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The structures of organized crime long time ago realized that cybercrime is more profitable than other
forms of crime. Investing in information technology by the criminal and terrorist
structures allows them a
completely secure intercommunication. Namely, by dividing the messages and sending them through
different anonymous servers for sending coded messages that do not reveal the identity of the senders
(anonymous remailers), and which transmits the messages through a number of devices for forwarding
information via computer networks known as “routers”, also using the so called technology PGP - Pretty
Good Privacy, the criminal and terrorist structures operate without the risk of detection by the security
structures of states.
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They can steal user names from the e-banking, their passwords, enter the computers,
servers or their smartphones, so today the social networks like Facebook and Twitter are insecure due to
these criminals. According to Interpol, only in Europe the damage caused by the structures of organized
crime is about 750 billion per year, while the European Union estimates that daily about a million of its
citizens become victims of cybercrime.
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The damages incurred by committing cybercrime, according to a general division are identified as:
Tangible damage, when criminals commit crimes in order to gain unlawful property gain for
themselves or another, by inflicting certain tangible damage;
Intangible damage, through unauthorized disclosure of foreign secret or other compromising and
damaging behavior;
Combined damage, when by discovery of a secret or by copyright infringement through misuse of
communication and information networks, one's reputation will be deranged and the moral law will
be broken, and in the same time by that action, a concrete tangible damage will be caused.
2.1
Cyber threats on the security of the states
Data or information may be compromised, modified or destroyed through computer threats by using
various techniques. Namely, telephone lines can be burdened with special malicious programs to prevent the
performance of the computers responsible for control of all types of traffic, to erase or edit the programs used
by the ministries, banks and other financial institutions, hospitals, to remove the production process, to
sabotage the stock exchange, to sabotage the energy system and so on. It appears to be with a goal to make a
negative impact, dilution or debasement of the political, cultural, economic and commercial developments or
for destabilization of the states and entire regions.
When the addressed threats throughout the attacks on the websites, which according to certain
estimations are almost 60% of all types of Internet attacks, in order for their owners, state institutions,
businesses or individuals to move them or to make interventions in their content or to take a new position,
then we are talking about discrediting and modification of such content. The discrediting, the modification or
the destruction of the data or information is made in order to attack the governments of the states, but also to
defeat the competition in the area of scientific achievements in almost all areas, especially in economics and
businesses. In this way, the competition gains a lot, and successfully profits, while “the attached party”
suffers the damage. These inflicted damages despite the material nature, adversely affect the reputation,
reliability and “image” of “the attacked party”. This goal is mainly achieved by performing attacks on the
computer networks of public and private institutions such as information networks of governments, their
ministries, large companies, banks, post offices, hospitals, and various military-command and control
systems. These cyber attacks for destroying of confidential data or information are mostly for military,
security, economic and for criminal purposes.
Today, in the group of the so called non-military and asymmetrical threats for the
security of the states
greater place takes the so called information warfare or net war. This type of war in great way can change the
method of modern warfare, and anticipates the issues related to the object of attack, the issues of the role of
the security system in managing the defense for those types of attacks or the undertaking of the measures for
counter attack. In cyber war, civilian and military targets equate or the attackers do not distinguish between
them, as no distinction is made for the category of attackers. Hence the dilemma, whether states in case of
213
. Flynn, S. E., „
The Global Drug Trade versus the Nation
‐State: Why the Thugs Are Winning‟, in Cusimano, M. K. (ed.), Beyond
Sovereignty: Issues for a Global Agenda, Boston & New York: Bedford/St. Martin‟s, 2000.
214
.
article.wn.com/.../Kriminal_na_internetu_opasniji_neg...
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cyber war can legally take measures and can truly threaten - with diplomatic demarche, with formal protest,
with economic reprisals, with criminal prosecution or military intervention.
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The government of the USA placed the sources of cyber attacks in several categories:
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States. Their security and intelligence structures use information and communication tools for
information gathering and espionage. These activities can be directed towards friendly and hostile
states and non-state actors or some threats. States can invade other states for the purpose of
destabilization, intimidation or for conducting cyber war. In terms of security of individuals, the
states represent a threat because of the possibility of obtaining and using personal data
in many cases
without a court order or proper democratic oversight.
Companies. Companies and large corporations, independently or in cooperation with hackers or
structures of organized crime perform industrial espionage or sabotage.
Hackers. Once it was common for the hackers to illegally enter into computer networks because of
challenge or prestige in the hacker environment, while today those motives are more of criminal
nature. Today, hacker attacks are so perfected thanks to the sophisticated means of attack so all they
need is to download attack scripts and protocols from the Internet, and use them against the websites
of selected victims.
Hacktivists. Hacktivism refers to politically motivated attacks on the websites and e-mail servers.
These so-called “hacktivists” want to disrupt, disfigure or destroy websites to achieve their political
goals.
Disgruntled insiders. Disgruntled insiders (employees) represent a major threat because of their
excellent knowledge of the systems of the selected victims that allows them unlimited access. Their
different motives can cause damage to the information systems or theft of secret or sensitive or data.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the USA (FBI), the possibility of attacks by the
so-called “insiders” is twice the size than the attacks coming from outsiders.
Terrorists. Terrorists want to destroy, immobilize or use the infrastructure, to endanger the national
security, to cause mass destruction and casualties, to weaken the economy and undermine public
morale and confidence.
Botnet operators. These are hackers who illegally penetrate in large number of computers and then
use them for coordinated attacks, so called phisher, frauds, spamming or malware attacks. Their
services are often available in the criminal underground.
Phisher. These are individuals or small groups of criminals who with fraud steal the identity or
information for the purpose of material gain. “Phishers” often use spamming or spy software for
achieving their goals.
Spammers. These individuals or organizations distribute “unsolicited mail” often with hidden or
false information, for selling of various products, for caring out of “phisher” frauds, for mailshot of
the so called “spyware” or malware software or to attack some organization.
Authors of spy and malware software. These are individuals or organizations with villainy intentions
and that carry out attacks onto selected victims, using and mailshot of the spy and malware software.
Pedophiles. They frequently use the Internet to exchange of child pornography and finding victims,
which are mostly children of both sexes. The pedophiles carry out their illicit activities through e-
mail, through specialized programs for file sharing and social networking, as well as through the so
called "P2P" software.
2.2
Cyber attacks
Lately, the so called “on line” security became a lot current, hence a question is posed whether the
biggest problem in the field of cyber attacks is created by individual hackers, hackers hired by the structures
of organized crime or the governments of some countries. Namely, the states are concerned about national
security and about the possibility for of state and non-state actors to steal, change, destroy, or otherwise
215
. John Markoff, David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker, “In Digital Combat, U.S. Finds No Easy Deterrent,”
New York Times, 25
January 2010, World section
216
. United States Government Accountability Office, Information Security: Cyber Threats and Vulnerabilities Place Federal Systems
at Risk (Washington DC: US GAO, 2009); William A. Wulf and Anita K. Jones, “Reflections
on Cybersecurity,”
Science 326 (13
November 2009): 943-4; See Martin Charles Golumbic,
Fighting Terror Online: The Convergence of Security, Technology, and the
Law (New York: Springer, 2007