Social networking sites have been emerged as very useful and powerful medium for the people to communicate and stay connected with their family and friends. In today’s cyber world, these sites play very important role in a person’s life and have touched several aspects of life. Social networking sites are very popular among the teenagers and youths who spend quite enough time on these sites. They make new friends here and maintain their relation with family and friends. Another aspect of this picture is the vulnerability of people who use these social networking sites. They are a soft target for the criminals and increasing instances are a matter of concern for the law implementing agencies. This paper discusses the social networking, computer forensics and several related aspects.
Internet has empowered the users to connect with other people and the process has been accelerated by the emergence of social networking sites. Networking sites like Facebook, my space and twitter are very popular and used by millions. Though these sites have been found vulnerable and the same has been proved by a number of instances. Social networking sites are like safe heavens for the sexual predators, economic offenders and other cyber criminals. Many criminals are also available on these sites like other common people. They intermingle with their targets, know everything about them and trap them whenever they get appropriate opportunity. It has been observed that People often disclose their personal details on these sites which is manipulated by the criminals and used against the users of networking sites. A number of unfortunate incidents reveal such tendency and modus operandi of criminals which has been very excruciating for the police and other crime investigating agencies.
The cyber criminals have committed several crimes using the information found on the social networking sites. These crimes include sexual crimes, economic crimes, and crimes like kidnapping, murder and abduction. An example of such incidents was reported from League City where a fourteen year girl was communicating with a thirty eight year old man. When the parents of the teenager found her activity suspicious, they contacted the police and police team started chatting with the sexual predator and pretended to be the girl. They informed that she is just fourteen years but the man on the other side was okay with it. He was called at a meeting spot, was charged with the sexual assault on a child and was arrested. The abovementioned example followed by several other incidents was an eye opener for the security personnel and the cyber crime investigation team took it as the upcoming challenge.
There is a provision for Cyber police in almost all the countries, this wing deals with the crimes related to the cyber world. The cyber crime wing keeps eye on the activities of cyber world. There are several economic frauds and other crimes that take place on the internet and cyber crime department uses its expertise and technical skills to prevent these crimes and to trace the criminals if the crime is not prevented from taking place. A number of technical innovations have been done in this field. It is not easy for the criminals to remain free after doing crimes though huge number of transactions, millions of internet connections and huge number of users make the whole episode difficult. Today the cyber department is overburdened due to the variety of challenges presented to the department by the criminals.
Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime: An Introduction is a comprehensive book written by Marjie T. Britz on this subject. The book provides all the relevant information related to cyber crime and also gives account of the legal issues involved in the issue. The book further discusses the remedies and clues about the probable steps to prevent the cyber crime and further talks about the legislation related to the cyber crime. The author has provided very useful information related to the cyber world and discussed social, legal and technical issues. Several researches have been done by author to prove his arguments and appropriate examples are given at the required places. Author talks about several the methods that can be used in solving the cyber crime cases. The book is very helpful for the people related to the cyber world.
After having observed the abovementioned analysis, it is good to say that social networking sites are playing very important role in the life of people. These sites help people in connecting with family, friends, new people and also in sharing information on internet. These sites are very useful but there are a number of crimes happening on the internet. Criminals are utilizing the information provided by the users of social networking sites for their own purpose of committing crimes. These networking sites are producing several challenges for the cyber crime department and number of such crimes is increasing on regular basis.
References
Britz, M. T. (2008). Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime: An Introduction. New Jersy: Prentice Hall.
Moore, R. (2010). Cybercrime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Schrobsdorff, S. (2006, January 26). The Daily Beast. Retrieved February 19, 2012, from www.thedailybeast.com: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2006/01/26/predator-s-playground.html
