March 17, 2011
March 8, 2011
Interesting Facts
- 1. The standard "QWERTY" keyboard was not designed with ease of typing in mind. Rather, it was designed to keep early typewriters from jamming. 130 years later, in the age of computers, people are still using this awkward, inefficient keyboard layout. Few know that there is a much faster, easier, more efficient, and more comfortable alternative: the Dvorak (pronounced "duh VOR ak") keyboard. Unlike QWERTY, the Dvorak keyboard was scientifically designed for increased speed and accuracy. It is estimated to be 12 to 20 times more efficient than QWERTY. Dvorak is great for beginning and experienced typists alike. It's the layout used by some of the world's fastest typists.2. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
3. On eBay, there are an average of $680 worth of transactions each second.- 4. "Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
- 5. 80% of all pictures on the internet are of naked women
- 6. In the 1980s, an IBM computer wasn't considered 100 percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft Flight Simulator*.
- 7. The world's first computer, called the Z1, was invented by Konrad Zuse in 1936. His next invention, the Z2 was finished in 1939 and was the first fully functioning electro-mechanical computer.
- 8. The first computer mouse was invented by Doug Engelbart in around 1964 and was made of wood.
- 9. Domain names are being registered at a rate of more than one million names every month.
- 10. There are approximately 1.06 billion instant messaging accounts worldwide.
- 11. The first banner advertising was used in 1994.
12. E-mail has been around longer than the World Wide Web.- 13. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute, less than half the normal rate of 20.
- 14. One of every 8 married couples in the US last year met online.
- 15. The average 21 year old has spent 5,000 hours playing video games, has exchanged 250,000 e-mails, instant and text messages and has spent 10,000 hours on the mobile phone.
- 16. By the year 2012 there will be approximately 17 billion devices connected to the Internet.
- 17. MySpace reports over 110 million registered users. Were it a country, it would be the tenth largest, just behind Mexico.
- 18. While it took the radio 38 years, and the television a short 13 years, it took the World Wide Web only 4 years to reach 50 million users.
- 19. There are approximately 1,319,872,109 people on the Internet.
- 20. For every 'normal' webpage, there are five porn pages.
- 21. Bill Gates' house was designed using a Macintosh computer.
- 22. The first domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com.
- 23. Another name for a Microsoft Windows tutorial is 'Crash Course'!
March 6, 2011
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth.
A simple example of cloud computing is Yahoo email or Gmail etc. You dont need a software or a server to use them. All a consumer would need is just an internet connection and you can start sending emails. The server and email management software is all on the cloud ( internet) and is totally managed by the cloud service provider Yahoo , Google etc. The consumer gets to use the software alone and enjoy the benefits. The analogy is , 'If you only need milk , would you buy a cow ?' All the users or consumers need is to get the benefits of using the software or hardware of the computer like sending emails etc. Just to get this benefit (milk) why should a consumer buy a (cow) software /hardware ?
Cloud computing is broken down into three segments: "applications," "platforms," and "infrastructure." Each segment serves a different purpose and offers different products for businesses and individuals around the world. In June 2009, a study conducted by VersionOne found that 41% of senior IT professionals actually don't know what cloud computing is and two-thirds of senior finance professionals are confused by the concept, highlighting the young nature of the technology. In Sept 2009, an Aberdeen Group study found that disciplined companies achieved on average an 18% reduction in their IT budget from cloud computing and a 16% reduction in data center power costs.
March 4, 2011
Disney and Pixar's Full Animated Line-Up Through 2012!
Pixar's Newt - Summer 2011 (In 3D)
Directed by: Gary Rydstrom (Lifted). What happens when the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet are forced together by science to save the species, and they can't stand each other? That's the problem facing Newt and Brooke, heroes of "newt," the Pixar film by seven-time Academy Award winner for sound Gary Rydstrom, and director of Pixar's Oscar-nominated short, "Lifted." Newt and Brooke embark on a perilous, unpredictable adventure and discover that finding a mate never goes as planned, even when you only have one choice. Love, it turns out, is not a science.
Pixar's The Bear and the Bow - Christmas 2011 (In 3D)
Directed by: Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt). A rugged and mythic Scotland is the setting for Pixar's action-adventure "The Bear and the Bow." The impetuous, tangle-haired Merida, though a daughter of royalty, would prefer to make her mark as a great archer. A clash of wills with her mother compels Merida to make a reckless choice, which unleashes unintended peril on her father's kingdom and her mother's life. Merida struggles with the unpredictable forces of nature, magic and a dark, ancient curse to set things right. Director Brenda Chapman ("The Prince of Egypt," "The Lion King") and the storytelling wizards of Pixar conjure humor, fantasy and excitement in this rich Highland tale.
Pixar's Cars 2 - Summer 2012 (In 3D)
Directed by: Brad Lewis. All the world's a racetrack as racing superstar Lightning McQueen zooms back into action, with his best friend Mater in tow, to take on the globe's fastest and finest in this thrilling high-octane new installment of the "Cars" saga. Mater and McQueen will need their passports as they find themselves in a new world of intrigue, thrills and fast-paced comedic escapades around the globe. "Cars 2" is being directed by Brad Lewis, producer of the Oscar-winning film "Ratatouille."
King of the Elves - Christmas 2012 (In 3D)
Directed by: Aaron Blaise (Brother Bear) and Robert Walker (Brother Bear). Legendary storyteller Phillip K. Dick's short story (his only experiment in the fantasy genre) becomes the basis for this fantastic and imaginative tale about an average man living in the Mississippi Delta, whose reluctant actions to help a desperate band of elves leads them to name him their new king. Joining the innocent and endangered elves as they attempt to escape from an evil and menacing troll, their unlikely new leader finds himself caught on a journey filled with unimaginable dangers and a chance to bring real meaning back to his own life.
It's very interesting to see how Disney and Pixar grows its people. All of the directors have been with Pixar and Disney for at least 10 years and have been working in animation or special effects or sounds on numerous movies. It's also very interesting to see Pixar developing so many sequels when they used to say that was never in their consideration. Either way, I'm very excited for almost all of these. I'm looking forward to seeing Disney return to hand-drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog and, of course, anything Pixar does I'm always looking forward to!
Windows : History
How Microsoft Came into Being: The History of Microsoft Company
The history of Microsoft is interesting. It starts with two friends who were computer addicts. Bill Gates and Paul Allen were programming enthusiasts and close friends. The history of Microsoft says the initial idea to own a software entity was conceived of by Allens who then contacted Gates. Together they started with a small firm that initially created small applications for local clients.
When studying BASIC, a simple programming language that taught programming to students, Gates realized the potential of the language to run on the kind of computers at that time (with very low memory and slow processors). This was around 1975 when the MITS Altair was released. Both Gates and Allen worked hard on BASIC to make it compatible with MITS Altair, and they were not only successful but also were able to sell the product to MITS, which gladly accepted the software for use on the Altair.
Thus, it was Altair BASIC (and its pirated versions) that gave the much required boost to the combined venture of Allen and Gates. As the sales (both domestic and international) rocketed for Altair Basic, their then unnamed firm was registered under the name of Micro-soft in 1976 (with the hyphen) in New Mexico.
Note: Micro-soft was initially a partnership agreement until 1977 whereafter it was re-registered as a company under the name Microsoft Corporation. Gates was the President while Allen was appointed Vice President of the company. Allen later left the post of VP but still sits on the Board of Directors.
The above just the history of Microsoft in making. The next section takes a look at how Micro-soft captured almost all the major PC manufacturers.
When studying BASIC, a simple programming language that taught programming to students, Gates realized the potential of the language to run on the kind of computers at that time (with very low memory and slow processors). This was around 1975 when the MITS Altair was released. Both Gates and Allen worked hard on BASIC to make it compatible with MITS Altair, and they were not only successful but also were able to sell the product to MITS, which gladly accepted the software for use on the Altair.
Thus, it was Altair BASIC (and its pirated versions) that gave the much required boost to the combined venture of Allen and Gates. As the sales (both domestic and international) rocketed for Altair Basic, their then unnamed firm was registered under the name of Micro-soft in 1976 (with the hyphen) in New Mexico.
Note: Micro-soft was initially a partnership agreement until 1977 whereafter it was re-registered as a company under the name Microsoft Corporation. Gates was the President while Allen was appointed Vice President of the company. Allen later left the post of VP but still sits on the Board of Directors.
The above just the history of Microsoft in making. The next section takes a look at how Micro-soft captured almost all the major PC manufacturers.
Capturing the Worldwide PC Market and the Role of MS DOS
Although the Altair BASIC was a stepping stone for Micro-soft, Gates went ahead to add several enhancements to the product and registered it with his own firm. The MS BASIC was much easier compared to Altair BASIC, and, very soon, it was recognized by companies such as GE, CitiBank, and many others who started using MS BASIC instead of Altair Basic. MS BASIC is still used to educate people who are new to programming. Besides BASIC, Micro-soft created FORTRAN and COBOL, two more high level programming languages that are still used for mathematical applications.
By the time FORTRAN and BASIC were being used by several institutions, plenty of PC manufacturers entered the microcomputer market with development in IC technology. Among them was Apple, now a competitor of Microsoft (MS). Apple also sold over a million computers that carried MS BASIC. As different machines had different configurations, Micro-soft created an Assembler that offered greater control over programming.
With the ever increasing demand, Microsoft Corporation opened its first international office at Japan in the year 1978. The Japanese office was under collaboration with the ASCII Corporation of Japan that took care of sales while the New Mexico office was primarily used to create and enhance further software.
The company shot high when it released its second operating system, MS DOS. The first was based on UNIX and was called Xenix. However, there were not many takers for the Xenix OS. Later Microsoft disassociated itself with UNIX and came up with MS DOS (Disk Operating System). The name was attributed to the three and half inch floppy disks that could contain the entire operating system. Most PCs carried 16 bit processors by 1980. MS DOS was a command line interface that required only five files to boot and carry out basic file operations on any computer. Besides, the company created several other commands (small applications) for more sophisticated tasks such as UNDELETE to retrieve deleted data. All these commands were an extension to MS DOS.
The potential of MS DOS was soon recognized by IBM, one of the leading PC manufacturers who awarded a contract to Microsoft for using MS DOS on all its machines. This bought about a major change in the history of computing as well as the history of Microsoft. In the early 1980s, Microsoft had its own version of home PCs carrying MSX DOS, where MSX was the name of PC developed by MS. Very soon, the operating system captured almost all major computer vendors who started shipping their machines with DOS preloaded on the system.
By the end of 1982, Microsoft was again renamed to Microsoft, Inc, operating from Washington with over 220 employees worldwide. It captured a major chunk of the international market with over fifty PC vendors marketing its products, mainly the MS DOS and several programming languages. As the general public was still considering Microsoft as the BASIC software and operating system designer, Gates had other plans that would revolutionize the way people used computers.
By the time FORTRAN and BASIC were being used by several institutions, plenty of PC manufacturers entered the microcomputer market with development in IC technology. Among them was Apple, now a competitor of Microsoft (MS). Apple also sold over a million computers that carried MS BASIC. As different machines had different configurations, Micro-soft created an Assembler that offered greater control over programming.
With the ever increasing demand, Microsoft Corporation opened its first international office at Japan in the year 1978. The Japanese office was under collaboration with the ASCII Corporation of Japan that took care of sales while the New Mexico office was primarily used to create and enhance further software.
The company shot high when it released its second operating system, MS DOS. The first was based on UNIX and was called Xenix. However, there were not many takers for the Xenix OS. Later Microsoft disassociated itself with UNIX and came up with MS DOS (Disk Operating System). The name was attributed to the three and half inch floppy disks that could contain the entire operating system. Most PCs carried 16 bit processors by 1980. MS DOS was a command line interface that required only five files to boot and carry out basic file operations on any computer. Besides, the company created several other commands (small applications) for more sophisticated tasks such as UNDELETE to retrieve deleted data. All these commands were an extension to MS DOS.The potential of MS DOS was soon recognized by IBM, one of the leading PC manufacturers who awarded a contract to Microsoft for using MS DOS on all its machines. This bought about a major change in the history of computing as well as the history of Microsoft. In the early 1980s, Microsoft had its own version of home PCs carrying MSX DOS, where MSX was the name of PC developed by MS. Very soon, the operating system captured almost all major computer vendors who started shipping their machines with DOS preloaded on the system.
By the end of 1982, Microsoft was again renamed to Microsoft, Inc, operating from Washington with over 220 employees worldwide. It captured a major chunk of the international market with over fifty PC vendors marketing its products, mainly the MS DOS and several programming languages. As the general public was still considering Microsoft as the BASIC software and operating system designer, Gates had other plans that would revolutionize the way people used computers.
Introducing the GUI and the Dawn of Microsoft Windows
At the end of 1983, Microsoft products were aplenty and in use worldwide on different PCs. These included the GW Basic (extension to MS BASIC for complex programming), C Language, MS Flight Simulator (created for IBM), Pascal (another high level language), and a spreadsheet named Multiplan. The only competitor to Multiplan was Lotus, which gained an upper hand initially but had to give in to the Multiplan owing to the strong presence of Microsoft all over the world.
All the while, Gates was thinking of creating a word processing program that would take over WordPerfect. The year 1983 was a major turning point in the history of Microsoft. The semi-GUI (graphical user interface) based word processing program MS Word for MS DOS 1.0 was released in September. As part of its marketing strategy, Microsoft gave away a demonstration floppy with the September 1983 issue of PC World. The same year, in May, Microsoft came out with the concept of mouse so that users could quickly position their cursors on the screen.
Finally, in the month of November 1983, Microsoft unveiled a graphical user interface based extension to DOS. This software is what we know as MS Windows today. The Windows version 1 not only had a GUI that could easily be used with the available input devices (Remember that Microsoft came out with mouse sooner than Windows) but also offered the capability of multi-tasking. The term multi-tasking refers to the process of switching from one program to another without closing either of them. This was highly appreciated by users across the world and very soon captured a significant portion of the computing industry.
At the same time, Microsoft was also working on MS Works. The bundle of MS Works contained a word processor, a spreadsheet, database, and some other applications related to office jobs. MS Works was originally created for Apple. This was replaced by MS Office in 1989, which contained most of the applications such as MS Word, MS Excel, and other applications.
Meanwhile, MS was also working on OS/2, another operating system for IBM, which too proved to be a success. The partnership continued till 1990—the time when Windows version 3 was being used on more than eighty percent of PCs worldwide. With the end of partnership with IBM on OS/2, several of its features were transferred to Windows and a new release came as Windows 3.1 that continued to impress users across the world. At the turn of 1994, Microsoft had many products that gained much popularity across the world, the major ones being MS Windows 3.1, MS Office, Windows NT, SQL Server; and a knowledgebase apart from Visual Basic for Windows programming!
Until version 3.1, Windows was dependant on DOS meaning people had to boot into DOS for loading Windows. After leaving out OS/2, Microsoft directed most of its resources to MS Windows to make the operating system what it is today.
The following final section deals with the history of Microsoft after Windows 3.1, which made Microsoft the most prominent software company in the world and which led rise to several rivals who once used its products. The rivals list includes Apple that used Applesoft BASIC as well as MS Works.
All the while, Gates was thinking of creating a word processing program that would take over WordPerfect. The year 1983 was a major turning point in the history of Microsoft. The semi-GUI (graphical user interface) based word processing program MS Word for MS DOS 1.0 was released in September. As part of its marketing strategy, Microsoft gave away a demonstration floppy with the September 1983 issue of PC World. The same year, in May, Microsoft came out with the concept of mouse so that users could quickly position their cursors on the screen.
Finally, in the month of November 1983, Microsoft unveiled a graphical user interface based extension to DOS. This software is what we know as MS Windows today. The Windows version 1 not only had a GUI that could easily be used with the available input devices (Remember that Microsoft came out with mouse sooner than Windows) but also offered the capability of multi-tasking. The term multi-tasking refers to the process of switching from one program to another without closing either of them. This was highly appreciated by users across the world and very soon captured a significant portion of the computing industry.At the same time, Microsoft was also working on MS Works. The bundle of MS Works contained a word processor, a spreadsheet, database, and some other applications related to office jobs. MS Works was originally created for Apple. This was replaced by MS Office in 1989, which contained most of the applications such as MS Word, MS Excel, and other applications.
Meanwhile, MS was also working on OS/2, another operating system for IBM, which too proved to be a success. The partnership continued till 1990—the time when Windows version 3 was being used on more than eighty percent of PCs worldwide. With the end of partnership with IBM on OS/2, several of its features were transferred to Windows and a new release came as Windows 3.1 that continued to impress users across the world. At the turn of 1994, Microsoft had many products that gained much popularity across the world, the major ones being MS Windows 3.1, MS Office, Windows NT, SQL Server; and a knowledgebase apart from Visual Basic for Windows programming!
Until version 3.1, Windows was dependant on DOS meaning people had to boot into DOS for loading Windows. After leaving out OS/2, Microsoft directed most of its resources to MS Windows to make the operating system what it is today.
The following final section deals with the history of Microsoft after Windows 3.1, which made Microsoft the most prominent software company in the world and which led rise to several rivals who once used its products. The rivals list includes Apple that used Applesoft BASIC as well as MS Works.
The History of Microsoft: Still in the Making
Microsoft took a giant step when it released its next operating system, Windows 95, which had a unique and easy to operate GUI (especially the Start Menu). Although the look was entirely different from Windows 3, it sold more than four million copies in the initial two days of its release! Taking the micro-computing world by storm, MS continued its efforts to bring out the best by regular upgrading the Windows operating system that saw major changes with Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
Internet Explorer was integrated into the operating system from Windows 95 itself. The browser was actually a product of Spyglass that filed a case against the company saying that it was to receive a royalty for each copy sold. However, Internet Explorer was never sold separately. It was instead part of operating system (OS), and Spyglass lost the claim. Ever since, there have been several lawsuits against Microsoft for creating a monopoly in the computing segment, objecting especially to the browser and Media Player that are bundled with the OS.
The Media Player was taken off the copies sold to Europe and the same is to happen with Internet Explorer when Windows 7 is released later this year.
Windows XP was released in 2001, another major change since Windows 95 and stays even as Microsoft developed Vista and is about to release Windows 7. While Vista did not appeal to users, trends say that XP will still stay for a considerable time before people move on to Windows 7 even though the seventh version is scheduled to be released in October 2009.
The main strategy of Microsoft has been to move a step ahead of technology. This strategy of MS helped it to design Windows Mobile for use with cell phones and Windows CE for handheld computers among software for many other latest innovations. Another strategy of Microsoft is allowing its users to communicate directly with its Public Relations people through its website, which helped MS gain a huge loyal customer base that is bound to stay for a long time.
The history of Microsoft has seen several ups and downs, with many rivals and anti-MS elements rising against it on one side and with many more followers of MS who go for Brand Microsoft just because it is Microsoft. More details on the current product line, knowledgebase, and other updates (news) can be obtained from the Microsoft website, which offers more accessibility than any of its competitors.
Internet Explorer was integrated into the operating system from Windows 95 itself. The browser was actually a product of Spyglass that filed a case against the company saying that it was to receive a royalty for each copy sold. However, Internet Explorer was never sold separately. It was instead part of operating system (OS), and Spyglass lost the claim. Ever since, there have been several lawsuits against Microsoft for creating a monopoly in the computing segment, objecting especially to the browser and Media Player that are bundled with the OS.
The Media Player was taken off the copies sold to Europe and the same is to happen with Internet Explorer when Windows 7 is released later this year.
Windows XP was released in 2001, another major change since Windows 95 and stays even as Microsoft developed Vista and is about to release Windows 7. While Vista did not appeal to users, trends say that XP will still stay for a considerable time before people move on to Windows 7 even though the seventh version is scheduled to be released in October 2009.The main strategy of Microsoft has been to move a step ahead of technology. This strategy of MS helped it to design Windows Mobile for use with cell phones and Windows CE for handheld computers among software for many other latest innovations. Another strategy of Microsoft is allowing its users to communicate directly with its Public Relations people through its website, which helped MS gain a huge loyal customer base that is bound to stay for a long time.
The history of Microsoft has seen several ups and downs, with many rivals and anti-MS elements rising against it on one side and with many more followers of MS who go for Brand Microsoft just because it is Microsoft. More details on the current product line, knowledgebase, and other updates (news) can be obtained from the Microsoft website, which offers more accessibility than any of its competitors.
March 2, 2011
Cybercrime
The internet in India is growing rapidly. It has given rise to new opportunities in every field we can think of – be it entertainment, business, sports or education. There are two sides to a coin. Internet also has its own disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages is Cybercrime – illegal activitiy committed on the internet. The internet, along with its advantages, has also exposed us to security risks that come with connecting to a large network. Computers today are being misused for illegal activities like e-mail espionage, credit card fraud, spams, software piracy and so on, which invade our privacy and offend our senses. Criminal activities in the cyberspace are on the rise. Here we publish an article by Nandini Ramprasad in series for the benefit of our netizens. –Ed.
"The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow's terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb".
– National Research Council, "Computers at Risk", 1991.
What is this Cyber crime? We read about it in newspapers very often. Let's look at the dictionary definition of Cybercrime: "It is a criminal activity committed on the internet. This is a broad term that describes everything from electronic cracking to denial of service attacks that cause electronic commerce sites to lose money".
Mr. Pavan Duggal, who is the President of cyberlaws.net and consultant, in a report has clearly defined the various categories and types of cybercrimes.
Cybercrimes can be basically divided into 3 major categories:
1. Cybercrimes against persons.
2. Cybercrimes against property.
3. Cybercrimes against government.
Cybercrimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography and indecent exposure, constitutes one of the most important Cybercrimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity can hardly be amplified. This is one Cybercrime which threatens to undermine the growth of the younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled.
A minor girl in Ahmedabad was lured to a private place through cyberchat by a man, who, along with his friends, attempted to gangrape her. As some passersby heard her cry, she was rescued.
Another example wherein the damage was not done to a person but to the masses is the case of the Melissa virus. The Melissa virus first appeared on the internet in March of 1999. It spread rapidly throughout computer systems in the United States and Europe. It is estimated that the virus caused 80 million dollars in damages to computers worldwide.
In the United States alone, the virus made its way through 1.2 million computers in one-fifth of the country's largest businesses. David Smith pleaded guilty on Dec. 9, 1999 to state and federal charges associated with his creation of the Melissa virus. There are numerous examples of such computer viruses few of them being "Melissa" and "love bug".
Cyberharassment is a distinct Cybercrime. Various kinds of harassment can and do occur in cyberspace, or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious, or other. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also guilty of cybercrimes.
Cyberharassment as a crime also brings us to another related area of violation of privacy of citizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a Cybercrime of a grave nature. No one likes any other person invading the invaluable and extremely touchy area of his or her own privacy which the medium of internet grants to the citizen.
The second category of Cyber-crimes is that of Cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes include computer vandalism (destruction of others' property), transmission of harmful programmes.
A Mumbai-based upstart engineering company lost a say and much money in the business when the rival company, an industry major, stole the technical database from their computers with the help of a corporate cyberspy.
The third category of Cyber-crimes relate to Cybercrimes against Government. Cyberterrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category. The growth of internet has shown that the medium of Cyberspace is being used by individuals and groups to threaten the international governments as also to terrorise the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself into terrorism when an individual "cracks" into a government or military maintained website.
In a report of expressindia. com, it was said that internet was becoming a boon for the terrorist organisations. According to Mr. A.K. Gupta, Deputy Director (Co-ordination), CBI, terrorist outfits are increasingly using internet to communicate and move funds. "Lashker-e-Toiba is collecting contributions online from its sympathisers all over the world. During the investigation of the Red Fort shootout in Dec. 2000, the accused Ashfaq Ahmed of this terrorist group revealed that the militants are making extensive use of the internet to communicate with the operatives and the sympathisers and also using the medium for intra-bank transfer of funds".
Cracking is amongst the gravest Cyber-crimes known till date. It is a dreadful feeling to know that a stranger has broken into your computer systems without your knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential data and information.
Coupled with this the actuality is that no computer system in the world is cracking proof. It is unanimously agreed that any and every system in the world can be cracked. The recent denial of service attacks seen over the popular commercial sites like E-bay, Yahoo, Amazon and others are a new category of Cyber-crimes which are slowly emerging as being extremely dangerous.
Unauthorised access
Using one's own programming abilities as also various progra-mmes with malicious intent to gain unauthorised access to a computer or network are very serious crimes. Similarly, the creation and dissemination of harmful computer programmes which do irreparable damage to computer systems is another kind of Cybercrime. Software piracy is also another distinct kind of Cybercrime which is perpetuated by many people online who distribute illegal and unauthorised pirated copies of software.
Professionals who involve in these cybercrimes are called crackers and it is found that many of such professionals are still in their teens. A report written near the start of the Information Age warned that America's computers were at risk from crackers. It said that computers that "control (our) power delivery, communications, aviation and financial services (and) store vital information, from medical re-cords to business plans, to criminal records", were vulnerable from many sources, including deliberate attack.
"Script-kiddies"
Crackers do more than just spoiling websites. Novices, who are called "script-kiddies" in their circles, gain "root" access to a computer system, giving them the same power over a system as an administrator – such as the power to modify features. They cause damage by planting viruses.
The Parliament of India passed its first Cyberlaw, the Information Technology Act in 2000. It not only provides the legal infrastructure for E-commerce in India but also at the same time, gives draconian powers to the Police to enter and search, without any warrant, any public place for the purpose of nabbing cybercriminals and preventing cybercrime. Also, the Indian Cyberlaw talks of the arrest of any person who is about to commit a cybercrime.
The Act defines five cyber-crimes – damage to computer source code, hacking, publishing electronic information whi-ch is lascivious or prurient, br-each of confidentiality and pu-blishing false digital signatu-res. The Act also specifies that cybercrimes can only be investigated by an official holding no less a rank than that of Dy. Superintendent of Police (Dy.SP).
The Act simply says "Notwi-thstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, any Police Officer not below the rank of Dy.SP may enter, search and arrest any person without search warrant in any public place who he thinks is committing or about to commit a cybercrime".
It is common that many systems operators do not share information when they are victimis-ed by crackers. They don't contact law enforcement officers when their computer systems are invaded, preferring instead to fix the damage and take action to keep crackers from gaining access again with as little public attention as possible.
According to Sundari Nanda, SP, CBI, "most of the times the victims do not complain, may be because they are aware of the extent of the crime committed against them, or as in the case of business houses, they don't want to confess their system is not secure".
As the research shows, computer crime poses a real threat. Those who believe otherwise simply have not been awakened by the massive losses and setbacks experienced by companies worldwide. Money and intellectual property have been stolen, corporate operations impeded, and jobs lost as a result of computer crime.
Similarly, information systems in government and business alike have been compromised. The economic impact of computer crime is staggering.
Cyberspace
As the cases of cybercrime grows, there is a growing need to prevent them. Cyberspace belongs to everyone. There should be electronic surveillance which means investigators tracking down hackers often want to monitor a cracker as he breaks into a victim's computer system. The two basic laws governing real-time electronic surveillance in other criminal investigations also apply in this context, search warrants which means that search warrants may be obtained to gain access to the premises where the cracker is believed to have evidence of the crime. Such evidence would include the computer used to commit the crime, as well as the software used to gain unauthorised access and other evidence of the crime.
There should also be analysing evidence from a cracker's computer by the officials investigating the crime. A seized computer may be examined by a forensic computer examiner to determine what evidence of the crime exists on the computer.
Researchers must explore the problems in greater detail to learn the origins, methods, and motivations of this growing criminal group. Decision-makers in business, government, and law enforcement must react to this emerging body of knowledge. They must develop policies, methods, and regulations to detect incursions, investigate and prosecute the perpetrators, and prevent future crimes. In addition, Police Departments should immediately take steps to protect their own information systems from intrusions.
Internet provides anonymity: This is one of the reasons why criminals try to get away easily when caught and also give them a chance to commit the crime again. Therefore, we users should be careful. We should not disclose any personal information on the internet or use credit cards and if we find anything suspicious in e-mails or if the system is hacked, it should be immediately reported to the Police officials who investigate cyber-crimes rather than trying to fix the problem by ourselves.
Computer crime is a multi-billion dollar problem. Law enforcement must seek ways to keep the drawbacks from overshadowing the great promise of the computer age. Cybercrime is a menace that has to be tackled effectively not only by the official but also by the users by co-operating with the law. The founding fathers of internet wanted it to be a boon to the whole world and it is upon us to keep this tool of modernisation as a boon and not make it a bane to the society.
"The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow's terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb".
– National Research Council, "Computers at Risk", 1991.
What is this Cyber crime? We read about it in newspapers very often. Let's look at the dictionary definition of Cybercrime: "It is a criminal activity committed on the internet. This is a broad term that describes everything from electronic cracking to denial of service attacks that cause electronic commerce sites to lose money".
Mr. Pavan Duggal, who is the President of cyberlaws.net and consultant, in a report has clearly defined the various categories and types of cybercrimes.
Cybercrimes can be basically divided into 3 major categories:
1. Cybercrimes against persons.
2. Cybercrimes against property.
3. Cybercrimes against government.
Cybercrimes committed against persons include various crimes like transmission of child-pornography, harassment of any one with the use of a computer such as e-mail. The trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including pornography and indecent exposure, constitutes one of the most important Cybercrimes known today. The potential harm of such a crime to humanity can hardly be amplified. This is one Cybercrime which threatens to undermine the growth of the younger generation as also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation, if not controlled.
A minor girl in Ahmedabad was lured to a private place through cyberchat by a man, who, along with his friends, attempted to gangrape her. As some passersby heard her cry, she was rescued.
Another example wherein the damage was not done to a person but to the masses is the case of the Melissa virus. The Melissa virus first appeared on the internet in March of 1999. It spread rapidly throughout computer systems in the United States and Europe. It is estimated that the virus caused 80 million dollars in damages to computers worldwide.
In the United States alone, the virus made its way through 1.2 million computers in one-fifth of the country's largest businesses. David Smith pleaded guilty on Dec. 9, 1999 to state and federal charges associated with his creation of the Melissa virus. There are numerous examples of such computer viruses few of them being "Melissa" and "love bug".
Cyberharassment is a distinct Cybercrime. Various kinds of harassment can and do occur in cyberspace, or through the use of cyberspace. Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious, or other. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also guilty of cybercrimes.
Cyberharassment as a crime also brings us to another related area of violation of privacy of citizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a Cybercrime of a grave nature. No one likes any other person invading the invaluable and extremely touchy area of his or her own privacy which the medium of internet grants to the citizen.
The second category of Cyber-crimes is that of Cybercrimes against all forms of property. These crimes include computer vandalism (destruction of others' property), transmission of harmful programmes.
A Mumbai-based upstart engineering company lost a say and much money in the business when the rival company, an industry major, stole the technical database from their computers with the help of a corporate cyberspy.
The third category of Cyber-crimes relate to Cybercrimes against Government. Cyberterrorism is one distinct kind of crime in this category. The growth of internet has shown that the medium of Cyberspace is being used by individuals and groups to threaten the international governments as also to terrorise the citizens of a country. This crime manifests itself into terrorism when an individual "cracks" into a government or military maintained website.
In a report of expressindia. com, it was said that internet was becoming a boon for the terrorist organisations. According to Mr. A.K. Gupta, Deputy Director (Co-ordination), CBI, terrorist outfits are increasingly using internet to communicate and move funds. "Lashker-e-Toiba is collecting contributions online from its sympathisers all over the world. During the investigation of the Red Fort shootout in Dec. 2000, the accused Ashfaq Ahmed of this terrorist group revealed that the militants are making extensive use of the internet to communicate with the operatives and the sympathisers and also using the medium for intra-bank transfer of funds".
Cracking is amongst the gravest Cyber-crimes known till date. It is a dreadful feeling to know that a stranger has broken into your computer systems without your knowledge and consent and has tampered with precious confidential data and information.
Coupled with this the actuality is that no computer system in the world is cracking proof. It is unanimously agreed that any and every system in the world can be cracked. The recent denial of service attacks seen over the popular commercial sites like E-bay, Yahoo, Amazon and others are a new category of Cyber-crimes which are slowly emerging as being extremely dangerous.
Unauthorised access
Using one's own programming abilities as also various progra-mmes with malicious intent to gain unauthorised access to a computer or network are very serious crimes. Similarly, the creation and dissemination of harmful computer programmes which do irreparable damage to computer systems is another kind of Cybercrime. Software piracy is also another distinct kind of Cybercrime which is perpetuated by many people online who distribute illegal and unauthorised pirated copies of software.
Professionals who involve in these cybercrimes are called crackers and it is found that many of such professionals are still in their teens. A report written near the start of the Information Age warned that America's computers were at risk from crackers. It said that computers that "control (our) power delivery, communications, aviation and financial services (and) store vital information, from medical re-cords to business plans, to criminal records", were vulnerable from many sources, including deliberate attack.
"Script-kiddies"
Crackers do more than just spoiling websites. Novices, who are called "script-kiddies" in their circles, gain "root" access to a computer system, giving them the same power over a system as an administrator – such as the power to modify features. They cause damage by planting viruses.
The Parliament of India passed its first Cyberlaw, the Information Technology Act in 2000. It not only provides the legal infrastructure for E-commerce in India but also at the same time, gives draconian powers to the Police to enter and search, without any warrant, any public place for the purpose of nabbing cybercriminals and preventing cybercrime. Also, the Indian Cyberlaw talks of the arrest of any person who is about to commit a cybercrime.
The Act defines five cyber-crimes – damage to computer source code, hacking, publishing electronic information whi-ch is lascivious or prurient, br-each of confidentiality and pu-blishing false digital signatu-res. The Act also specifies that cybercrimes can only be investigated by an official holding no less a rank than that of Dy. Superintendent of Police (Dy.SP).
The Act simply says "Notwi-thstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, any Police Officer not below the rank of Dy.SP may enter, search and arrest any person without search warrant in any public place who he thinks is committing or about to commit a cybercrime".
It is common that many systems operators do not share information when they are victimis-ed by crackers. They don't contact law enforcement officers when their computer systems are invaded, preferring instead to fix the damage and take action to keep crackers from gaining access again with as little public attention as possible.
According to Sundari Nanda, SP, CBI, "most of the times the victims do not complain, may be because they are aware of the extent of the crime committed against them, or as in the case of business houses, they don't want to confess their system is not secure".
As the research shows, computer crime poses a real threat. Those who believe otherwise simply have not been awakened by the massive losses and setbacks experienced by companies worldwide. Money and intellectual property have been stolen, corporate operations impeded, and jobs lost as a result of computer crime.
Similarly, information systems in government and business alike have been compromised. The economic impact of computer crime is staggering.
Cyberspace
As the cases of cybercrime grows, there is a growing need to prevent them. Cyberspace belongs to everyone. There should be electronic surveillance which means investigators tracking down hackers often want to monitor a cracker as he breaks into a victim's computer system. The two basic laws governing real-time electronic surveillance in other criminal investigations also apply in this context, search warrants which means that search warrants may be obtained to gain access to the premises where the cracker is believed to have evidence of the crime. Such evidence would include the computer used to commit the crime, as well as the software used to gain unauthorised access and other evidence of the crime.
There should also be analysing evidence from a cracker's computer by the officials investigating the crime. A seized computer may be examined by a forensic computer examiner to determine what evidence of the crime exists on the computer.
Researchers must explore the problems in greater detail to learn the origins, methods, and motivations of this growing criminal group. Decision-makers in business, government, and law enforcement must react to this emerging body of knowledge. They must develop policies, methods, and regulations to detect incursions, investigate and prosecute the perpetrators, and prevent future crimes. In addition, Police Departments should immediately take steps to protect their own information systems from intrusions.
Internet provides anonymity: This is one of the reasons why criminals try to get away easily when caught and also give them a chance to commit the crime again. Therefore, we users should be careful. We should not disclose any personal information on the internet or use credit cards and if we find anything suspicious in e-mails or if the system is hacked, it should be immediately reported to the Police officials who investigate cyber-crimes rather than trying to fix the problem by ourselves.
Computer crime is a multi-billion dollar problem. Law enforcement must seek ways to keep the drawbacks from overshadowing the great promise of the computer age. Cybercrime is a menace that has to be tackled effectively not only by the official but also by the users by co-operating with the law. The founding fathers of internet wanted it to be a boon to the whole world and it is upon us to keep this tool of modernisation as a boon and not make it a bane to the society.
March 1, 2011
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