Cyber Attack: Fairly Common

Today, when technology is so developed, a cyber attack is fairly common. A cyber attack is a criminal act where computer is the main weapon. With your computer you could commit a cyber attack such as hacking, cyber stalking, computer viruses, phishing, child pornography, and many other cyber attacks.

Cyber attack is most common in hacking.

The Internet is full of hackers who attack some website and committed some computer crime almost every day. The most famous hacker in the United States of America is Kevin David Mitnick. He is one of the best and most wanted hackers in the late 20th century. This hacker has committed several cyber attacks such as evading the FBI, using the Los Angeles bus transfer system to get free rides, hacking into DEC system to view VMS source code, hacking Nokia, NEC, Motorola, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Siemens systems, and many other computer crimes. His first computer crime was in 1979 at 16 years old, when together with his friend they attacked the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). For this crime he was charged and convicted in 1988. He spent over 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Hacking web sites

Another hacker which committed a cyber attack is Shawn Fanning. He is known as Napster because he wanted to hack websites with music in MP3 format. When he downloaded music illegally, he sold compact discs which cost $15 to his friends. That way he made a lot of money but also he damaged several music websites for more than 4 million dollars. Adrian Lamo is another great hacker who committed the biggest cyber attack in the history of hacking. He hacked several major organizations such as Microsoft and The New York Times. He used an Internet connection from coffee shops, Kinko’s, and libraries to do his hacking process. Also, he successfully hacked Yahoo, Citigroup, Bank of America and Cingular. According to a research about computer crimes, Lamo damaged The New York Times for over $60,000 dollars (cost of repairing flaws). He was convicted in January 16, 2007 and was sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years of probation.

FBI fights to prevent a cyber attack

Besides these great hackers who committed several computer crimes, there are also some organizations which operate every day and try to damage some website. Many government organizations fight every day to prevent computer crimes and cyber attacks and protect their citizens. One of those organizations is the FBI which recently had a really terrible case of cyber attack and crime. It was about child pornography, which is one of the worst computer crimes in the world and it is the worst type of cyber attack on the Internet.

Some agents from the FBI worked on a missing child case when they discovered that maybe the child was captured in the network of child pornography. The agents found out that child was forced to do some sexual activities through the Internet, because many people around the world reported child pornography that they received on their e-mail addresses for free. Some of them recognized the child that was missing and reported to FBI. After that agents from the FBI started researching and they discovered a network of child pornography. Over 15.500 children from all over the world who were missing was forced to be part of this network of child pornography. After that those agents from FBI started working together with some other government organizations from all over the world to discover the creator of the entire chain of networks of child pornography and to save all those innocent children.

After several years this cyber attack – crime was resolved, but there are some other cyber attacks and computer crimes which were related to child pornography. After discovering this type of cyber attack over 4.800 people from all over the world were prosecuted and convicted, but the network of child pornography still exist. Many small children from many countries in the world are kidnapped and forced to give some sexual service through the Internet. Because of that many countries in the world cooperate together and created the Child Victim Identification Program for the children who were successfully saved.

Attempts to gain personal information

Besides child pornography, one of the most common types of cyber attack is hacking in personal information or identity theft. There are so many hackers around the world who work individually or in groups and who steal people’s personal information and their identity. This is a really serious cyber attack and many governmental organizations work together and try to protect their citizens. Also, they advise their citizens not to give their personal information such as their phone number, home address, bank account, etc. to just anybody. Also, they advise their citizens to learn more about computer crimes and to know how to protect themselves. Technology is really developed and sometimes that can harm people’s lives.