Digital Security

Digital Security

Digital security is the protection of your digital identity - the network or Internet equivalent of your physical identity (Mitra, 2010). Digital security includes the tools you use to secure your identity, assets and technology in the online and mobile world.

The issues surrounding security

Security is one of the main issues of contemporary societies, and so are transparency and the preservation of civil rights.

Identity spoofing is a fairly common problem on social networks. Teens need to know how to make strong passwords and have to be taught not to share their passwords with others.

Social networks, and other online environments that encourage users to share information about themselves, can expose teens to identity theft.

Teach teens not to give out their full name and full birth date (just the day and month are fine) and to never give out their Social Insurance Number online.

Aside from the ethical concerns about downloading pirated music and videos, this also greatly increases the risk of downloading viruses or other malware.

Talk to teens about the risks associated with downloading software and visiting sketchy websites, and make sure any computers or mobile devices they use are equipped with good security software.

Teach teens to always check out strange offers or requests on a good anti-hoax site such aswww.snopes.com.

The Risk of T&C's

Electronic Transaction
Some federal, state and territory governments encourage the adoption of electronic commerce by enacting and enabling legalisation (Mitra, 2010). In Australia many bills and acts have been passed to resolve legal issues and make electronic transaction more authenticated, such as the Electronic Transaction Act (ETA).  

Privacy & Security
While shopping on the Internet, most people typically do not think about what is happening in the background (Mitra, 2010). Web shopping is generally very easy. We click on a related site, go into that site, buy the required merchandise by adding it to our cart, enter our credit card details and then expect delivery within a couple of days. This entire process looks very simple but a developer or businessmen knows exactly how many hurdles need to be jumped to complete the order (Mitra, 2010). Customer information has to pass through several hands so security and privacy of the information are a major concern. 

Copyright & Trademark
Many attempts have been made to address the issues related to copyrights on digital content. E-commerce has a tremendous impact on copyright and related issues, and the scope of copyrights is affecting how e-commerce evolves. It is essential that legal rules are set and applied appropriately to ensure that digital technology does not undermine the basic doctrine of copyright and related rights. From one perspective, the Internet has been described as "the world's biggest copy machine". 

Online Terms, Conditions, Policies and Laws
At the moment, most online privacy policies are produced by private businesses for individual companies. Governments are developing legislation to support and strengthen the privacy protection measures of many businesses (Mitra, 2010). These initiatives are aimed at regulating the storage, use and disclosure by businesses of personal information.Privacy legislation is designed to protect a person's personal information. The privacy laws of their host country affect overseas companies.

Different types of cyber-crime

• Hacking
  
• This is a type of crime wherein a person’s computer is broken into so that his personal or sensitive information can be accessed. In the United States, hacking is classified as a felony and punishable as such. In hacking, the criminal uses a variety of software to enter a person’s computer and the person may not be aware that his computer is being accessed from a remote location.
• Theft
• This crime occurs when a person violates copyrights and downloads music, movies, games and software. There are even peer sharing websites which encourage software piracy and many of these websites are now being targeted by the FBI. Today, the justice system is addressing this cyber crime and there are laws that prevent people from illegal downloading.
• Cyber Stalking
  
• his is a kind of online harassment wherein the victim is subjected to a barrage of online messages and emails. Typically, these stalkers know their victims and instead of resorting to offline stalking, they use the Internet to stalk. However, if they notice that cyber stalking is not having the desired effect, they begin offline stalking along with cyber stalking to make the victims’ lives more miserable.
• Identity Theft
  
• This has become a major problem with people using the Internet for cash transactions and banking services. In this cyber crime, a criminal accesses data about a person’s bank account, credit cards, Social Security, debit card and other sensitive information to siphon money or to buy things online in the victim’s name. It can result in major financial losses for the victim and even spoil the victim’s credit history.
• Malicious Software
  
• These are Internet-based software or programs that are used to disrupt a network. The software is used to gain access to a system to steal sensitive information or data or causing damage to software present in the system.
• Child soliciting and Abuse
• This is also a type of cyber crime wherein criminals solicit minors via chat rooms for the purpose of child pornography. The FBI has been spending a lot of time monitoring chat rooms frequented by children with the hopes of reducing and preventing child abuse and soliciting.

Causes of Cyber Crime

Wherever the rate of return on investment is high and the risk is low, you are bound to find people willing to take advantage of the situation (Knapton, 2009). This is exactly what happens in cyber crime. Accessing sensitive information and data and using it means a rich harvest of returns and catching such criminals is difficult. Hence, this has led to a rise in cyber crime across the world.

How to Tackle Cyber Crime

It has been seen that most cyber criminals have a loose network wherein they collaborate and cooperate with one another(Knapton, 2009). Unlike the real world, these criminals do not fight one another for supremacy or control. Instead they work together to improve their skills and even help out each other with new opportunities. Hence, the usual methods of fighting crime cannot be used against cyber criminals. While law enforcement agencies are trying to keep pace with cyber criminals, it is proving to be a Herculean task (Knapton, 2009). This is primarily because the methods used by cyber criminals and technology keeps changing too quickly for law enforcement agencies to be effective. That is why commercial institutions and government organizations need to look at other methods of safeguarding themselves.

The best way to go about is using the solutions provided by Cross-Domain Solutions.Cross Domain Solution offers a way to keep all information confidential by using safe and secure domains that cannot be tracked or accessed (Knapton, 2009). This security solution can be used by commercial and governmental organization to ensure an impenetrable network while still making sure that users can get access to the required information easily.