Discuss different types of cyber crimes and measures required to be taken to fight the menace. (UPSC IAS Mains 2020 General Studies Paper – 3)
Cyber crime is a criminal activity thatinvolves computersor anynetworkdevicesthattargetindividuals, companies, and governments for direct financial gain or to sabotage or disrupt operations. Cyber crime is a major threat to sectors identified under Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) that include financial systems, air traffic control and telecommunications.
Different types of Cyber crimes
- Malware, short for malicious software, refers to any kind of software that is designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network. Ransomware, Spyware, Worms, viruses, and Trojans are all varieties of malware.
- Phishing: It is the method of trying to gather personal information using deceptive e-mails and websites.
- Denial of Service attacks: A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack is an attack meant to shut down a machine or network, making it inaccessible to its intended users. DoS attacks accomplish this by flooding the target with traffic or sending it information that triggers a crash.
- Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks, also known as eavesdropping attacks, occur when attackers insert themselves into a two-party transaction. Once the attackers interrupt the traffic, they can filter and steal data.
- Social engineering is an attack that relies on human interaction to trick usersinto breaking security procedures to gain sensitive information that is typically protected.
Measures to be taken
- Real-time intelligence is required for preventing and containing cyber-attacks.
- Periodical ‘Backup of Data’ is a solution to ransomware.
- Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for predicting and accurately identifying attacks.
- Using the knowledge gained from actual attacks that have already taken place in building effective and pragmatic defense.
- Increased awareness about cyber threats for which digital literacy is required first.
- There is a need to secure the computing environment and IoT with current tools, patches, updates and bestknown methods in a timely manner.
- The need of the hour isto develop core skillsin cybersecurity, data integrity and data security fields while also setting stringent cyber security standards to protect banks and financial institutions.
One of the highest numbers of cyber threats have been detected in India, and the country ranks second in terms of targeted attacks. Banking and Telecom are the most attacked sectors, but manufacturing, healthcare, and retail have also faced a significant number of cyber-attacks. Thus, there is an urgent need to take protective measures to tackle this menace.
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