CYBER STALKING : THE ONLINE HARRASMENT Cyber stalking can be defined as the repeated acts of harassment or threatening behavior of the cyber criminal towards the victim by using internet services.
Since cyber stalking is largely misunderstood, many incorrectly assume that cyber stalking involves an element of sexual obsession; however, the research findings are not as conclusive in that regard (Mustaine & Tewksbury 1999). Mustaine and Tewksbury (1999) propose that stalking is a criminal offense motivated by interpersonal hostility and aggressive behaviors stemming from power and control issues rather than material gain or sexual obsession. (http://www.cybercrimejournal.com/pittaroijccvol1is2.htm) It is true that both men and women can be stalked on line but the majority of victims are female. Women are minority of internet population ,and as a result there is a fierce competition between male users for their attention. (dudeja V.D : crimes in cyberspace –scams and frauds (scams and remedies ) commonwealth publishers , new delhi ,2003 ) Though cyber stalking doesn’t involve any physical act , yet, stalking through the internet has found favour among the offenders for certain advantages available like, ease of communication and, access to persona information and anonymity. (S.K. Verma, Raman Mittal, legal dimensions of cyber space, Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.) The Cyberbullying Research Center also did a series of surveys that found these cyber bullying statistics:
Over 80 percent of teens use a cell phone regularly, making it the most popular form of technology and a common medium for cyber bullying About half of young people have experienced some form of cyber bullying, and 10 to 20 percent experience it regularly Mean, hurtful comments and spreading rumors are the most common type of cyber bullying Girls are at least as likely as boys to be cyber bullies or their victims Boys are more likely to be threatened by cyber bullies than girls Cyber bullying affects all races Cyber bullying victims are more likely to have low self esteem and to consider suicide
(http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html) According to a research conducted by WHO in 2013 60% of victims were female and 40% were male, a huge difference from 2012 when 80% of the victims were female and 20% were male. This gives us a view about the changing trend in cyber stalking .We also have seen a decrease in male harassers— only 40% in 2013 over 49% in 2012—and an increase in harassers whose gender was unknown, which in 2012 was 20%, but last year increased to 30%.” Another important statistics which has came up through this survey is Over half had a previous relationship with their harasser. Of those: 47% were exes 15% were online acquaintances 15% were work-related 14% were family members 8% were friends/former friends 1% were neighbors
HISTORY The first recorded cyber crime took place in the year 1820. That is not surprising considering the fact that the abacus, which is thought to be the earliest form of a computer, has been around since 3500 B.C. in India, Japan and China. The era of modern computers, however, began with the analytical engine of Charles Babbage. In 1820, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile manufacturer in France, produced the loom. This device allowed the repetition of a series of steps in the weaving of special fabrics. This resulted in a fear amongst Jacquard's employees that their traditional employment and livelihood were being threatened. They committed acts of sabotage to discourage Jacquard from further use of the new technology. This is the first recorded cyber crime. (prof. chaubey , R.K. ,”an introduction to cyber crime and cyber law” ,kamal law house 2012) Interpol was the first international organization dealing with computer crimes and penal legislation. In conjugation with an Interpol Conference in 1981, a survey of Interpol member countries on computer crime and penal legislation identified several problems in the application of existing penal legislation. (http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime)
The early computers like Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), Binary Automatic Computer (BINAC), Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC), and other punch card tabulation machines had some inherent security advantages. Around 1960s Commercial computers like Programmed Data Processor (PDP-1) got introduced with a business model of renting out the machine to companies and individuals on a time sharing basis.[8] This made the data and programs stored in it vulnerable, and thus the first doors to hacking were opened. The first hackers’ group came from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in 1961, shortly after MIT got its first PDP-1 [8] In the 1970s the first affordable PC Altair 8800 was introduced which was soon followed with a thirst for full-fledged hacking by some individuals. Simultaneously the emergence of other computers like the Radio Shack’s TRS-80 and the IBM PC brought more powerful computing to people who were eager to find new ways to exploit the system’s capabilities [8]. But these standalone systems limited the potential of damage that could be done once the machine was compromised. It was only with the introduction of networking concepts that the floodgates of hacking were opened. The early networking model consisted of a powerful mainframe to which many terminals are connected to allow users to share files and run programs. This allowed hackers to access files of other mainframe users and exploit them. Today’s networking technology has improved tremendously, and gone beyond the mainframe model with new concepts such as peer to peer communication. Standards like Ethernet enabled vendors to create compatible products that link computers easily and inexpensively. Interoperability is a key consideration from any business perspective to foster a healthy ecosystem and improve economic growth. Unfortunately, these open standards also made it easier for the hackers to break into systems by reverse engineering the widely available protocols. As computers became cheaper and started getting mainstream efforts were made for seamless interaction between them. ARPANet was one such effort and during its design, security was not a big issue to research scientists as they thought that the small number of nodes on the network limited the scope of the threat posed by security breaches. However, in 1988, Robert T. Morris, a graduate student at Cornell University launched a self-replicating worm on the government's ARPANet to test its effect on UNIX systems. The worm spread all across the United States, infected thousands of networked computers, clogged government and university systems and brought the Internet to a standstill. This was the wakeup call to Internet users who realized that some amidst them harbored malicious intent. In early1990s, as Internet access became commercially available at an affordable price, the number of attacks also increased and cyber-crime was now crossing international boundaries.
With the launch of rich browsers like Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, during the mid 90s accessing the information on the Web became easy. Hackers now started moving their “how to” information and hacking programs from BBSs to new hacker Web sites. As information and easy-to-use tools become widely available to anyone with Net access, the number of attacks also increased drastically. Conclusion As every coin has two faces, similar is the concept with cyber development. On one hand it provides us the various fields of benefit like nowadays being in touch with the remaining world is just a click away but it risks the various threats with come with it. Like while using social networking sites being in touch is the main objective but at the price of personal identity and this personal information is sometimes used by a specific group of people with any evil intentions known as cyber criminals. Further with the use of this information, sometimes the individuals are
denied of some services, like now-a-days the companies which are interested in hiring the students for their company go through the facebook profile of that individual which at times results in the denial of the job considering only his profile. There are cases where individuals are denied of giving loans by banks based on their profiles of social networking nd totally disregarding his capability to re-pay the loan. However this is just one aspect: loss of identity, several other threats are becoming very common like cyber stalking, financial threats, child pornography, and even the crimes at international level. A person sitting in Nepal can do a huge disaster at USA and that too just by sending some signals using the internet. So on one hand the advancement of technology is very important but with the same rate there is a need of some technology/ technique to tackle the problems which are arising out of this advancement.
