Essay: Online privacy

Related essay: Network security
Imagine being followed in a shopping mall by a survey taker who is trying to record every store you visited, the products you have bought, or the conversations you carried on with someone? Starting from the cell phones to the atm withdrawals and credit card use, the everyday actions of most people are monitored and recognized for a variety of doubtful uses and without approval.
The lack of privacy has been a problem these days. Incredible amount of information are collected and stored every day. And to our surprise no one knows what is done with that. Today, an array of sophisticated new tools is making a big difference.
Some of the basic steps to be taken to prevent online privacy:
‘ We should send unidentified e-mail through remailers, which reduces the chance of the -mail being read but the hackers who might be monitoring web traffic from sites like Microsoft’s hotmail. By using these sites, the message bounces through a number of computers that forward it on, making it virtually untraceable.
‘ We should improve security through our web browsers. It can be done through deactivating or blocking cookies.
‘ We can use a secondary free e-mail service like Microsoft’s hotmail to prevent your main e-mail account from receiving spam.
‘ We can install a firewall program to protect our computer from hackers. It can filter specific information leaving our computer or information coming to us.
‘ Clear your history file when you are browsing.
‘ Purchase goods with cash, rather than credit card.
COMPUTER CRIMES VARIANTS:
‘ COMPUTER THEFT is defined as the unlawful use of another person’s property such as transfer of payment to the wrong accounts, get online matter with no cost and tap into the data transmission lines.
‘ COMPUTER ATTACK is defined as any actions taken to disrupt the equipments of computers systems, change dispensation controls and corrupt stored data.
‘ COMPUTER SCAM is the crime of obtaining money by deceiving people through the use of computers such as email hoaxes, program scam, investment schemes and claim of expertise on certain fields.
‘ COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT is a breach of the rights secured by a copyright. It occurs when you break the copyright laws such as replication movie, software or CD’s illegally.
‘ CYBER SPACE – CYBER CRIME
Cyber space is a noun for the diverse range of environments that have arisen using the internet and the various services. The term crime is defined as an act, which subjects the doer to legal punishment or any offence against principles, social order or any undue or shocking act. The ‘offence’ is defined in the code of against the law process to mean as an act or omission made punishable by any law for the time being in power. Cyber crime is a term used to generally depict illegitimate action in which computer or computer networks are an instrument, a goal, or a place of illegal action and include everything from electronic cracking to denial of service attacks. It is also used to include traditional crimes in which computers or networks are used to enable the illegal action.
‘ TRADITIONAL CRIME ‘ CYBER CRIME
Computer crime mainly consists of unauthorized access to computer systems data alteration, data destruction, theft of intellectual properly. Cyber crime in the context of national security may involve activism, established spying, or in sequence warfare and related actions. Cyber crimes have been reported across the world. Cyber crime is now amongst the most important revenue sectors for global planned crime. Because of this, the potential risks associated with malware have risen dramatically. Unlike in traditional crimes, the information technology infrastructure is not only used to commit the crime but very often is itself the target of the crime pornography, threatening email, assuming someone someone’s identity, sexual harassment, defamation, SPAM and phishing are some examples where computers are used to commit crime, whereas viruses, worms and industrial spying, software piracy and hacking are examples where computers become target of crime. ‘..
There are two sides to cyber crime. One is the generation side and the other is the victimization side. Ultimately they have to be submissive in that the number of cyber crimes committed should be related to the number of victimizations experienced.
‘ CYBER STALKING
Cyber stalking is use of the internet or other electronic means to stalk someone. This term is used interchangeably with online harassment and online abuse. Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person’s home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person’s property. ”.
‘ HACKING
Hacking is a crime, which entails cracking systems and gaining illegal access to the data stored in them. Hacking had witnessed a 37% increase this year. ‘
‘ PHISHING
Phishing is just one of the many scams on the internet, trying to fool people into parting with their money. Phishing refers to the receiving of unwelcome emails by customers of monetary institutions, requesting them to enter their username, password or other personal information to access their account for some reason. Customers are directed to a fake duplication of the original institution’s website when they click on the links on the email to enter their information, and so they remain unaware that the scam has occurred. The fraudster then has access to the customer’s online bank account and to the funds contained in that account. ”
‘ VISHING
Vishing is the criminal practice of using social engineering and voice over IP (VoIP) to increase access to private, personal and financial information from the public for the purpose of financial recompense. The term is the combination of ‘voice’ and phishing. Vishing exploits the public’s faith in landline telephone services, which have traditionally terminated in physical locations which are known to the telephone company, and associated with a bill payer. The victim is often ignorant that VoIP allows for caller ID spoofing, inexpensive, complex automated systems and anonymity for the bill payer. Vishing is normally used to steal credit card statistics or other information used in identity theft schemes from folks. ”
‘ CYBER SQUATTING
Cyber squatting is the act of registering a famous domain name and then selling it for a affluence. This is a matter that has not been tackled in IT act 2000. ‘.
Why do we need cyber law?
‘ Cyber laws are made to force people to be good.
‘ To give protection against the misuse of computers and computer criminal actions.
Examples of cyber abuse on the users:
‘ Sending a computer virus via email.
‘ Harassment through e mail.
‘ Hacking into your school’s database to change your examination results.
ETHICS LAW
‘ It is a guideline to computer users.
‘ It is a rule to control computer users.
‘ Computer users are free to follow or ignore the code of ethics.
‘ Computers users must follow the regulations and law.
‘ Universal, can be applied anywhere, all over the world.
‘ Depend on country and state where the crime is committed.
‘ To produce ethical computers users.
‘ To prevent the misuse of computers.
‘ Not following ethics are called immoral.
‘ Not obeying laws are called crime.
Computer ethics Is a system of moral standards or moral values used as a guidelines for computer users. Code of ethics Is a guidelines in ICT that help determine whether a specific computer action is ethical or unethical. Intellectual property Is works created by inventors, authors and artists. Privacy Refers to the right of individuals and companies to deny or restrict the collection and use of information about them. Computer crime Is any illegal acts involving computers Cyber law Is a law relating to protect the internet and other online communication technologies.
MEASURES TO BE TAKEN TO ENSURE SECURITY:
Biometric passports set to take flights
The state department’s office of passport policy, planning and advisory services recently announced that it is ready to begin issuing biometric passports. These passports feature an RFID chip to bring about more secure entry into and exit from the United States. RFID stands for radio occurrence recognition chip outfitted with diminutive antennae. It stores data for transmission to nearby receivers. Some of the critics say that this tool puts our personal information at stake the agency planned to issue the first passport carrying an RFID chip by mid 2005. The chip includes all the important information. It also contains a biometric component – a digital facial image. The RFID chip will contain a chip identification number and a digital signature. This data will be stored into central government’s database along with the personal information.
‘ Under this system you will have one year from which your information changes to apply for a new passport free of charge. This is the key, as the price of passports will go up to cover the cost of the new technology.
‘ One of the primary concerns with using RFID chips in the new passports is that the chips can be read from a distance. It means that somebody with the proper tools could access the data on your passport if they are bodily close enough. ‘ But it is to be keeping in mind that all chip readers to be automatically protected so that electronic signal sending and receiving information will not be transmitted beyond the reader. Each passport will contain an anti skimming feature designed to prevent identity thieves from activating and reading the chip from a distance.
‘ Identity management ”.. Every enterprise will have its own identity management system to control access to information and computing resources.
Cloud providers either integrate the customer’s identity management system into their own infrastructure, using federation or SSO technology, or provide an identity management solution of their own.
‘ Physical and personnel security
Providers ensure that physical machines are adequately secure and that access to these machines as well as all relevant customer data is not only restricted but that access is documented. ‘? ‘ Availability’? Cloud providers assure customers that they will have regular and predictable access to their data and applications. ‘ ‘ Application security ” Cloud providers ensure that applications available as a service via the cloud are secure by implementing testing and acceptance procedures for outsourced or packaged application code. It also requires application security measures are in place in the production environment. ‘ Privacy [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ Finally, providers ensure that all critical data (credit card numbers, for example) are masked and that only authorized users have access to data in its entirety. Moreover, digital identities and credentials must be protected as should any data that the provider collects or produces about customer action in the cloud. ‘ Legal issues In addition, providers and customers must consider legal issues, such as Contracts and E-Discovery, and the related laws, which may vary by country. ‘ Encryption============================== All communication between your browser and our secure Internet banking sites is encrypted using 128bit SSL encryption technology to ensure confidentiality of transactions performed on our site. ————————– ‘ Digital certificates============================ We use Digital Certificates to ensure it is really us you are connected to. You can ensure that you are using our verified site by double clicking the padlock symbol. ———- ‘ Scramble pad=============================== To help protect information entered at your PC we have included the ‘scramble pad’ feature in our Internet banking logon page. Help with using the scramble pad is available from the Help button on the Internet banking logon page. ——————————– ‘ Transfer Money {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ We have reduced the maximum daily limit that applies to Transfers and Batch payments on Internet banking for both personal and business members respectively. The daily limit applies to the total value of Transfers from all accounts registered for Internet banking under the member number. The reduced limit is a measure we have taken to reduce the risk of any potential losses should your Internet banking logon be compromised. ‘ VerifID (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( Secure Internet banking is one of continuing priorities. That’s why VerifID is introduced, to make Internet banking safer than ever. )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ‘ Automatic session timeout $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Our secure Internet banking sites automatically log you out to reduce the risk of someone else accessing your account if you leave your computer unattended. We do however recommend that you use the logout function of the site as soon as you finish your Internet banking session. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%