ABSTRACT
Aligned with the technology, provisioned with an enormous power, humans are preparing to be taken by the digital world. The saga of the struggles that man has to undergo to manifest the cyber world is an epiphany; eulogies for centuries will mark the human history, present and future for such a discovery, as well. Amidst, all the bright side of the internet and cyberspace, a revelation has dawned on the respective nations, which doesn’t seem right or pro-human development. Marred by misuse, the Internet or one can say, cyber world has obtained quite a reputation. Increasing cyber crimes, online piracy has shook the right holders, business houses, industries and government, all over the world. The road laid by the discovery of internet and digitization, promised the world for immense growth, development and global outreach, making it a global village. But, the apprehended misuse has proved far more dangerous than the use, whereby, the menace of online piracy can’t be ignored.
INTRODUCTION
A young artist in his twenties brimming with enthusiasm wrote songs, sung them and uploaded his song performances on his own channel, where he got huge followership, but as usual, destiny had to have the blame for the deception played by his friend; his envious friend uploaded his morphed photos all over the internet, in order to bring shame to his being and tarnish his success story. While, in this part of stage, one life was being ruined by the misuse of internet, the cimmerian story was getting written for the others. A group of 4 engineering students came together with a revolutionary idea- to remove toxic substances from land and water. The blueprints of this groundbreaking ‘would be invention’, was about to take over the Indian market. Also, made them the star of their campus, but somehow, their effort went in vain. The blueprint and the entire work got caught in the hold of a malicious mentor, who hacked his students’ computer to throttle their achievement, surreptitiously. It is not uncommon to come across such incidents of betrayal and calumny. Moreover, these whirlwind incidents bring home an indispensable truth pertaining to the massive loss, to which everyone is witness here. It’s loss of confidentiality/privacy, the loss of sense of security as well as the loss of intellectual property of the brilliant minds bestowed with the brightest future ahead, of their respective nations.
To cope with changing times, humans came up with the series of incredible invention and technology to serve the mankind, wherein during the process found themselves tripping over the falsity of balancing the two sides of the same coin, which sooner or later tends to get fade in the journey. Although, the dynamic technological advancement in the cyber world foretells the rise of potent cyber space, but it also indicates the growing crimes and misuse of the same by humans in the form of burgeoning ‘Cyber crimes’, which has vividly embarked upon the odyssey of vitiating the technologies merit.
LIVE Cyber World!
The general concept of technological determinism is defined as the notion that technology drives history. The spirit of this line of thought is perhaps best captured in the motto of the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress world’s fair:- “Science Finds- Industry Applies- Man Conforms.” Essentially driven by technology, human beings strive to develop novel devices and paraphernalia, to keep it going with the tide of time. Moreover, the inventions of Computers, Internet, Wi-Fi, Softwares, Bluetooth or largely, one can say the Cyberspace, which is either sweeping everyone off their feet in amazement or strangulating few netizens in an horrific episode, is considered as a breakthrough achievement. Besides, recent developments in the decade, witnessed the advent of smart phones laced with finger print sensors, handy note pads, mini-laptops, wide access to the internet from handy mobile sets, making the individual run enterprises bloom in success and leaving the consumers contented and dependent on them.
With everything going so perfect, as well as the recorded success by the report of the International Telecommunications Union, which reveals 47% of the global population being engaged in the use of internet, attributes to the well- established network in the cyberspace. Cyberspace, as defined in the Preamble of National Cyber Security Policy 2013 stands for a complex environment consisting of interactions between people, software and services, supported by worldwide distribution of information and communication technology (ICT) devices and networks. Thus, giving it a shape of the platform encompassing a key to the information society, which behold our future in quandary. The extensive networks and the inclusive role play of internet have caught attention from all over the world, bequeathing the information society with enormous challenges in the form of cyber crimes and breaches of cyber securities. Although, computers and softwares have appeared as a sine qua non in every sphere of life ranging from, schools, offices, organizations, businesses and other government foras, but the reality can’t escape the sight.
The rising online criminality by way of cyber arsenals of viruses like Trojan, Malware, affecting the working of the gadgets as well as exposing one to the possibility of compromise with his/her privacy and confidential information amounts to cyber crime, and is a baffling state.
CRIMES IN CYBER WORLD
The World Economic Forum’s report also, enumerates cyber-security among the greatest threats to business around the world. The cost to the global economy of cyber crime has been estimated at $445 billion a year. And, India is no stranger to it. The hydra-headed cyber crimes often, are associated with the following practices- Cyber defamation, cyber stacking, identity theft, data diddling, cyber terrorism, cyber piracy, phishing, hacking, breach of privacy and confidentiality, ransomware, cyber espionage, etc. Each of these acts of cyber infiltration creates hostile environment for the people, businesses or organizations, at large as well as it hinder the economy’s growth. Cyber Crime has been reported as one of the top economic crimes experienced by organization in India out of the four economic crimes- fraud, cyber crime, bribery /corruption and asset misappropriation, as per the PwC Economic Crime Survey India Report 2011. Cyber crime has been increasing at an alarming rate in India, which is acknowledged by the National Crime Record Bureau’s report of 2007-2011, wherein the number of cyber crime cases registered under the IT Act in 2011 were 1791, an 85% increase since the year of 2010.
The rise in hacking, incidents of phishing followed by an innumerable accounts of piracy of softwares, copyrighted content as well as other IP rights, not only confirms the paradigm shift of criminality from traditional methods to the modern technology organized crimes but has also re-affirmed the prognosis of the cyber crime, within which few of its type are being observed as the profession to earn easy money with lesser toil rather than being considered as an offence. Marring the cyber security- phishing, identity theft, piracy has shaken the economy and businesses, as well. Certain occurrences have definitely shown the ugly face of cyber crimes and to mention few of the startling attacks is quite a memorabilia. ATM card hack, which occurred due to the data breach of some of the card network companies NPCI, Mastercard and Visa, affected the customers of SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, YES Bank and Axis Bank, at large. Also, the phishing attack on UTI Banks website which created havoc, by sending mails to the customers of the changes made in their account profiles maintained with the UTI Bank, compromised the position of the respective customers as well as the reputation of the bank. Such attacks are not only limited to bank institutions but it extends to as far as the cyber defamation by posting the images of actresses on the social media or by leaking the personal data/images of the celebrities on various public platforms in order to tarnish their standing in the society.
The alleged breaches have notably been unfurled with every news feed popping up on one’s mobile or TV screens and has induced a fear of insecurity, restlessness and the prospect of future breach of privacy; driving us towards the dilemma of either opting for full abandonment or to keep moving along with the challenges.
The Cyber Piracy Juggernaut
Worldwide, roughly 41 percent of all software installed on personal computers is obtained illegally, with foregone revenues to the software industry totaling $53 billion. As complex as the technology used to create and develop the internet is, so too is the network of online criminal waiting to feast on the vulnerabilities of the cyber eco system. The ongoing slaughter of the security, exhibition of misappropriate content, even misappropriation of the Intellectual properties of the individual, business, organizations, vastly has caused chaos in the cyber world. The internet has provided counterfeiters and pirates with a new and powerful means to sell their products via. auction sites, stand-alone e-commerce sites and email solicitations. Quantitative analysis carried out by the OECD indicates that the volume of tangible counterfeit and pirated products in international trade could be upto USD 200 billion. This figure does not, however, include counterfeit and pirated products that are produced and consumed domestically, nor does it include the significant volume of pirated digital products that are being distributed via the Internet. If these items were added, the total magnitude of counterfeiting and piracy worldwide could well be several hundred billion dollars more. These massive figures are perplexing that dictates a grave concern which is to be taken into account as well as seeks a definitive solution.
What Internet software piracy entails?
Internet software piracy refers to the use of the Internet to:
- Provide access to downloadable copies of pirated software;
- Advertise and market pirated software that is delivered through the mail; or
- Offer and tansmit codes or other technologies to circumvent anti-copying security features.
The process can be as evasive as any other illegal activity. Buyers may be directed to one Web Site to select and pay for a software program and then redirected to other website to download the same, which sometimes, further exposes the person to the virus hosted sites and jeopardize one’s privacy and data, followed by the damage or virus attack to the computer system or the gadget being used during that time.
Primarily, there are multiple channels which contribute in the internet software scams, namely- Peer to Peer (P2P), Social networking sites, auction sites, botnets, Internet relay chat, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and etc. All these channels in one way or the other lead to the misrepresentation to the public in buying the computer softwares, movies, shows, music which might not be genuine, legal, nor be a functional unit as well. The lucrative offers of free software link showcased on the sites, guaranteeing 100% security is such a common sight, often misleading the person, who ends up buying it, making his/her PC susceptible to the cyber attacks and thus, falling into the booty trap. Similar fate is being shared by the other industries that have been touched by the digitization bringing huge losses to the nations, altogether.
DUCTUS EDGE 