Al-Maqaal University

College of Engineering
Department of Control and
Computer Engineering

IMPORTANCE OF
CYBER SECURITY

C : ‫الشعبة‬
: ‫الطالب المشاركين‬
‫محمد حيدر محسن‬
‫محمد رائد عبد الجليل‬
‫مصطفى مهنه عبد االمير‬
‫منتظر كامل عون‬
‫مرتضى انور طاهر‬
‫يحيى رياض غازي‬
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INTRODUCTION
Cyber security is defined as technologies and processes constructed to protect computers, computer
hardware, software, networks and data from unauthorized access, vulnerabilities supplied through
Internet by cyber criminals, terrorist groups and hackers. Cyber security is related to protecting your
internet and network based digital equipments and information from unauthorized access and
alteration. Internet is now not only the source of information but also has established as a medium
through which we do business, to advertise and sell our products in various forms, communicate with
our customers and retailers and do our financial transactions. The internet offers lots of benefits and
provides us opportunity to advertise our business across the globe in minimum charges and in less
human efforts in very short span of time. As internet was never constructed to track and trace the
behavior of users [1]. The Internet was actually constructed to link autonomous computers for resource
sharing and to provide a common platform to community of researchers [1]. As internet offers on the
one hand huge number of benefits and on the other hand it also provides equal opportunities for cyber-
terrorists and hackers. Terrorist organizations and their supporters are using internet for a wide range
of purposes such as gathering information and dissemination of it for terrorist purpose, recruiting
fresh terrorists, funding attacks and to motivate acts of terrorism [2]. It is often used to facilitate
communication within terrorist groups and gathering and dissemination of information for terrorist
purposes [2].

NATURE OF CYBERSPACE
Cyberspace is virtual space that use electronics and electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify and
exchange information through the use of networked system and concerned physical structure [3]. It is
intangible where communications and internet related activities take place. Cyberspace is imaginary
where contained objects are neither exist nor representation of physical world [4]. It is totally virtual
environment wherein information exchange and communication occurs that connects about 2.7 billion
people around the world to provide a common platform to share ideas, views, services and friendship. It
is expandable and borderless in nature and growing sharply without considering any physical or political
border.
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NEED OF CYBER SECURITY

Cybersecurity is now considered as important part of
individuals and families, as well as organizations, governments,
educational institutions and our business. It is essential for
families and parents to protect the children and family
members from online fraud. In terms of financial security, it is
crucial to secure our financial information that can affect our
personal financial status. Internet is very important and
beneficial for faculty, student, staff and educational
institutions, has provided lots of learning opportunities with
number of online risks [5]. There is vital need for internet users
to understand how to protect themselves from online fraud and
identity theft. Appropriate learning about the online behavior
and system protection results reduction in vulnerabilities and
safer online environment. Small and medium-sized
organizations also experience various security related
challenges because of limited resources and appropriate cyber
security skills [5]. The rapid expansion of technologies is also
creating and making the cyber security more challenging as we
do not present permanent solutions for concerned problem.
Although, we are actively fighting and presenting various
frameworks or technologies to protect our network and
information but all of these providing protection for short term
only. However, better security understanding and appropriate
strategies can help us to protect intellectual property and
trade secrets and reduce financial and reputation loss [5].
Central, state and local governments hold large amount of data
and confidential records online in digital form that becomes
primary target for a cyber attack [5]. Most of time
governments face difficulties due to inappropriate
infrastructure, lack of awareness and sufficient funding. It is
important for the government bodies to provide reliable
services to society, maintain healthy citizen- to-government
communications and protection of confidential information [5].
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VARIOUS FORMS OF
CYBERCRIME
Cybercrime denotes criminal activity
including internet, computers or any
other inter-connected infrastructure.
The term that covers crimes like
phishing, credit card frauds, illegal
downloading, industrial espionage, child
pornography, scams, cyber terrorism,
creation and/or distribution of viruses,
Spam and so on.
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1.CYBER STALKING
It is defined as an act which is frequently done by
intruding into individuals’ personal life to cause
distress, anxiety and fear [6]. Cyber Stalkers often take
the advantages of anonymity of internet that allow them
to continue their activities without being detected.
Actually, an intrusion is possible in individuals’ personal
life by approaching to their friend circle, family
members or sending fake letters and mails to targeted
person electronically. Cyber stalking harasses a person
psychologically therefore it is sometimes referred as
“psychological rape” or “psychological terrorism” [8].
About 90% stalkers are male and around 80% females
are victims of such kind of harassment [8].

2.INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY THEFT
The Intellectual property is defined as an innovation,
new research, method, model and formula that have an
economic value. Intellectual property is protected with
having patents and trademarks and with the copyright
on videos and music as well. It is clear that market
secrets and internal business information are highly
attacked assets for any organization. This business
information may be in various forms such as future
product design, customer lists and price lists etc. the
internet is the frequently used medium to facilitate the
Intellectual property theft because it is easy to mask
the identity on network.
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3.SALAMI ATTACK
In the salami cyber attack, cyber criminals and
attackers steal money in very little amount from several
bank accounts to make a huge amount. The alteration
becomes so insignificant that in a single case it would
be difficult to notice. Suppose, a bank employee creates
a program into banking software, that reduces a
insignificant amount of money (say 750 IQD a month)
from the account of each customer. It is general
perception that no customer will probably notice this
unauthorized deduction, but it will be beneficial to
cyber criminals that make large money.

4.E-MAIL BOMBING
It is sending of enormous amount of e-mails to a targeted
person. A large amount of e-mails simply fill up the recipient's
inbox on the server or, in some cases, server becomes fail to
receive such large amount data and stops functioning [7].
There are many ways to create an e-mail bomb like “zombie”
or “robot” which are capable to send continuous thousands or
even millions of e-mails to recipients’ e-mail address [8]. E-
mail is bombing and e-mail flooding, both the terms are used
interchangeably and represent the same phenomena. It is said
e-mail bombing as the recipient’s inbox gets filled up with
large number of undesired mails and the targeted person does
not become able to receive further important e-mails.
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5.PHISHING
It is a kind of fraudulent attempt that is made through
email, to capture personal and financial information.
Perpetrator sends e-mail that seems to come from well
known and trustworthy address ask for your financial
information such as bank name, credit card number,
social security number, account number or password. It
is common for phishing attempts that e-mails appear to
come from sites and companies that do not even have a
bank account.

6.IDENTITY THEFT
Identity theft is a type of fraud in which a person pretends to
be someone else and does crime with the name of someone
else [9]. Perpetrator steals key pieces of information such as
name, address, credit card number, bank account number to
impersonate a person and commits crimes in his/her name.
Perpetrator can use stolen personal and financial information
to access your bank accounts, opening new accounts,
transferring bank balances or purchasing etc [10].
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7.WORMS, TROJAN
HORSES, VIRUS
A computer virus needs another medium to propagate. In other words
the computer virus becomes effective only when it links itself with a
malicious program or executable files. When we run or execute these
supportive files then virus leaves its infections. In the field of computer
science, as far as we know the virus generation is not natural
phenomena. It always needs human efforts to get expansion. The
existence of virus in your system does not harm computer until its
related executable file or program run. A worm and virus both the
terms used interchangeably but there is major difference as worm do
not need supportive attached files while virus requires. Existence of
worm in system alone can affect the performance of your system. It
requires no human activity. The Trojan Horse, at first glance seems as
useful software but actually damage computer and its software as it
gets installed on. Some Trojans create backdoor for malicious users to
control your computer remotely, allowing confidential and personal
information theft [11].

8.SPOOFING
It refers to a technique to have unauthorized access to
computers, whereby perpetrator sends messages to a
networked computer with an IP address. At the recipient end
it seems that messages are being transmitted from a
trustworthy source. To conduct IP spoofing, a hacker first
makes attempt to find an trusted host IP address and then
modification and alteration of packets are done to show that
the packets are being generated form original host.
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9.DOS AND DDOS

A denial of service (DoS) attack refers an
attempt to make computer, server or network
resources unavailable to its authorized users
usually by using temporarily interruption or
suspension of services. A Distributed Denial of
Service (DDoS) attack refers a DoS attack that
propagates from more than one infected system
with malicious software at the same time. These
infected systems are collectively called as
“botnets” that control the target system
remotely.

10.PORNOGRAPHY
Pornography refers to printed or video material such as
books, magazines, photographs and video-clips that contain
description or showing sexual organs or activity intended to
encourage sexual excitement. More often same person gets
involved in production, distribution and downloading in
pornography. The motivation behind production and
distribution becomes to attain financial gain while third
stage-downloading is performed by the end users to entertain
them.
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CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the proliferation of cyber crime

presents a formidable challenge that
demands immediate attention. By
understanding the factors contributing to its
growth, recognizing its impact, and taking
proactive measures to enhance
cybersecurity, we can work towards
creating a safer digital environment for
individuals, businesses, and nations. It is
imperative that we remain vigilant and
proactive in the face of this evolving threat,
as the cost of inaction is simply too high.
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REFERENCES

[1] Lipson. Tracking and Tracing Cyber-Attacks: Technical Challenges

and Global Policy Issues, Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering
Institute, Pittsburgh, November 2002.
[2] A Report from United Nations offices on drugs and crime (UNODC),
the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes, New York, USA, 2012.
[3] A Report available on
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/cyberspace.
[4] A Report available on
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/cyberspac e.html.
[5] A Report form CISCO, Cybersecurity: Everyone’s Responsibility,
2010.
[6] Gisela Wurm, Stalking, A Report before Committee on Equality and
Non-Discrimination, June 2013.
[7] A Report available at
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/mailbomb. [8] A
Report available at http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/e-
mailbomb.html
[9] A Report availale at
http://www.sse.gov.on.ca/mcs/en/pages/identity_theft.as px
[10] A Report available at http://www.rcmp-
grc.gc.ca/scamsfraudes/id-theft-vol-eng.htm.
[11] A Report available at
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/virus. asp.
Holt, T. J., & Bossler, A. M. (2016). Cybercrime and digital forensics: An
introduction. Routledge.