Cybercrime Threats on Mobile Devices and Ethical Considerations

Classifying Cyber Attacks and Their Impact

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Cybercrime which is also known as the Mobile-oriented crime involves network andMobile involving the offences which are committed against groups of individuals or individuals with the motive of crime so as to harm intentionally victim’s reputation or causing mental or physical harm to the victim either directly or indirectly by making use of telecommunications networks that are modern such as mobile phones, internet. The financial health or security of the nation can be threatened due to the cybercrime. Cybersecurity or IT security is the Mobile system's protection from damage or theft to their electronic data or software, hardware as well as from misdirection or disruption of the services provided by them. in this assessment, one of the media articles is taken which talks about the rise in smartphones cyber -attacks seen by the security firms. Further, the description is made of the cybercrime types and the ethical theories and their application. In the end, the conclusion is provided.

Argument Visualization

Media Article

“5 active mobile threats spoofing enterprise apps”

As per the news of the online security system, the aims of cyber crooks are increasing rapidly towards smartphones who follow their prey as lifestyles migrating to Internet-linked mobile devices. The calculation is made by the Norton cybercrime report of Symantec which mentioned that in the past years around $110 billion costs are calculated for the cybercrime to worldwide consumers with an increase in attacks on online social networks or mobile devices. The tactics are being changes by the cybercriminals and are focusing on targeting fast-growing platforms of mobile and social networks where there is less awareness among consumers regarding the security risks. With the use of smartphone malware during the past year with toll fraud virus, there is stolen of millions of dollars from the people around the world. Toll-fraud is proving a popular tool nowadays. Smartphones are promoted by the toll fraud programs for sending the bogus text message and their charges are then added to the bills of telecom services. This money goes to the pocket of the people who are behind these infections.

As per the lookout senior product manager, there is designing of the troll fraud malware for hiding the happenings being done by it and the charges remain unnoticed in the billing statements of the mobile services. There are around 25 million subscribers of lookout services but it was found that in the past twelve months troll fraud virus’s amount climbed from twenty-nine percent to sixty-two percent on devices. The industry of mobile malware has become a matured and viable business model. Fraud of toll is considered as the most prevalent malware. Russia, China, and Eastern Europe are highly infected where the users of smartphones get “apps” from the sources which are unofficial instead of getting them from trusted outlets like Google online shops, Apple (Agency France-Presse, 2012).

The cybersecurityfirms mention that there may be free availability of infected apps at discussion forums, sites of file-sharing or through links which are sent posted on social networks or are sent in messages. Cyber frauds are also gaming legitimate system of apps and are focusing on making improvements and scaling their techniques of distribution. The programs are being created by them for boosting ratings of tainted apps for making them more appealing to smartphone users who are unsuspecting. Very common means of attacks are malicious code by which the websites are booby trapped. The report of Norton found that one in five online adults is victims of cybercrime on mobile devices or at the social network. The users have to be cautious while downloading the apps, have to pay attention to what they are clicking, and should keep watch on their personal Mobiles regarding the same threats (Agency France-Presse, 2012).

Types of Cybersecurity Threats Affecting Enterprise Apps

Impersonating apps: Majority of businesses operate their functions via any online platform or app but when these get affected by any malware, this might be the greatest attack on the business. According to the director of Lookout, there are families of malware spoofing the real business apps to lure individuals to download these threats. The dataset of cell phone code has shown that these malware can impersonate firms by destroying their legitimate app and package name. The following apps are more vulnerable Cisco’ Business Class Email App, FedEx Mobile, ADP, Dropbox, Zendesk, VMware’s Horizon Client, etc. In these cyber-attacks, the actors attempt of tricking unsuspecting users into something which the users will not do normally like sharing malicious files or URL(Francis, 2019).

Shuanet: It basically roots a mobile automatically and get itself installed on the partition of the system and then installs other apps too. These applications could be a threat due to their malicious nature and might push the phone to download other harmful apps or software. Shuanet might cause some serious problems to the organization as it is difficult to remove it from the system. It infects the Mobile of victims through phishing attacks or campaign of exploits kit. On the successful infection, the data of victims are encrypted and later ransom payment is demanded in exchange of the data but there is no guarantee of getting back that data (Francis, 2019).

AndroRAT: This app allows the third party to control the device form remote location and collect the information, such as call logs, contacts, location, messages, and audio from phone. However, at present, it is being used in illegal activities. The occurrence of such cybercrime takes place when personal information of users is accessed by the criminals for stealing financial data as sell byassessinginformation which is confidential or participating in health or tax insurance fraud. Internet or phone account can be opened in the name of users by these criminals for planning the criminal activity and claiming of the benefits of government in the name of the users (Francis, 2019).

UnsafeControl: this app has the potential to collect the personal data of the user and store it in the third party servers. In addition to this, it can spam the contacts of the user or send messages to contacts as commanded by the CNC servers. The risk associated with them is that online harassment is involved in this in which the users get a plethora of emails and online message. For intimidating users or instilling fear, personal information and contacts are used by the cyberstalkers (Francis, 2019).

PJApps: This is one of the serious malwares for mobile systems as it has the potential to leak the phone number, IMEI number, location, etc. These are the compromised Mobile’s networks which are controlled by remote hackers. PJApp has the capability to download other application to the system. Through botnets, remote hackers attack other mobile by sending information to the hackers for monetary gain or send spam. For business, this is the concerning issue for the business as their business plans and strategies might get stolen.Theseare also used for performing malicious activities and acting as malware (Uma.et.al, 2013).

Ooqqxx: This is the most irritating application for most of the mobile users as it comprises an advertising network that may push advertisement on the users’ notification bar and create popups. In addition to this, this might hang the mobile phone by putting malware in the mobile. Any personal information or data can be stolen by hackers. For the protection of information and data, there must be strong security control (Francis, 2019).

Ethical theories and their application

Ethical theories are the theories which deal with principles of morals and helps in describing the human character. The distinction can be made easily between the right and wrong. Individual’s behavior can be understood in detail with the help of these theories and how particular behavior is handling well is also get to be known by these theories. Following ethical theories are there as described below-

Deontology- This theory state that there should be adherence of people towards duties and obligations while engaging in decision-making. As per this theory, an individual should follow his or her obligations to other society or individual due to the correctness of upholding one’s duty which is ethically considered as correct. There are many positive attributes that are contained in deontology along with some flaws (Al-Aidaros.et.al, 2013).

Utilitarian- It is based on the ability of an individual of predicting action’s consequences. Rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism are the two utilitarianism types. In act utilitarianism, an individual should perform such acts and actionsregardless of societal or personal constraints such as lawswhich provide benefits to most of the people. Law is taken into by the rule utilitarianism and it is concerned with fairness. Most of the people are benefitted by this through fair and just means. Rule utilitarianism values justice and beneficiaries are included at the same time.

Virtue- in this ethical theory the person is judged on the basis of his or her character instead of judging by an action which may deviate person from his normal behavior. Motivation, morals, and reputation are taken into account at the time of rating irregular and unusual behavior which is considered unethical. By applying this theory the ethical misconduct can be checked and unethical behavior can be controlled. But there is one limitation of the virtue ethical theory that it does not take into account change in the moral character of the person.

Contract- As per this theory every individual has some responsibilities and duties towards the society as we all live in this society. Actions of the individual should be such which benefits society as a whole and should not harm society either directly or indirectly (Shafer-Landau, 2012).

Recommendations for preventing against the cybercrime

• For protecting against the phishing users should exercise caution around email attachments or suspicious links.
• Login page domains should be checked for protecting against the malware for the web accounts. Security updates should be implemented as soon as possible and passwords should be stored in a location which is secured such as password manager.
• Before entering credentials ensure if the websites are safe
• Updated application system or antivirus
• Suspicious emails should be reported and flag
• Users must become vigilant at the time of browsing for the websites
• The data recovery plan should be formulated by the users for their Mobiles. By this, the victims of ransomware can get their data back for free
• Social media settings should be managed properly. Personal and private information should be locked down. Public sharing should be less as social engineering cybercriminals can get the personal and private information of the individual with the use of just a few points of data (Schjolberg, 2012).
• The firewall should be used for monitoring traffic between a network or Mobileand the internet and it serves as the great defense’s first line.
• Safe surfing should be practiced while navigating the web. Precautions should be taken for avoiding phony websites that ask for the information which is personal and pages containing malware.
• Secure wireless networks. Data can be accessed by the hackers while it is in transit on a wireless network which is unsecured. Hackers can be kept out by firewall enabling on the router and changing the administration password of the router (Almadhoob,&Valverde, 2014).

Conclusion

Hence it can be concluded at the end that cybercrime has become one of the main ethical issues at present and many countries are sufferings due to this. There are even rise in the smartphone cyber-attacks. Phishing, malware, ransomware, denial of service, piracy, and electronic money laundering are various types of cyber-attackswhich can be prevented by the application of the ethical theories including utilitarianism, virtue, contract, and deontology. In the end, many recommendations are provided which should be taken into consideration for protection against the cyber-crime. Ensure that the websites are safe before entering the credentials, applications should be updated and anti-viruses should be downloaded. There should be reporting of suspicious emails.

References

• Agency France-Presse., 2012. Security firms see a rise in smartphone cyber-attacks. [online]. Gadgets360. Retrieved from https://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/security-firms-see-rise-in-smartphone-cyber-attacks-264295. [Accessed on 24 April 2019]
• Aggarwal, P., Arora, P., &Ghai, R. (2014). Review on cybercrime and security. International Journal of Research in Engineering and Applied Sciences, 2(1), 48-51.
• Al-Aidaros, A. H., Shamsudin, F. M., &Idris, K. M. (2013). Ethics and ethical theories from an Islamic perspective. International Journal of Islamic Thought, 4, 1.
• Almadhoob, A., &Valverde, R. (2014). Cybercrime prevention in the Kingdom of Bahrain via IT security audit plans. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 65(1), 274-292.
• D., (2019). 5 Types of Cybercrime and How to Protect Against Them. [online]. Meta Compliance. Retrieved from: https://www.metacompliance.com/blog/5-types-of-cybercrime-and-how-to-protect-against-them/. [Accessed from 24 April 2019]
• Broadhurst, R., Grabosky, P., Alazab, M., Bouhours, B., & Chon, S. (2014). An analysis of the nature of groups engaged in cybercrime. An Analysis of the Nature of Groups engaged in Cyber Crime, International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 8(1), 1-20.
• Buchan, R. (2012).Cyberattacks: unlawful uses of force or prohibited interventions?. Journal of Conflict and Security Law, 17(2), 212-227
• Francis, R. (2019). 5 active mobile threats spoofing enterprise apps. Retrieved from https://www.techworld.com.au/slideshow/600945/5-active-mobile-threats-spoofing-enterprise-apps/
• McGuire, M., & Dowling, S. (2013). Cybercrime: A review of the evidence. Summary of key findings and implications. Home Office Research report, 75.
• Schjolberg, J. (2012). Recommendations for potential new global legal mechanisms against global cyber attacks and other global cybercrimes. EastWest Institute (EWI) Cybercrime Legal Working Group.[Online] Available at: www. cybercrime law. net/documents/ICTC. pdf.
• Shafer-Landau, R. (Ed.). (2012). Ethical theory: an anthology(Vol. 13). John Wiley & Sons.
• Uma, M., &Padmavathi, G. (2013). A Survey on Various Cyber Attacks and their Classification. IJ Network Security, 15(5), 390-396.
• Weissbrodt, D. (2013). Cyber-conflict, Cyber-crime, and Cyber-espionage. J. Int'l L., 22, 347.