A GROWING FEAR "Cyber Bullying"

Cyber-bullying has been defined as "when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person". 

Cyber-bullying can be as simple as continuing to send e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender, but it may also include threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech), ganging up on victims by making them the subject of ridicule in forums, and posting false statements as fact aimed at humiliation.

Cyber-bullies may disclose victims' personal data (e.g. real name, address, or workplace/schools) at websites or forums or may pose as the identity of a victim for the purpose of publishing material in their name that defames or ridicules them. Some cyber-bullies may also send threatening and harassing emails and instant messages to the victims, while other post rumors or gossip and instigate others to dislike and gang up on the target.

According to research, boys initiate mean online activity earlier than girls do. However, by middle school, girls are more likely to engage in cyber-bullying than boys do.  Whether the bully is male or female, their purpose is to intentionally embarrass others, harass, intimidate, or make threats online to one another. This bullying occurs via email, text messaging, posts to blogs, and Web sites.

Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyber-bullying, it is not the same as sexual harassment and does not necessarily involve sexual predators.

In September 2006, ABC News reported on a survey prepared by I-Safe.org.  This survey of 1,500 students between grades 4-8 reported:

-  42% of kids have been bullied while online. One in four has had it happen more than once.

-  35% of kids have been threatened online. Nearly one in five had had it happen more than once.

-  21% of kids have received mean or threatening e-mails or other messages.

-  58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than four out of ten say it has happened more than once.

-  58% have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online.

A 2006 survey by Harris Interactive reported:

-  43% of U.S. teens having experienced some form of cyber-bullying in the past year.

Similarly, a Canadian study found:

-  23% of middle-schoolers surveyed had been bullied by e-mail

-  35% in chat rooms

-  41% by text messages on their cell phones

-  Fully 41% did not know the identity of the perpetrators.

Source: www.wikipedia.com

Types of Cyber Crime

Cyber-Crime ('computer crime') is any illegal behavior directed by means of electronic operations that targets the security of computer systems and the data processed by them. In a wider sense, 'computer - related crime' can be any illegal ehavior committed by means of, or in relation to, a computer system or network; however, this is not cyber-crime.

The United Nations has categorized five offenses as cyber-crime: unauthorized access, damage to computer data or programs, sabotage to hinder the functioning of a computer system or network, unauthorized interception of data to, from and within a system or network, and computer espionage.

The categories of cyber-crime are:

Financial - crimes which disrupt businesses' ability to conduct 'e-commerce' (or electronic commerce).

Public confidence in the security of information processed and stored on computer networks and a predictable environment of strong deterrence for computer crime is critical to the development of e-commerce, or commercial transactions online. Companies' ability to participate in e-commerce depends heavily on their ability to minimize e-risk.

Risks in the world of electronic transactions online include viruses, cyber attacks (or distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks) such as those which were able to bring Yahoo, eBay and other websites to a halt in February 2000, and e-forgery.

There also have been other highly publicized problems of 'e-fraud' and theft of proprietary information and in some cases even for ransom ('e-extortion').

Piracy - the act of copying copyrighted material. The personal computer and the Internet both offer new mediums for committing an 'old' crime. Online theft is defined as any type of 'piracy' that involves the use of the Internet to market or distribute creative works protected by copyright. 

Hacking - the act of gaining unauthorized access to a computer system or network and in some cases making unauthorized use of this access. Hacking is also the act by which other forms of cyber-crime (e.g., fraud, terrorism, etc.) are committed.

Cyber-terrorism - the effect of acts of hacking designed to cause terror. Like conventional terrorism, `e-terrorism' is classified as such if the result of hacking is to cause violence against persons or property, or at least cause enough harm to generate fear.

Online Pornography - There are laws against possessing or distributing child pornography. Distributing pornography of any form to a minor is illegal. The Internet is merely a new medium for this `old' crime, but how best to regulate this global medium of communication across international boundaries and age groups has sparked a great deal of controversy and debate.

In Schools - While the Internet can be a unique educational and recreational resource for students, it is important that they are educated about how to safely and responsibly use this powerful tool. The founding goal of B4USurf is to encourage empowering the young through knowledge of the law, their rights, and how best to prevent misuse of the Internet. 

Source:

http://www.b4usurf.org/index.php?page=types-of-cybercrime

LEAD DEFENDANT IN INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER HACKING RING SENTENCED IN TWO CASES TO 13 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON

 Los Angeles Man also Sentenced for Marijuana Grow Seen on YouTube

LOS ANGELES – Federal judges in two cases have imposed sentences totaling 13 years in prison against a Los Angeles man who was the leader of the domestic arm of an international “phishing” operation that used spam emails and bogus websites to collect personal information that was used to defraud American banks.

Kenneth Joseph Lucas, II, 27, was sentenced the second case, which involved an indoor marijuana grow at his residence in the Baldwin Hills district of Los Angeles.

In relation to the narcotics case, United States District Judge Gary A. Feess sentenced Lucas this afternoon to five years in prison – with two years of that sentence to run consecutively to an 11-year sentence imposed last week in the phishing case.

Judge Feess observed that Lucas’ conduct spanning both cases was “astonishing” and that Lucas caused “great harm to many people.”

In the case stemming from the phishing scheme, United States District Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank sentenced Lucas on Friday to 11 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to 49 counts of bank and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, computer fraud, and money laundering conspiracy charges.

During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Fairbank said that Lucas’ role in the phishing scheme was “deliberate and ongoing,” and that his actions showed an “extreme disregard for the law and the community.” Lucas was a “key and active player in the bank fraud” that extended from Southern California to Nevada, North Carolina, Maryland, and overseas in Egypt, Judge Fairbank said.

In total, Lucas has been sentenced to 156 months in federal prison.

Lucas was the lead defendant in a 53-defendant indictment returned in the fall of 2009 as part of Operation “Phish Phry,” a multinational investigation conducted in the United States and Egypt that led to charges against 100 individuals – the largest number of defendants ever charged in a cybercrime case. As a result of Operation Phish Phry, 47 people have been convicted in federal court in Los Angeles.

Operation Phish Phry revealed how Egyptian hackers obtained bank account numbers and related personal identification information from an unknown number of bank customers through phishing – a technique that involves sending e-mail messages that appear to be official correspondence from banks or credit card vendors. Bank customers who received the spam emails were directed to fake websites purporting to be linked to financial institutions, where the customers were asked to enter their account numbers, passwords and other personal identification information. Because the websites appeared to be legitimate – complete with bank logos and legal disclaimers –

the victims did not realize that the websites were not related to legitimate financial institutions. Armed with the bank account information, members of the conspiracy hacked into accounts at two banks. Once they accessed the accounts, the individuals in Egypt coordinated transfers of funds from the compromised accounts to newly created fraudulent accounts and other accounts used as part of the scheme.

The United States part of the ring was directed by Lucas and two others, who directed associates to recruit runners to set up and use bank accounts where stolen funds could be held. A portion of the illegally obtained funds were transferred via wire services to the Egyptian co-conspirators. Judge Fairbank determined the total amount of intended loss was more than $1 million.

In the narcotics case, Lucas oversaw the construction of an indoor marijuana grow operation at his residence in 2009. After installing an irrigation system, ventilation equipment, indoor lights and fans, Lucas posted videos on YouTube that showcased the grow operation. On October 7, 2009, authorities found 100 marijuana plants in the grow room, and Lucas admitted to having grown and sold a prior crop, which netted him $45,000.

source: www.cybercrime.gov

Child Abuse & Internet Crime

FINAL DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR PARTICIPATING IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY DISTRIBUTION RING

LOS ANGELES – The fifth defendant charged in relation to an Internet-based child pornography trafficking ring that specialized in images depicting the sexual abuse of young girls was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison.

Kevin Kaller Wright, 44, of Santa Monica, received the 84-month sentence from United States District Judge Margaret M. Morrow.

Wright and four other people pleaded guilty over the past year to being members of the Quest4More Internet bulletin board, whose members “advocated the sexual torture of children,” according to court documents. Quest4More, which was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), was a secret bulletin board that allowed members to post and view pictures and videos, which often depicted very young children, sometimes being tortured or in bondage.

The defendants previously sentenced in this case are:

• Michael Pharis, 51, of Las Vegas, Nevada, who was sentenced in December to 15 years in prison; 
• Daniel Murphy, 53, of Millville, New Jersey, who was sentenced in March to 151 months in prison;
• Paul Challender, 54 of Big Rapids, Michigan, who was sentenced in March to 151 months in prison; and
• William Ho, 39, of Hacienda Heights, California, who was sentenced in March to 135 months in prison. 

All five men charged in this case pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport, receive, distribute and possess child pornography. They all admitted being part of the Quest4More bulletin board, which was used to distribute illegal images and videos depicting prepubescent children, including toddlers being subjected to various sexual and sadistic acts. The group also posted links to other sites that had images of child sexual abuse. Law enforcement was alerted to the group following the arrest of one of its members in 2008.

Each defendant made hundreds of posts to the bulletin board. Wright, for example, was one of the more prolific users of the bulletin board, making more than 400 posts, although he did not post any pictures to the site.

Wright was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release and the four other defendants were sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release following their prison terms.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. wide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May

2006 by the Department of Justice.

source: www.cybercrime.gov

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DISRUPTS INTERNATIONAL CYBERCRIME RINGS DISTRIBUTING SCAREWARE "Very Important"

JUNE 22, 2011 WASHINGTON –

Today the Department of Justice and the FBI, along with international law enforcement partners, announced the indictment of two individuals from Latvia and the seizure of more than 40 computers, servers and bank accounts as part of Operation Trident Tribunal, an ongoing, coordinated enforcement action targeting international cybercrime. The operation targeted international cybercrime rings that caused more than $74 million in total losses to more than one million computer users through the sale of fraudulent computer security software known as “scareware.”

Scareware is malicious software that poses as legitimate computer security software and purports to detect a variety of threats on the affected computer that do not actually exist. Users are then informed they must purchase what they are told is anti-virus software in order to repair their computers. The users are then barraged with aggressive and disruptive notifications until

they supply their credit card number and pay for the “anti-virus” product, which is, in fact, fake.

Warrants obtained from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and elsewhere throughout the United States led to the seizure of 22 computers and servers in the United States that were involved in facilitating and operating a scareware scheme. In addition, 25 computers and servers located abroad were taken down as part of the operation, including equipment in the Netherlands, Latvia, Germany, France, Lithuania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The first of the international criminal groups disrupted by Operation Trident Tribunal infected hundreds of thousands of computers with scareware and sold more than $72 million worth of the fake antivirus product over a three-year period. The scareware scheme used a variety of ruses to trick consumers into unknowingly infecting their computers with the malicious scareware products, including web pages featuring fake computer scans. Once the

scareware was downloaded, victims were notified that their computers were infected with a range of malicious software, such as viruses and Trojans and badgered into purchasing the fake

antivirus software to resolve the non-existent problem at a cost of up to $129. An estimated  960,000 users were victimized by this scareware scheme, leading to $72 million in actual losses.

Latvian authorities also executed seizure warrants for at least five bank accounts that were alleged to have been used to funnel profits to the scam’s leadership.

A second international crime ring disrupted by Operation Trident Tribunal relied on online advertising to spread its scareware products, a tactic known as “malvertising.” An indictment unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis charges the two  perators of this scareware scheme with two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of computer fraud. The defendants, Peteris Sahurovs, 22, and Marina Maslobojeva, 23, were arrested yesterday in Rezekne, Latvia, on the charges filed in the District of Minnesota. According to the indictment, the defendants created a phony advertising agency

and claimed that they represented a hotel chain that wanted to purchase online advertising space on the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s news website, startribune.com. The defendants provided an electronic version of the advertisement for the hotel chain to the Star Tribune, and technical staff

at startribune.com tested the advertising and found it to operate normally.

According to court documents, after the advertisement began running on the website, the defendants changed the computer code in the ad so that the computers of visitors to startribune.com were infected with a malicious software program that launched scareware on their systems. The scareware caused users’ computers to “freeze up” and then generate a series of pop-up warnings in an attempt to trick users into purchasing purported “antivirus” software,

which was, in fact, fake. Users’ computers “unfroze” if the users paid the defendants for the fake antivirus software, but the malicious software remained hidden on their computers. Users who

failed to purchase the fake antivirus software found that all information, data and files stored on the computer became inaccessible. The scam allegedly led to at least $2 million in losses. If convicted, the defendants face penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 on the wire fraud and conspiracy charges, and up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 on the computer fraud charge. The defendants also face restitution and forfeiture of their illegal profits. An indictment is merely a charge and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

To avoid falling victim to a scareware scheme, computer users should avoid purchasing computer security products that use unsolicited “free computer scans” to sell their products. It is

also important for users to protect their computers by maintaining an updated operating system and using legitimate, up-to-date antivirus software, which can detect and remove fraudulent scareware products.

Additional tips on how to spot a scareware scam include:

- Scareware advertising is difficult to dismiss. Scareware purveyors employ aggressive techniques and badger users with pop-up messages into purchasing their products. These fake alerts are often difficult to close and quickly reappear.

- Fake anti-virus products are designed to appear legitimate, and can use names such as Virus Shield, Antivirus or VirusRemover. Only install software from trusted sources that you seek out. Internet service providers often make name-brand anti-virus products available to their customers for free.

- Become familiar with the brand, look and functionality of the legitimate anti-virus software that is installed on your computer. This will assist you in identifying scareware.

source: www.cybercrime.gov

Identity Theft

All over the world, Identity theft is a fast growing crime. Statistics say that it is one of the fastest growing crimes in America primarily because of their reliance on credit card numbers and Social Security Numbers to make transactions. Because of this, people can take these for granted and make your life a living hell. If numbers are the Devil's language, than an identity thief is the devil himself.

Anyone who relies heavily on credit cards, Social Security Numbers or network blogging is more susceptible to credit identity theft. Many of our modern conveniences also come with a risk and less protection. The digital age is the perfect age for the Cyber criminal to commit it. Think of the internet as a dark alley in the middle of the night. And these cyber criminals are those people hiding there waiting for you to make a mistake.

Credit identity theft is a very damaging crime because it not only damages the person financially but also damages the person's reputation as well. Imagine someone borrowing money using your name and never telling you. You will both bear with the burden of paying back the money he borrowed and suffer the humiliation of having this blunder under your name.

Now that we know that identity theft is a serious threat, what do we do to take care of it? First of all be weary of who you are going to send out your personal information to. People who perform credit identity theft can be ruthless. For one, they have no care for any of their victims and would bury them in debt if the chance comes. Secondly, it is a crime that relies on ambiguity. A person performing credit identity theft usually never met their victim personally and thus would least likely feel guilty stealing his identity.

We have to always keep a look out for telltale signs of possible phishers in the internet. Such as strange emails saying you won a prize especially if you never joined anything. Many emails such as this should be dismissed if they ask you for too much information such as your social security number. A legitimate prize does not ask for your Social Security Number as a proof of your identity.

Links that point to strange URLs are also possible phishing sites. Make sure that the URLs have an HTTP at the beginning to assure that you won't be a victim.

On the off chance that you become a victim of identity theft, stay calm and try and make an identity theft check. Make a trace of all transactions you made within this past two weeks and look for something suspicious such as transactions you never did. If you find any, close all these accounts immediately and double check if other existing accounts have been created in your name.

It is important to close all accounts as soon as you learn that you are a victim so that you can begin to repair the damage that has already been made before it gets any worse. Making a regular identity theft check on your accounts will help ward off phishers from accessing any personal information about you. It may not be possible to completely stop identity theft, but if you can't stop them, at least give them a harder time trying to get it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3119132

BELARUSIAN NATIONAL IS SENTENCED TO 41 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR PARTICIPATING IN INTERNATIONAL ONLINE SCHEME TO STEAL U.S. TAX REFUNDS

WASHINGTON – A Belarusian national and resident of Nantucket, Mass., was sentenced today in federal court to 41 months in prison for his participation in an international online scheme to steal income tax refunds from U.S. taxpayers around the U.S.

Mikalai Mardakhayeu, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. in the District of Massachusetts. Mardakhayeu pleaded guilty in January 2011 to one count of conspiracy and nine counts of wire fraud. Judge O’Toole also sentenced Mardakhayeu to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $209,000 in restitution.

According to court documents and information presented at the change of plea hearing, from 2006 through 2007, Mardakhayeu’s co-conspirators lured victims by operating websites that falsely claimed to be authorized by the IRS to offer lower-income taxpayers free online tax return preparation and electronic tax return filing (e-filing). After taxpayers input and uploaded their tax information, co-conspirators in Belarus collected the data and altered the returns to increase the refund amounts and to direct the refunds to U.S. bank accounts controlled by Mardakhayeu. They then caused the fraudulently altered returns to be e-filed with the IRS. The conspirators ultimately caused the U.S. Treasury and various state treasury departments to deposit more than $200,000 in stolen refunds into bank accounts controlled by Mardakhayeu.


Source: www.cybercrime.gov