Cybercrime

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has become the backbone of many organizations. Particularly, the internet has become an important aspect through which education institutions use to carry out research, communicate and innovate. Even through this evolution has brought many benefits but also it has also brought serious threats such as cyber-attacks that has been demonstrated over the past few years through acts of cyber espionage and cyber-crime through the virtual space. In this context, the University of Dar es Salaam needs to develop policies towards cyber threats even through this has often be clustered and fragmented. Using theoretical and conceptual models this paper provides an informed understanding and critical assessment of the University of Dar es Salaam cyber security policy through addressing the following research questions: What are the IT risk management policy and systems that can be developed for the University of Dar es salaam?  The primary data is collected through surveys, and interviews that are open ended and close ended. The results of the paper demonstrated that colleges and universities have been a target for cyber-attacks due to the fact that of the vast amount of computing power they possess, and they provide open access to their constituents and to the public. The research also showed that University of Dar es Salaam doesn’t have a comprehensive IT security risk management policy or guidelines that will guide the business process in the event of an IT security threat. Therefore the University needs to develop policiesthat provide roadmap for effectively protecting the availability, integrity and confidentiality of University of Dar es Salaam Information Systems.

Chapter One Introduction

1. Introduction

Cybercrime is one of the fast growing areas of crime. Accordingly, there have been increased numbers of criminals who have exploited convenience, speed and anonymity offered by the modern technology, to commit a wide range of criminal activities. Some of these activities include  attacks against  computer systems and data, sexual abuse  on images of children, identity theft,  internet  auction frauds, deployment of  viruses, email scams and botnets, as well as penetration  of  Internet financial services. It should be noted that the nature of the internet has allowed criminals to commit illegal activities in almost any part of the world.

Therefore, it is important for countries to adapt domestic offline control systems, in order to mitigate crimes that are done in cyberspace. Accordingly, most terrorists use the internet to incite and recruit criminals, and this continues to pose a serious threat to the international and national unity. Moreover, threats by terrorists have forced government authorities to address vulnerability issues that are related to infrastructure of information technology, such as electrical grids, power plants, computers systems of major companies and governmental institutions, as well as information systems.