Daily Times

EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF CYBER CRIME:

The emotional impact of cyber crime shows that victims’ strongest reactions are feeling angry, annoyed, dejected and cheated, and in many cases, they blame themselves for being attacked. Only few people don’t think it will happen to them, and majority d not expect cyber criminals to be brought to justice resulting in an ironic reluctance to take action and a sense of helplessness. Despite emotional burden, the universal threat and incidents of cyber crime, few people dare to report such crimes to FIA. In such state of affairs, Cyber crime is becoming a business opportunity open to everybody driven by profit and personal gain.

PROBLEMS IN CYBER CRIME INVESTIGATION

There are many challenges to overcome cyber-crimes successfully. To prevent such crimes education and public awareness is necessary. Due to lack of awareness of existing cybercrimes in Pakistani society, the general public is facing many problems. Even the law enforcement agencies are unaware of these crimes due to complex nature of these crimes. Therefore, the proper understanding of such crimes is necessary to control them. Without knowing them, we cannot make adequate laws to punish the criminals. New tools for enforcing gambling laws on the Internet are necessary and to enact law to prohibit wire transfers to Internet gambling sites or the banks which represent such sites. Besides, online consumer protection legislation should be introduced to protect the online consumer and online business industry. Moreover, goods are not provided as per standard or not delivered, consumer protection is also mandatory. Illegal purchase and sale of goods on the internet shall also be prohibited. The telecommunication is directly involved for providing services to the internet user, data is transmission is very fast. There is a dire need to get the information as early as possible for the investigation purposes. However, if the telecommunication industry is not providing latest data and detail of it, then it will make very difficult for law enforcement agencies especially FIA to investigate the crimes expeditiously. The problem is that many investigators have neither requisite expertise nor the required experience to deal with investigation, evidence collection, evidence preservation and presentation to the court. Therefore, the offender cannot be punished properly. Technology is constantly evolving, investigating electronic crimes will always be difficult because of the ease of altering the data and the fact that transactions may be done anonymously. Due to alteration of data, the investigation of cybercrimes is very complicated as compare to manual crimes. However, by adopting latest techniques the complexity of the digital crime can be reduced.

Cyber space offers a plethora of opportunities for cyber criminals either to cause harm to innocent people, or to make money at the cost of unsuspecting citizens

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Cyber crime is indeed getting the recognition it deserves. Cyber criminals always try to develop and upgrade themselves by staying ahead of the law. Cyber space offers a plethora of opportunities for cyber criminals either to cause harm to innocent people, or to make money at the cost of unsuspecting citizens. We know that forensic evidence is important in normal criminal investigations. But collection and presentation of electronic evidence to prove cyber crimes have posed a challenge to investigation and prosecution agencies and the judiciary. We need a good combination of traditional investigation techniques, modern cyber laws and technology in harmony with the laws of other countries developing common security standards. In the era of e-governance and e-commerce, a lack of common security standards can create havoc for global trade as well as military matters.

* As a society we need to take necessary steps to not only to enact legislation covering every aspect of cyber crime but also evolving ways and means to keep amending the laws at par with the changing nature of such high tech crimes.

* We should change our traditional laws especially the Pakistan Penal Code in the backdrop of modern day crimes which involve sophisticated technology.

* We should harmonise our laws on cyber crime in conformity with International Conventions, treaties and agreements in such a way as to facilitate international cooperation in preventing and combating these illegal cyber activities;

* The Government should focus on capacity building of its law enforcement agencies especially FIA in the area of cyber crime and explore bilateral, regional, and multilateral cooperation mechanisms to enhance the same;

* Necessary steps should be taken to create awareness of regarding this menace among the masses, with a focus on law enforcement agencies, judiciary and legislature.

* To establish a cyber crime victim support fund to restoration and rehabilitation of the affected people of such crimes.

* To establish a Research Fund, to support efforts to for exploring new methods to tackle this menace.

* To formulate a manual of guidelines for government offices and its functionaries regarding usage of internet especially social media.

The author is an Assistant Director in the Federal Investigation Agency .He is the first ever cyber crime investigation officer in Pakistan. The author can be contacted at shahidilyas1@gmail.com