New technologies create new criminal opportunities but few new types of crime.
“As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 44,679, 49,455 and 50,362 cyber security incidents were observed during the year 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively,”. (Source: Minister of State for Electronics and IT P P Chaudhary said in a written reply to Lok Sabha)
Cyber crime also called computer crime, the use of a computer as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child pornography and intellectual property, stealing identities, or violating privacy. Cybercrime, especially through the Internet, has grown in importance as the computer has become central to commerce, entertainment, and government.
Most cybercrime is an attack on information about individuals, corporations, or governments. Although the attacks do not take place on a physical body, they do take place on the personal or corporate virtual body, which is the set of informational attributes that define people and institutions on the Internet. In other words, in the digital age our virtual identities are essential elements of everyday life: we are a bundle of numbers and identifiers in multiple computer databases owned by governments and corporations. Cybercrime highlights the centrality of networked computers in our lives, as well as the fragility of such seemingly solid facts as individual identity.
The Minister said a total number of 28,481 websites were hacked in 2013, 32,323 (2014), 27,205 (2015) and 33,147 (2016).
“It has been observed attacks are launched through compromised computer systems located in different parts of the world. Masquerading techniques and hidden servers are also used to hide the identity of the actual systems being used by malicious actors”.
In order to protect your privacy to being hacked it is necessary to ensure secure and efficient operation of information systems, an organization institutes a set of procedures and technological measures called controls. Information systems are safeguarded through a combination of general and application controls.