A Study of Reported Cyber-crime in Sri Lankan Police Station

A Study of Reported Cyber-crime in Sri Lankan Police Station

Introduction

1.1  Background of the Study

To be able to function in a good and orderly way, society needs some degree of order and continuity, and therefore safety. Safety and security has long been merely a question of protection against dangers from the physical world. Late last century, ‘cyberspace’ arose alongside the old world (Stol 2008, cited in Leukfeldt, R. et al, 2013). This ‘new’ world is increasingly intertwined with the traditional offline world and therefore safety in cyberspace has become a prerequisite for a well-functioning society. A secure cyberspace means a cyberspace where (and from where) no crime is committed. In this, the police have a task.

Definitions range, for instance, from: ‘any kind of crime that is related to computer systems’, to ‘all crime carried out using a digital component’ (PAC 2008, cited in Leukfeldt, R. et al, 2013 ). It is clear that these definitions differ somewhat in their nature. The first definition is narrow: only crimes that are committed on computer systems, for instance, hacking and spreading viruses, are included, while crimes like fraud or stalking via internet are not. The second definition is broad: crimes whereby the perpetrator has merely used a mobile phone or a satellite navigation system to commit them are also considered to be Cyber-crime.

There are also several definitions that fall between these two extremes. Characteristic of these definitions is that they identify several categories (Van der Hulst & Neve, 2008; Stol et al., 2011; Leukfeldt et al., 2010, 2012; Bernaards et al., 2012; Campman, 2012; Domenie et al., 2013, cited in Leukfeldt et al,2013). The common theme here is that there is a category of offenses that focuses on Information and Telecommunication Technology (ICT) and these offenses are committed using ICT (hacking, destruction of digital information). Furthermore, there are offenses that do not focus on ICT, but in which ICT is fundamentally important to enabling the offence to be (for instance, fraud via internet or the spreading of child pornography).

The main purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between the effectiveness of police department in Sri Lanka and the reported Cyber-crimes. To support this purpose I have done a survey through the questioner to find out whether there has occurred the Cyber-crime in Sri Lanka. And also I have checked how the internet usage, IT knowledge and awareness of the people effect for the Cyber-crimes and is there any relationship between these factors and Cyber-crimes.

To achieve the research main purpose I have used the qualitative interviews and secondary data sources such as police report and newspaper articles.

1.2             Problem Statement

Is there any relationship between the reported Cyber-crime and effectiveness of police department in Sri Lanka?

1.3             Objectives of the Study

Ø  To find out the relationship between reported Cyber-crimes and effectiveness of the police department in Sri Lanka.

Ø  To find out the existing Cyber-crimes reported in police station for the period of 2010 to 2014.

Ø  To find out the various sources those are related to the reported Cyber-crimes.

Ø  To find out the frequently occurred Cyber-crimes in Sri Lanka.

1.4             Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is finding out the relationship between Effectiveness of the police department and Reported Cyber-crime in Sri Lanka. In order to collect the information to achieve the purpose of study data collection from the people in the 5 areas of Colombo district were used. And also author collected the data from the police officers.

The remaining part of the study begins with the literature review that investigates the existing position of Cyber-crimes, effectiveness of police department, the relationship, factor and correlation analysis, finally the findings and conclusion.

Literature Review

Ø  Cyber-crime

Cyber-crime is arranging of illegal digital activities targeted at organizations in order to cause harm. The term applies to a wide range of targets and attack methods. It can range from mere web site defacements to grave activities such as service disruptions that impact business revenues to e banking frauds (KPMG Report, 2014).

There is no consensus in the Sri Lanka on how Cyber-crime should be defined and
which crimes it encompasses exactly. According to the Hulst & Neve (2008) Cyber-crime is concluded as: ‘A common definition and consistent conceptual framework is lacking for this field of crime. A veritable arsenal of terminology is used, sometimes in combination with the prefixes cyber, computer, e-, internet, digital or information. Terms are bandied around, applied randomly, reflect overlap in content or reflect important gaps.’

The Oxford Reference Online defines 'Cyber-crime' as crime committed over the Internet.

Cyber-crime or computer crime is considered to be any crime that uses a computer and a computer network (Matthews 2010).

A basic definition describes Cyber-crime as a crime where computers have the possibility of playing an important part (Thomas and Loader 2000)

The crimes that are committed by computers and networks called Cyber-crimes (Avais, M. A. et al, 2014).

The survey which was done by Leukfeldt, R. et al, (2013) try to get answer for the question which is to what extent is the Dutch police organization able to effectively combat high volume cyber-crime? To get the answer they were look at the police records, analyze the nature of these crimes and look at the functioning of the Dutch police regarding the cyber-crimes what are the strengths and weaknesses of their handling of cybercrimes? Finally they conclude that. Finally they came up with the result of the Dutch police are insufficiently organized to combat cyber-crime and the lack of priority and proper capacity throughout the entire police organization to fight digital crimes results in cyber cases never entering the criminal justice system or leaving the criminal justice process early.

The main factor in cyber-crime increase is the Internet. By use of Internet, cybercriminals often appeal to images, codes or electronic communication in order to run malicious activities. Among the most important types of Internet crimes we can mention: identity theft, financial theft, espionage, pornography, or copyright infringement. The cyber-crimes can be divided into two categories: the crimes where a computer network attacks other computers networks – e.g. a code or a virus used to disable a system, and, the second category, crimes where a computer network attacks a target population – e.g. identity theft, fraud, intrusions (Svensson 2011).

When consider the above various definitions normally we can say Cyber-crimes are any crimes that involve a computer and a network. In some cases, the computer may have been used in order to commit the crime, and in other cases, the computer may have been the target of the crimes. There so many types of Cyber-crimes such as hacking Identity theft, Ransomware, DDoS attacks, Botnets, Spam and Phishing and etc. hacking is the main type of Cyber-crime. It can be defined as a Hacking is the gaining of access (wanted or unwanted) to a computer and viewing, copying, or creating data (leaving a trace) without the intention of destroying data or maliciously harming the computer.

This is the example for hacking (case 01).

Case 1: Hacking in the relational sphere

I was married to [suspect]. On [date] I officially divorced [suspect]. After the official divorce comes the process of determining the alimony. From [date] I noticed that my personal and private data was known to [suspect]. I received a letter from my neighbor with an incriminating statement that I wanted to use in court. This (paper) letter I personally received at another location because I did not want to arouse suspicion. On [date] I digitized the letter and stored it on my laptop. After that, I sent it over a wireless network to my lawyer. On [date] my neighbors called me and told me that my ex, [suspect], stood at their doorstep and wanted to know about their incriminating statement. [Suspect] had information from the letter I had sent to my lawyer. There were also some e-mails deleted from my e-mail account and [suspect] knew about other confidential information about me and correspondence with my lawyer. I suspect that my ex-partner may have had access to my laptop, possibly by hiring a hacker. The reason that my ex-partner would do this is because she wants to manipulate the judicial process by passing on my incriminating statements to her lawyer (Leukfeldt, R. et al, 2013).

An Analysis of Cyberbullying Sensitivity Levels of University Students of Sri Lanka

An Analysis of Cyberbullying Sensitivity Levels of University Students of Sri Lanka

1.1  Background of the study

With the development of technology the means of communication have changed rapidly in the past few years. Today the internet and social media are frequently used to stay connected with people rather than face-to-face relationships. More than the adults the youth are attached to cyber communication as an integral part of their daily life. For the youth online communication has assisted to expand their social circle. Therefore youth are actively using the internet as a very convenient and important form of social interaction.

In Sri Lanka the access of young people to the internet have rapidly increased in recent years. Total internet connections grew by 68.4 percent during 2014 largely due to the growth of mobile internet usage. In 2013 internet connections grew by 47 percent, increasing internet penetration (connections per 100 persons) to 9.8 percent.

In the case of Sri Lanka social media has grown at an alarming rate. There are over 2.3 million users of social media from the total population of 21 million.  That means 11.5 percent of the Sri Lankan population use Facebook. When a gender breakup is considered around 1.4 million are males and the rest would be female.  It is estimated that on average they spend about 34 minutes a day on social media and the age group of 25-34 makes up 33 percent of the entire base.

While such developments have provided great opportunities it also brings new problems related to

social and individual development of young people. One of those main problems is cyberbullying, which is expressed as purposeful and repeated misuse of technology to scare and harm others. In the Sri Lankan context the rate of cybercrimes have increased rapidly according to the Computer Emergency Response Team. There were 900 incidents related to cyber offences reported from January till end of May, while in 2014 there were 2250 reported incidents of that nature. In 2012 and 2013 the reported incidents were 1100 and 1200 respectively. Based on the given statistics the number of offences have almost doubled from 2013 to 2014.

                                                                                     

While most of the studies in the literature focuses on the influences of cyberbullying on victimhood, cyberbullying sensitivity of people is mostly ignored. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate

cyberbullying sensitivity levels of university students, who are among the potential victims of cyberbullying and whether this could be used to predict cyberbullying sensitivity.

1.2  Objectives of the study

1.   To identify the existing levels of cyberbullying sensitivity among university students

2.   To find out the relationship between cyberbullying sensitivity levels among university students and their perceived social support levels

3.   To find out cyberbullying sensitivity levels of students and their perceived social support according to gender

1.3  Scope of the study and limitations

This research looks at cyberbullying sensitivity of government university students which is a representative sample from the educated young crowd. Responses from students of university of Sri Jayawardenepura, Colombo, Moratuwa and Kelaniya were gathered for this purpose.

This study has some limitations. First occurrences of cyberbullying were understood from a subjective perspective. In other words concept of cyberbullying will differ from individual to individual and hence this study does not provide an objective interpretation to the notion of cyberbullying. No in depth information was gathered regarding responses to certain specific instances of cyberbullying. It is better to

utilize qualitative data collection techniques such as interview and observation, which will reveal perceptions to cyberbullying  events in a more holistic way.

Secondly, for the current study, the factors predicting cyberbullying sensitivity are

limited to social support. There are other variables that must be taken to consideration.

Finally, the social support perceived by the young people may be affected by their current relationship with other people than their parents, teachers and friends which is ignored in the current research.

An analysis of the Internet Addiction towards the academic performance among undergraduate students in Sri Lanka

An analysis of the Internet Addiction towards the academic performance among undergraduate students in Sri Lanka

Background of the Study

Now a day’s Information Technology plays an important role in the society.  Information technology has a considerable contribution to every day to day activity. Mainly the internet has a huge impact on the human life. The Internet has become an essential component of people’s everyday life throughout the world. This ranges from its support in improving the way people seek information, conduct research, perform business transactions, and communicate with others and various other features (Chou 2001). For an example online banking, online learning, online shopping, social networks & etc. However the use of internet in human’s life has both negative and positive impacts. This study further elaborates how the use of internet has an impact on the academic performance of the undergraduates’ students.  Now a day’s students are using the internet as a primary source of seeking new knowledge, completing assignments and etc. As a result they might have to spend number of hours for surf the internet. This could be result in addicting students to the use of internet other than for the educational purposes. Due to long term stay online, young people have problems in learning, work and family’s duties, online stay above 5 hours a day maybe followed by increased risk of addiction (Kwiatkowska et. al, 2007).  The changes of the Grade Average Point (GPA) may be able to easily reflect how the internet addiction affects the academic performances of the undergraduate students.

Objectives of the Study

The Objectives of this study is to,

1.      To find out the level of internet addiction  among the Undergraduate Students in Sri Lanka

2.      To find out relationship between Internet Addiction and Academic Performance of the Undergraduate students in Sri Lanka

Scope of the Study

As the title of the study indicates the study is about the undergraduate students in Sri Lanka. The study is carried out using the response of the Undergraduate students in the University of Sri Jayewardhanapura.  The researcher will generalize the findings according to the findings of the sample

Chapter 02

Literature Review

Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has experienced unprecedented growth in both its size and number of users around the world (Rotsztein, 2003) As explained earlier the purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the Internet Addiction and Academic performance of the undergraduate students. Because the Internet has become the most widely accepted channel for information exchange and networking, a danger exists that it could lead to pathological usage or Internet addiction. In the rapidly expanding universe of social media, many themes of Internet addiction are played out in the everyday life experience of the typical college student, with the prevailing emphasis on the cause, effects, restraints and consequences of their actions.(Mishra et al. 2014)

A medium or technology forces society and the individual to adapt to it, rather than the individual adapting the technology to the current world. Each technological development fundamentally changes the way the world works. Certainly, the development of the Internet and World Wide Web paved the way for the social media explosion in communications and interpersonal behavior. Use of the Internet on college and university campuses parallels the strong advances of the society at large. While the primary focus of the Internet was initially faculty research, it has migrated to the student community, reached the stage of overwhelming acceptance, and is now poised to become a psychological addiction. (Mishra et al, 2014)

Internet Addiction can be explained by many forms. Such as addiction to Social Media, Online Gambling, Online Affairs, Online Shopping, Pornography & etc. Technology and the Internet use particularly by college students have been associated with more frequent communication with friends and family members (Clark, Frith, & Demi, 2004; Howard, Rainie, & Jones, 2001).

According to the findings undergraduate students are more interested in the enjoying in the social media such as Facebook, Viber and Etc.

Several studies have reported gender differences in internet usage. Weiser (2000) reported significant gender difference in internet usage. He reported that males tend to be more familiar with the computers and internet as compared to females. Same gender differences were stated in the literature concerning internet addiction. Scherer (1997) suggested that dependent internet users included a large proportion of men as compared to women. Similar results were reported by Morahan-Martin and Schumacher (2000) that males were more likely to be pathological internet users than females. Keeping these findings in view, it was hypothesized that male students would be associated with addicted internet usage as compared to females.  (Noreen Akhter,2013)

In Pakistan, the Internet was first introduced in 1995. During recent years, a dramatic growth in the use of Internet has been observed in Pakistan. Few researches have been conducted in the field of cyber world and its impact on adolescent‟s behavior. Suhail and Bargees (2006) investigated the effects of excessive internet use in undergraduates of Pakistan. However, the current study would be a step ahead in the same line to investigate the phenomena of internet addiction in depth which would ultimately add to the existing body of knowledge. (Noreen Akhter,2013)

The current work was undertaken to determine the relationship between internet addiction and academic performance of undergraduates. This research specifically focused on Internet usage (not of just computer) as studies have revealed that it is mostly the Internet that makes people addictive of computers. It was decided to study only undergraduate students for this purpose as they were found to be the heavier consumers of the Internet compared to postgraduate students. (Noreen Akhter,2013)

  

Research Methods

Data Collection Methods

Data was collected using a questionnaire, developed by the researcher in order to measure and identify the relationship between the internet addiction and academic performance of the undergraduate students in Sri Lanka. The questionnaire was developed with the multiple choice questions and likert scale questions in way that researcher can obtain the data on the undergraduate students’ perception and level of addiction on the Internet and the impact of the academic performances. The questionnaire was distributed among the undergraduate students who were selected randomly. This is the primary source of data collection and published research articles can be used as the secondary source of data.  

Population

As the researcher is going to assess the relationship between the internet addiction and the academic performances of the undergraduate students in Sri Lanka, the population of the Study would represent the All the undergraduate students in Sri Lanka.

Sample

Due to the limitations of the accessing to the whole population a convenient sample is selected to collect the data and to conclude on the research findings. Any way the sample should be able to generalize the findings to the whole population. Therefore for this study the sample would represent the undergraduate students from the University of Sri Jayewradhanapura.  The data was collected from 50 respondents from the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce. 

Variables

Title of this study is the relationship between Internet Addiction and Academic Performances of the Undergraduate Students in Sri Lanka. The Variables of the study clearly define the types of the Internet Addiction of the undergraduate students. There are three variables was used. They are Addiction to the Face Book, Addiction to the Online Shopping and Addiction to the Online Cinema. As described in the early part now day’s internet has become an essential part of  everyone’s life therefore  above three variables represent the how far the internet has an impact of a student’s life.

Data Analysis Methods

The data was analyzed using the Stoical Packages for Social Sciences (version 16).  Regression analysis was used in order to conclude on whether to accept or reject the null hypothesis. Further the descriptive statistics were used in order to identify the characteristics of the responders’ internet usage profile.

List of Hypothesis

As the three variables are used to measure the level of internet addiction hypothesis can be built as follows.

1)      Ho- There is no significant Relationship between the Addiction to the Face book and  Academic Performance

H1- There is a relationship between the Addiction to the Face book and Academic Performance

2)      Ho- There is no significant Relationship between the Addiction to the Online Shopping and  Academic Performance

H1- There is a relationship between the Addiction to the Online Shopping and Academic Performance

3)      Ho- There is no significant Relationship between the Addiction to the Online Film watching and  Academic Performance

H1- There is a relationship between the Addiction to the Online Film watching and Academic Performance