Internet development Assignment

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INTERNET AND CYBER CRIMES
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Internet and cyber attacks
Introduction
The internet development has facilitated growth in all aspects of life. In health,
agriculture, education, business and tourism. The purpose of this essay is to determine whether
the private company and the government should hack back when attacked by hackers. The aim is
to facilitate policy development on how to deal with cyber-crimes. As recommended,
governments and the internet security bodies should develop policies relevant to protect the
internet users from cyber-crimes.
Internet which is an interconnection of computers internationally has brought tremendous
development in the world. It has facilitated communication from any point within the globe.
Actually, it has made the world a global village. It has become easy to interact with people from
far by just a click of button. Job applications and universities admissions in international school
have become the order of the day. These processes that were previously impossible due to
distance limitations, is now easily available by just being connected. Companies have been in a
position to market their products by creating websites and providing information about their
products. This has facilitated online buying and selling and hence providing a wider market for
the sellers and a wide variety of products for the buyers. As stated by Wirtz, Schike and Ullrich
(2010), the availability of information in the internet has enabled businesses to learn business
models that steer them to achieving their goals and realizing great profits (p. 274). Internet has
also brought about growth in the education sector. Acquiring a degree through distance learning
is the order of the day. Through Skype a lecturer from far can conduct a lesson effectively,
sharing of educational materials from different places have been easy through emails. Students
are in a position to acquire scientific journals and articles with ease. Scientific research has been
facilitated by the internet development. As according to Albatch (2015), the internet has linked
academic institutions globally. This has steered education to greater heights and produced quality
professionals.
Governments have also digitalized the citizens’ services due to internet development.
Citizens are in a position to file their taxes, acquire identification cards, apply for passports,
acquire birth and death certificates without visiting government offices. The citizens’
information is stored in government database and they can be accessed whenever needed without

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having to manually checking through files. In UK, the government is in a position to manage
traffic, automobile pollution, detect flooding and earthquakes by the use of internet (Poser and
Dransh 2010, p. 92). The disaster information obtained by the government through internet has
helped them to warn the citizens and also to prepare prior to the occurrence of the disaster or if
possible, avoid it. The internet has also promoted the tourism sector (Buhalis and Law 2008,
p.610). It has become easy to find information about a tourism operator in the internet. Tourist
can now book for accommodation without having to call to the embassy as there before. It also
provides a wide range of information of the places that one can visit and therefore making it easy
to make a decision. In the agricultural sector, internet has brought great developments. The
farmers are in a position to learn on good agricultural practices, know the right pesticides, learn
about climate change and how to facilitate their economic activities even during this era where
climate change has become more pronounced. The farmers are also able to find market for their
products and also be in a position to track the progress of the transactions undertaken.
As asserted by Campbell (2011), religious groups use computers to facilitate new forms
of meeting and creating “community” online. As it was in early 21st century where in some
countries for instance In Arabic countries where Christians did not have freedom of worship or
reading the Bible, the internet has enabled communication that facilitates accessibility of
religious materials and information easily. Bible and Quran and other religious books
applications have been developed and can be accessed with a Smartphone. These online
technologies facilitate growth in faith and have shaped the communities (Cheong, Poon, Huang
and Casas 2009, p, 295). The development of internet has enabled banks to digitalize their
services. Creating an account, having access to your money, learning about the bank services,
and borrowing a loan just need a click of a button. This has reduced the time for queuing in the
long queues in the banks. Use of credit and debit cards in the purchasing of goods is possible by
use of internet connection. Customers are able to determine the progress of their banks by
checking on the information provided in the banks websites. Information about foreign
exchange rate is easily accessible by logging into the website. It has also facilitated the
development of forex trading (Sazuka, Inoue and Scalas 2009, p.2842). Through internet many
has been able to acquire employment. Jobs from home that are widely available for example
typing jobs, data entry, conducting surveys and report writing jobs are easily available in the
internet. This has boosted the economic status of countries and the living standards of people.

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However, the internet has also lead to increase in crime. Cyber crime that has become
common and uncontrollable and has led to many businesses, individuals and government losing
millions of money and huge information. The ability to hack, damage and destroy computer
system or network by the criminals has been a challenge to many institutions and organization.
As stated by Suo, Wan, Zou and Liu (2012), internet of things (IoT) has faced security and
privacy challenges (p. 649). The cyber criminals use various techniques to compromise the
computer system and destroy or damage the privacy.
Types of cyber crimes
Hacking. This is a common type of cybercrime. It is mostly executed by programmers
who have knowledge on software (Himma 2007). They access computer systems without
permission. Information about a business strategy, financial status, customers’ personal
information is usually stolen and used for frauds.
Identity theft is a crime where user’s private information is stolen and used for wrong
purposes. For example, doing transactions under the victim’s name, spreading wrong or
unwanted information about the victim or even asking for money from victim’s families and
friend. This can be avoided by ensuring that personal information is well protected. For example,
ATM and credit cards information that are mostly obtained when a person is contacted by the
criminals and one provide the information without being aware of the end user.
Phishing is a cybercrime where the unsuspecting user is led to clicking into emails or
links that at the end access their logging information and eventually provides the bank account
information. This information is used to access money from the victims account. As according to
Kirda and Kruegal (2005), this crime has increased due to the high number of internet users
lacking information about the crime.
Ransomware crime has increased in the recent days. A person computer or system is
infected and the files are encrypted and the public encryption key remains with the criminal. As
stated by Richet (2016), the ransomware locks the victims screen with images, documents and
music. The perpetrators ask for payment for the recovery of the information. Many banks and
businesses have fallen into this trap. It leads to loss of quality information if one does not comply
with the criminal.

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Scams crime is usually performed via emails. A victim receives a message with a
seducing offer which prompts him to send money for the offer to be activated or for him to
receive the offer. The perpetrator then goes missing after receiving the money. Human elements
such as easy manipulation have highly contributed to these crimes as compared to technology
failure (Muscanell, Guadagno and Murphy 2014, p. 390).
Distributed denial of service (DDOs) is an attack where a computer system for example
servers and website deny service. The frequent pop up of messages in the user’s screen tends to
slow down the system which can eventually lead to its break down. These highly contribute to
loss of information for organizations and individual who don’t back up their information.
Virus attacks are common in an internet connection. Malwares are spread and installed
in a victim computer. Some replicates and other hides within the system until they fully destroy
the files and make them inaccessible. Sources of the viruses include email attachments,
downloadable programs, cracked software and the internet. As according to Adeyinka (2008),
virus scanners and other protective software can be used to protect computers from the virus
attack (p.81).
Effects of cybercrimes at individual, organization and governmental level
Cybercrime has led to huge losses at individual, organization and governmental levels.
Loss of valuable information by researchers, students, professionals, organizations and the
government, use of a lot of money paying the criminals that they can give you access to your
information after they have denied you access and many losing their jobs due to such crimes are
the mostly experienced challenges. As researches have indicated that people with low self-
control are easily lured to these crimes everyone is prone to it (Bossler and Holt 2010, p. 233).
Personal information that is accessed by the criminals via the internet when used wrongly a
person may end up in jail. Since the information is mostly used in frauding other people for
example in making deals which are not real and people ending up being conned. This may attract
legal actions that may attract penalties to the individual whose information was used in the deal
rather than the criminal involved. A business or an organization website when attacked with
virus, it may lead to malfunctioning or completely breakdown of the system. This makes their
customers unable to receive online services from the business and hence the business is prone to
losing customers. The cost of maintaining or installing another system is usually high and

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therefore the organization faces losses due to extra expenses. Businesses that support online
purchasing may be blamed by the customers when their personal information is accessed by the
criminals (Pratt, Holtfreter and Resig 2010, p. 233). This may spoil the image of the business and
eventually have negative impacts on its profits. The government can face blackmail when their
system has been hacked. This compromises their operations and they may undergo huge losses in
the process of persuading the hackers or the criminals. The government or organization may find
itself hiring the hackers for security purposes who normally request huge payments. This affects
the economic status of the country. Therefore, it is important to find measure to avoid these
cyber crimes and have policies that protect individuals from these crimes.
Should companies and government counter-strike the cyber attackers?
Due to the high losses faced by the organizations and the government in cybercrimes,
they are usually not able to counter strike or retaliate against the attackers. As according to
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a person is not allowed to access another person’s
computer without permission or exceeding authorized access. Normally, the act calls for
implementation of the law rather than hacking back. That is, criminals when identified should be
persecuted.However, evidence has indicated that some companies have tried the hack back after
failed attempts to stop the hacking process by blocking the criminal computer from operating
(West 2012, p. 119). The hack back is not recommended since it can lead to damage of other
people properties or companies. For example, as observed when the Microsoft system was
hacked, the internet providers the vitalwerks company suffered losses though they were not in
collaboration with the hacker. Such impacts can affect the activity of the companies and cost
them a lot of money in persuading the hackers. In most cases, the hackers are not traceable. This
may cost an organization or the government in the process of hacking back as compared to the
reward of the process. For companies which are not well established it will be difficult for them
to hack back especially if the hacking was done by a corporate company since the cost is high.
Also, these companies may lack relevant expertise to do the hacking back process which may
end up damaging the company’s properties or information and hence huge losses. As according
to Lasiello (2014), hacking back is not the right solution to cybercrimes (p.105). Though the
cyber attacks have been highly focused on companies rather than the government (Lin, Allhoff

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and Abney 2014, p. 42), the government has put fewer efforts in saving companies from such
crime attacks.
However, this policy of retaliating against a cyber attack and destructively counter
striking against the attackers will not protect critical services from damage because the world is
full of hackers. Most hackers are people with programming knowledge, each year universities
are producing graduands where by, most of them are in this field of programming. Therefore, an
attack of one or several cyber criminals will be insignificant. As stated by Brill and Smolanoff
(2017), that the cyber terrorists are increasingly developing sophisticated weapons, the risk or
reward equation is complex in the hack back process and must be considered before it is
implemented. As reported by Perlroth (2013), after the Chinese hackers had access to the United
States websites and performed some manipulations, the United States were in a position to block
the hackers through the help of Times and the security network. However, the hackers were in a
position to access the websites again even after being blocked. This indicates that hack back
cannot full insulate critical services from damage. Therefore, relevant policies should be
developed to fight against cybercrimes.
Methods of protecting one-self from cyber attacks
Since we are all prone to these cyber-attacks. It is important to learn and adapt these
methods of protecting oneself. You should ensure that your computer has an antivirus
software. This helps to protect from possible attacks from viruses. When logging into
emails one should use strong passwords by combining letters, numeric and symbols to
strengthen it. The computer should be installed with the latest updates. A computer
operating with an old operating system makes it prone to these attacks. The updated
operating system ensures that the computer is safe and it is difficult to be attacked. The
information stored in the computer should be regularly backed up. Backing up can be
done in external storage or cloud storage. This ensures that whenever a computer is
attacked, one will be able to retrieve the information. This is especially fundamental for
companies and businesses. Individuals, companies and the government should store their
financial details privately. This is possible by using another laptop or computer that does
not use internet frequently. This ensures that even after a computer is hacked the financial

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information will not be accessed. Finally, when using the internet, one should be careful
to use secure websites and avoid downloading applications that are not genuine.
Conclusion
The internet technology though beneficial, it faces insecurity challenges. A Cyber crime
that has led to huge losses of money and time for organizations has become uncontrollable.
Though hacking is beneficial for organizations to ensure that their systems are safe, when used
with a wrong motive like blackmailing, fraud, and other personal interest it becomes dangerous.
Though some companies have tried the hack back, research has indicated that this is not a good
solution for cybercrimes. And it does not insulate critical services from harm or destruction.
Therefore, effective policies should be developed by relevant internet security bodies to protect
internet users from these crimes.

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