world," is the nature of evidence.

Digital evidence poses a chief problem, which is that it is, in fact, only a sequence of zeros and ones represented using means such as radio signals, light pulses, magnetization, etc. Such data is rather fragile, and may easily be modified or lost (Shinder, 2011). Jurisdiction Combating cybercrime is a costly affair. One can understand this better by noting the fact that the British government declared in a recent statement that this form of crime costs their economy an annual expense exceeding 43 billion dollars (i.e., 26.5 billion pounds).

Ever since, the British government has promised to allot over 88 million dollars (i.e. 54 million pounds) towards solving this issue. Still, the transnational jurisdictional challenges associated with stopping cybercrime cannot be resolved by simply allotting more money (Info Security, 2011). Senior attorney for the digital crime division of Microsoft, Richard Boscovich states that the key problem is the absence of a homogenous universal legislation, which is the work of nations.

He further states that there must be a related law in the nation from which one seeks information; when examining international treaties, one will understand that the crime must be perpetrated in both nations for laying one's hands on any evidence, or getting it back to one's own jurisdiction (Info Security, 2011). Among the greatest issues lies in the legislative scope within any given state.

Network security company, Damballa's Research Division Vice President, Gunter Ollmann, asserts that one can witness a vast range of laws; also, numerous nations do not have any legislation for basic aspects like malicious software installation or unauthorized computer access (Info Security, 2011). Chris Burchett of Credant Technologies believes that legislative bureaucracies typically move very slowly, while cyber attackers have displayed a remarkable skill for innovating and adapting (Info Security, 2011). Examples of cyber crime Hacking Hacking simply means illegal circumvention of security for accessing somebody else's computer.

While some hackers do so merely out of curiosity, they work their way through unknown systems as a challenge, they, go far enough to cause concern to the owners of the system they breach loopholes in security at times. Other hackers may have malicious motives -- information stealing, gaining control of systems to serve some personal end, or merely to wreak maximum possible havoc and.