Cyber Laws: Examples of Cybercrime, Personal Information in E-commerce, Emerging Online Frauds, Trade Secrets

This document discusses various aspects of cyber laws, including examples of cybercrime against individuals and organizations, the use and control of personal information in e-commerce, strategies to detect and control emerging online frauds, and the concept of trade secrets. It provides insights into the unethical practices in e-business and the role of cyber laws in overcoming them.

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Cyber Laws
Question 1: Examples of Cybercrime
Cybercrime is referred to as any criminal act that involve computers and networks, it also
include theft done via the use of the internet. These crimes can be either against an individual or
an organization. Some examples cybercrime that occur against individuals include;
Privacy breach: this is a cybercrime that occur when someone gets access to information
without the owner’s authorization. Privacy breach usually begins with a security breach, where
one penetrates and illegally access a protected network to steal some confidential information
(Hong & Alazab 2017).
Spamming: this is another cybercriminal activity that is common with individuals. It involve the
use of Email system in sending messages that have fake links, some malicious programs and
malware. After spamming large unknown massages are sent to the users from the unrecognized
companies, organizations or groups. The spammer then deceives the Email users with deals on
offer, promotions and some attractive components that attract the Email users which lure the
users into providing their sensitive information (Alazab & Broadhurst, 2017).
Some examples of the cybercrime against an organization include;
Ransomware attack: this can be described as a type of harmful malware, software that is made
in a way that denies access to the system data until a ransomware is paid. Ransomware spreads
by unknowingly visiting of affected websites or by phishing emails. This can either be
devastated to an organization or individual. With this important data stored in a network or
computer is at risk. Ransomware recovery may not be an easy process as it may require specialist
service for the recovery of lost reputation. Some victims, however, pay to recover their file
although there isn’t a guarantee that recovery may be successful (Kharaz, Arshad, Mulliner,
Robertson, & Kirda, 2016).
Distributed Denial of Service: Another most popular hacking method is DDoS. In this attack,
the networks and services that are successfully running are completely or temporarily
interrupted. They compromise some function of the website to make it unavailable to the user
when the system is offline. DDoS can be also described as a traffic jam blocking up the main
road hence not giving way to regular traffic from arriving its endpoint (Huston & Iekel-Johnson,
2018).

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Question 2: how personal information is used in e-commerce application and how it should
be controlled.
Electronic Commerce can be elaborated as an online business, where people buy and sell
goods and services over the internet. In the e-commerce, the virtual store is on the website and
records and communication are operated electrically. In most cases, the online business usually
involve the use of credit cards for the transaction which can be done anywhere as long as one is
connected to the internet. During this transaction personal information is important in either
online and offline transactions. The growth of a web-based information system has made
information to be confided. There is a need for the customer and the sellers to make an
agreement on the methods of data collection, manipulated and stored and as a result of this more
personal information is collected.
Personal information can be controlled by the seller in order to ensure security; the
information obtained during the transaction should be protected from unauthorized persons. By
preventing illegal access to system protect sensitive information within the system. Security and
privacy can also be considered when designing a website for shopping online. The seller should
also fight in building and winning the buyer's trust. This will help in the effectiveness of the
online business (Choi, Lee & Sohn 2017). Personal information can be as well be controlled by
changing the inaccurate information on credit card.
Question 3: “Emerging Online Frauds: Detection and Their Possible Controlling Strategies
in E-Business.” summary
a. The unethical practices in e-business as discussed in the journal.
The paper reviews some security threats that are associated with online business in the
current environment that occur through digital marketing. The major unethical e-business
practices identified in the article are as discussed below.
The article has addressed spear phishing as one of the major e-business practice. This act
involves the stealing of individual’s personal information by malicious individuals. This is done
by sending emails that are designed to collect an individual’s sensitive information
(Vishwakarma, 2017).

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The article also address banking Trojans and heists, the act where cyber attackers
modifies online sessions for banking and injection of programs into the system for hacking
sessions and stealing sensitive information.
Another noteworthy e-business criminal act discussed involve social trade stated to be a
common malicious activity in India. This criminal act is majorly based on the online marketing
which works in social exchange platforms.
Security issues concerning internet of things IoT are also discussed in the article. Since the
IoT involves devices that are connected to the internet, the devices can be hacked like all other
internet connected devices which may lead to privacy and security breach.
Legal issues have also been addressed as unethical concerns in the e-business sector. The
legal issues involve acts that violate laws that are formulated to govern operations within e-
commerce. Various laws have been put into place to protect privacy, copyright and frauds in the
internet (Cepani, 2012).
b. The role of cyber laws in overcoming the unethical e-business practices.
Cyber laws play critical roles to overcome the unethical issues in the business. Regarding
phishing acts, the government have formulated anti-phishing acts that are aimed to deal with
criminal acts. The act imposes some fine on individuals who knowingly get involved in phishing
activities (Kroes, 2010; Zhu, 2013). The use of Trojan to illegally access individual’s
information online has also been made punishable act under section 43 act 2000 of the
information technology. The act is eligible to a penalty of up to Rs. 1 core.
Additionally, the provision of criminal code for social trades along with consumer and
business protection legislations and regulations that govern social marketing. Concerning the
internet of things the government have introduced legislations for improving cyber security
involving the internet connected devices (Alqatawna, Siddiqi, Al-Kadi, Al-Sayyed & Najdawi,
2014). The cyber security act of 2019 for IoT demands that all internet connected devices meet
some security requirements to operate. In the legal issues, various legislations that demand that
users operation in websites are tracked have been introduced to reduce the legal issues.
Question 4;
a. Trade secrete

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Any process, activity or practice in accompany that is usually not known outside the
business or the company can be referred to as the trade secret. This information usually gives the
business an economic advantage over its competitors and commonly a product of internal
research and development. For an information to be considered, it should have some financial
value and the organization have to take the responsibility to ensure the information is not
revealed to any third party (Li, Lin & Zhang, 2018).
The trade secrets can either be classified into tangible or intangible, New York Time
Bestsellers list one best example of process secrete trade including Google Inc.’s search
logarithms that came as a result of logical possessions in code and is regularly updated to protect
as well as to improve its effectiveness.
b. The differences between trademarks, patents and copyright
Trademark can be defined as any word or symbol(s) used by a company or an
organization to represent their products or their business and once registered by an organization
can never be used by any other organization as long as it remains in use and fees is paid as well
as the proper paperwork is ongoing. As time goes trademark becomes famous with a company
name such that one needs not even to read the name to recognize a particular business.
Trademarks under no circumstances ends (Lunney 2016).
A patent can be described as a knowledgeable property that offers an organization or
business owner a legal right to exclude others from using, making, importing as well as selling
inventions for a limited duration of years. This is done in exchange for enabling the sufficiency
of disclosure of the invention. Most patents are valid for 20 years.
Copyright can be referred to as the legal right of a business owner to copy. This simply
means that the original product creator and other authorized individuals are the only people with
exclusive right to make a replica work.
As copyrights law is not all-inclusive, some laws such as trademark and patent laws may
inflict added authorizations. Trademark, patent, and patent are however mostly used
interchangeably but they differ in form of protection or intellectual property. As trademark laws
protect materials that are used to differentiate between a corporation or an individual work from
another entity while copyright laws don’t protection the cover. on the other hand, patents provide
protection for innovations but for a limited time.
c. Advice to the friend

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Using good pictures, clipart and quotes is essential in online marketing. However, this
may lead to copyright infringement which is unethical in not only online marketing but also
other domains. In my perception, picking other’s content and using it in marketing as the friend
wants to do is illegal unless the friend use the legal and ethical way to access the content and
ensure that he is legally using them in his business. Infringement of copyright is illegal and
comes with significant consequences and penalties (Dong, Li & Guo, 2011).
I can advise the friend to ask for permission from the owners. Many individuals are
rational and may not deny him from using their content in marketing however they need to make
the decision by themselves and allow for the use of the content in their terms. Apart from this,
the use of public domain content could be another way to avoid such unethical acts. This
involves the use of publicly available content in business.

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References
Alazab, M., & Broadhurst, R. (2017). An Analysis of the nature of spam as cybercrime.
In Cyber-Physical Security (pp. 251-266). Springer, Cham.
Alqatawna, J. F., Siddiqi, J., Al-Kadi, O., Al-Sayyed, R., & Najdawi, A. (2014). Assessing the
role of governments in securing e-business: the case of Jordan. Emerging Trends in ICT
Security, 125-136.
Cepani, L. (2012). The Security and Privacy Issues as One of the Barriers Impeding the E-
Business Development in Albania. Annals of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University-
Economics, 59(1), 353-362.
Choi, H. S., Lee, W. S., & Sohn, S. Y. (2017). Analyzing research trends in personal information
privacy using topic modeling. Computers & Security, 67, 244-253.. Analyzing research
trends in personal information privacy using topic modeling. Computers & Security, 67,
244-253.
Dong, Y. H., Li, W., & Guo, X. W. (2011). A study on the security issues and solution of
electronic commerce. In Advanced Materials Research (Vol. 219, pp. 1301-1304). Trans
Tech Publications.
Hong, S. H., & Alazab, M. (2017). Cybercrime and Data Breach: Privacy Protection through the
Regulation of Voluntary Notification. Prepared for the Korea Legislation Research
Institute (KLRI).
Huston III, L. B., & Iekel-Johnson, S. (2018). U.S. Patent No. 10,116,692. Washington, DC:
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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Kharaz, A., Arshad, S., Mulliner, C., Robertson, W., & Kirda, E. (2016). {UNVEIL}: A Large-
Scale, Automated Approach to Detecting Ransomware. In 25th {USENIX} Security
Symposium ({USENIX} Security 16) (pp. 757-772).
Kroes, Q. R. (Ed.). (2010). E-business Law of the European Union. Kluwer Law International
BV.
Li, Y., Lin, Y., & Zhang, L. (2018). Trade secrets law and corporate disclosure: Causal evidence
on the proprietary cost hypothesis. Journal of Accounting Research, 56(1), 265-308.
Lunney Jr, G. S. (2016). Trademark Law's De-Evolution: Why Courts Get Trademark Cases
Wrong Repeatedly. Texas A&M University School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper,
(17-03).
Vishwakarma K.P. (2017). Emerging Online Frauds: Detection and Their Possible Controlling
Strategies in E-Business. International Journal of Innovative Research in Engineering &
Management (IJIREM), (4).
Zhu, Y. (2013). Research on the data and transaction security of enterprise e-commerce
countermeasure. International Journal of Security and Its Applications, 7(6), 259-268.