Dr Sudershan Kumar
In twenty first century, advancement in technology has made man dependent on internet for all his needs. This is because an Internet has given an easy access to everything while sitting at one place. Social networking, online shopping, storing data, gaming, online study, online jobs and every possible thing that man can think of can be done through the medium of internet. It is not out of context to mention here that the internet is used almost in every sphere of life. With the development of the internet and its relative benefits developed the concept of Cyber crime. These Cyber crimes are committed in different forms as compared to other crimes. In India, Cyber crimes have reached up to a couple of millions. On the average there are nearly 4000 online offensives per day. The number of unreported Cyber crimes in India and other parts of the world is an another issue. As per the information available through open sources, the annual estimation of Cyber fraud around the globe is worth trillion US dollars.
This may be because of extensive use of internet, smart phones, I pods, computers and easy availability of software, hardware tools along with 5G communication network. Further the digitization has also transformed the society. In this modern era there is hardly anyone who does not possess smart phone connected with internet for his day to day activities. Although in twenty first century, which is designated as the century of technology is a welcome step but the greed of human being and lust of mankind for worldly pleasures has nurtured Cyber crime in many ways. Therefore, a question arises what is a Cyber crime? How many types of Cyber crimes are committed by Cyber criminals? How artificial intelligence has increased Cyber crimes manifold? Cyber crime is defined as a crime unlawful act where computer is used as a tool, target or both for unauthorized access to some computer system without the permission of rightful owner or place for criminal activity that include everything from online cracking to denial of service attacks. Some examples of Cyber crime include email based online lotteries, ATM, cloning, credit card frauds, online transaction frauds, Cyber defamation, Child Pornography, Spooking and many others. For the information of common man, few are described briefly. First, online lottery worth millions: In mid 1990s an email based online lotteries had initially started in South African countries subsequently it covered the whole of the globe. Now more than 10 million emails are generated every day. Most of the time victims were declared as winners of these lotteries. The victims greed and ambitions to become rich overnight is the key behind the fraudsters to flourish., Second, during COVID-19 pandemic Ponzi scam was unearthed by agencies. Nearly 350 cases were solved.
In fact, Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that pays existing customers from the new investors. These schemes tends to collapse when there are no new investors. In greed of earning more money from their savings, many innocent people were duped. Thirdly, in the year 2017 ATM cloning was an other scam, where the victims were innocent customers of banks without committing any wrong. However these scams were adequately addressed by banks after introducing chip based plastic cards. Fourthly, the lust of human being for worldly pleasures including the companionship has been encashed by Cyber fraudsters by laying Honey Traps and Sextortion. Besides, hackers in collusion with rogue state can get involved in hacking the states massive computer network with sole aim of paralyzing the digital infrastructure and also in stealing the data of big houses using phishing techniques and introducing malware. Further these crimes has increased manifold with the discovery of Artificial intelligence (AI). Therefore it is utmost important to know about the Artificial Intelligence and how the technology which has revolutionized the digital world for the benefits of mankind with applications in almost every sphere of life can be exploited by criminals for destruction of human values of civilization. AI is a study of how people think, work, learn and decide in every situation of life. Whether it is connected to problem solving, learning something new thinking locally or coming up with some new solutions. Therefore, AI is a computer based technology, which simulates human intelligence processes knowledge based systems, natural language processes, speech recognition and machine vision etc. Some of the notable examples of Artificial Intelligence are Chatbot (originally chatter bot), Chat GPT (advance linguistic model capable of generating human like responses and engaging in natural language conversions), Google maps, Smart Assistants, Self driven car, Snap chat filters (for recognition of facial pictures), Wearable (for health monitoring) and very advanced tools especially Chat GPT-4 etc.
Chat GPT-4 has more reasoning and understanding thus called by company as Open AI. As per the interview in which the Godfather of Artificial Intelligence the Noble Laureate Geoffrey Hinton has claimed that the advanced version of this Chat Bot will have one trillion connections. Thus it will surpass human brain having 100 trillion connections. Once it surpasses human brain then it will start taking its own decisions and will be difficult to control the Machine. This will lead to catastrophe. Many occasions during conversation he regretted for the idea of discovering Artificial intelligence which revolutionized the world in digital era and also had greater risk for human civilization. This idea of use of AI for benefits of human civilization reaffirms the famous quote of 19th century French Author and politician Victor Hugo, who once said “No power on earth can stop an idea, whose time has come”. which means that once the idea has gained enough traction and support it is unstoppable. This is because the ideas are powerful forces that shape the world around us. So is in case of Artificial Intelligence.Besides benefits,there are many more,the most dangerous crimes that artificial intelligence will create. From target Phishing campaigns to new stalking methods.There are plenty of ways the AI can be used to cause harm if it fell in to the hands of Cyber criminals. At the top of the list the most severe threat is from Deep Fake. By using Fake video and Audio one can impersonate one another to another person. This threat range from discrediting public figures to influence public opinion extorting funds from some one’s children/relative over video calls. Aside from Deep Fake, five other AI enabled crimes were judged to be of high concern.
These were using driver less vehicles weapons, helping to craft more tailored made phishing messages, spear phishing, disrupting AI controlled systems, harvesting on line information for the purpose of large scale blackmail, and AI authored fake news. Crimes of medium concern include the sales of items fraudulently leveled as AI such as security screening and targeted advertising. Besides the crime of low concern include the bulgar texts, small robots to gain entry through access point with a purpose of extracting sensitive information etc. Unlike many traditional crimes, the crimes in digital realm can be easily shared, repeated, and even sold as service. That means criminal may be able to out source some challenging aspects of AI based crime. The tools used by criminals are chat GPT, Worm GPT, Dark web, Dark Bert, Dark Bart and may others. It is worth maintaining here that any advancement ultra modern technology like Artificial Intelligence has posed many challenges to mankind.The tools of AI technology , which are meant for benefits of human race will be easily available to Cyber criminals. So it poses a greater risk to values of human civilization, if it is not used in responsible way. Therefore it is high time that the countries, which are in race for development for ultra modern AI based technology for the use of common man must look in a responsible way the darker side of AI landing into the hands of anti social elements/ Cyber criminals. Cyber crime like any other crime has no territorial boundaries.Therefore in the absence of any common protocols between the countries at international level, the Cyber crime committed in any corner of the world will go undetected.
Therefore it is the responsibility of common man and Government agencies to minimize the Artificial Intelligence based Cyber crime to some extent.As a vigilant citizen,one should not share his personnel information viz banks details including account number, pan number, Adhar card, ATM details passwords, OTP for online transaction any other money related information with a stranger either on the basis of call or on text messages.Also refrain from down loading unnecessary alluring Apps/links. One should also avoid befriending on What Apps/Facebook. Further with the advancement in development in ultra modern technology agencies around the globe will have to upgrade the guidelines for detection and solving these crimes. More over the countries ,which are developing these technology have to act in more responsible way for safe use of technology. Our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi has purposed a robust frame work for safe and responsible use of AI for the betterment of all sections of society. This is applicable for the global approach. Globally, detailed protocol is required to be framed to the extent that cyber criminals could not lay their hands on acquiring the advanced tools of Artificial Intelligence for destruction of human values of civilization of modern era of digital world. If the countries do not evolve the common strategy then, In that case the humanity is going to face grater danger in the near future. Undoubtedly, the next war will be fought on Cyber space. Today’s world is trying hard to prepare such warfare. The leaders of twenty first century need to think about the ideas that can save the humanity from the clutches of this civilization based on ultra-modern technology.
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