CYBER STALKING : THE ONLINE HARRASMENT

Cyber stalking can be defined as the repeated acts of harassment or threatening behavior of the cyber
criminal towards the victim by using internet services.

Since cyber stalking is largely misunderstood, many incorrectly assume that

cyber stalking involves an element of sexual obsession; however, the research
findings are not as conclusive in that regard (Mustaine & Tewksbury 1999).
Mustaine and Tewksbury (1999) propose that stalking is a criminal offense
motivated by interpersonal hostility and aggressive behaviors stemming from
power and control issues rather than material gain or sexual obsession.
(http://www.cybercrimejournal.com/pittaroijccvol1is2.htm)
It is true that both men and women can be stalked on line but the majority of
victims are female. Women are minority of internet population ,and as a result
there is a fierce competition between male users for their attention.
(dudeja V.D : crimes in cyberspace scams and frauds (scams and remedies )
commonwealth publishers , new delhi ,2003 )
Though cyber stalking doesnt involve any physical act , yet, stalking through the
internet has found favour among the offenders for certain advantages available
like, ease of communication and, access to persona information and anonymity.
(S.K. Verma, Raman Mittal, legal dimensions of cyber space, Indian Law
Institute, New Delhi.)
The Cyberbullying Research Center also did a series of surveys that found these cyber bullying
statistics:

Over 80 percent of teens use a cell phone regularly, making it the most popular form of technology and a
common medium for cyber bullying
About half of young people have experienced some form of cyber bullying, and 10 to 20 percent experience
it regularly
Mean, hurtful comments and spreading rumors are the most common type of cyber bullying
Girls are at least as likely as boys to be cyber bullies or their victims
Boys are more likely to be threatened by cyber bullies than girls
Cyber bullying affects all races
Cyber bullying victims are more likely to have low self esteem and to consider suicide

(http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html)
According to a research conducted by WHO in 2013 60% of victims were female and 40% were
male, a huge difference from 2012 when 80% of the victims were female and 20% were male.
This gives us a view about the changing trend in cyber stalking .We also have seen a decrease in male harassers
only 40% in 2013 over 49% in 2012and an increase in harassers whose gender was unknown, which in 2012 was
20%, but last year increased to 30%.
Another important statistics which has came up through this survey is
Over half had a previous relationship with their harasser. Of those:
47% were exes
15% were online acquaintances
15% were work-related
14% were family members
8% were friends/former friends
1% were neighbors

HISTORY
The first recorded cyber crime took place in the year 1820. That is not surprising considering the
fact that the abacus, which is thought to be the earliest form of a computer, has been around
since 3500 B.C. in India, Japan and China. The era of modern computers, however, began with
the analytical engine of Charles Babbage.
In 1820, Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a textile manufacturer in France, produced the loom.
This device allowed the repetition of a series of steps in the weaving of special fabrics. This
resulted in a fear amongst Jacquard's employees that their traditional employment and
livelihood were being threatened. They committed acts of sabotage to discourage Jacquard
from further use of the new technology. This is the first recorded cyber crime.
(prof. chaubey , R.K. ,an introduction to cyber crime and cyber law ,kamal law house 2012)
Interpol was the first international organization dealing with computer crimes and penal
legislation. In conjugation with an Interpol Conference in 1981, a survey of Interpol member
countries on computer crime and penal legislation identified several problems in the application
of existing penal legislation.
(http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime)

The early computers like Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC),
Binary Automatic Computer (BINAC), Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC), and other
punch card tabulation machines had some inherent security advantages.
Around 1960s Commercial computers like Programmed Data Processor (PDP-1) got introduced
with a business model of renting out the machine to companies and individuals on a time sharing
basis.[8] This made the data and programs stored in it vulnerable, and thus the first doors to
hacking were opened. The first hackers group came from Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT) in 1961, shortly after MIT got its first PDP-1 [8]
In the 1970s the first affordable PC Altair 8800 was introduced which was soon followed with a
thirst for full-fledged hacking by some individuals. Simultaneously the emergence of other
computers like the Radio Shacks TRS-80 and the IBM PC brought more powerful computing to
people who were eager to find new ways to exploit the systems capabilities [8].
But these standalone systems limited the potential of damage that could be done once the
machine was compromised. It was only with the introduction of networking concepts that the
floodgates of hacking were opened. The early networking model consisted of a powerful
mainframe to which many terminals are connected to allow users to share files and run programs.
This allowed hackers to access files of other mainframe users and exploit them.
Todays networking technology has improved tremendously, and gone beyond the
mainframe model with new concepts such as peer to peer communication. Standards like
Ethernet enabled vendors to create compatible products that link computers easily and
inexpensively. Interoperability is a key consideration from any business perspective to foster a
healthy ecosystem and improve economic growth. Unfortunately, these open standards also
made it easier for the hackers to break into systems by reverse engineering the widely available
protocols.
As computers became cheaper and started getting mainstream efforts were made for
seamless interaction between them. ARPANet was one such effort and during its design, security
was not a big issue to research scientists as they thought that the small number of nodes on the
network limited the scope of the threat posed by security breaches. However, in 1988, Robert T.
Morris, a graduate student at Cornell University launched a self-replicating worm on the
government's ARPANet to test its effect on UNIX systems. The worm spread all across the
United States, infected thousands of networked computers, clogged government and university
systems and brought the Internet to a standstill. This was the wakeup call to Internet users who
realized that some amidst them harbored malicious intent.
In early1990s, as Internet access became commercially available at an affordable price,
the number of attacks also increased and cyber-crime was now crossing international boundaries.

With the launch of rich browsers like Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet
Explorer, during the mid 90s accessing the information on the Web became easy. Hackers now
started moving their how to information and hacking programs from BBSs to new hacker Web
sites. As information and easy-to-use tools become widely available to anyone with Net access,
the number of attacks also increased drastically.
Conclusion
As every coin has two faces, similar is the concept with cyber development. On one hand it
provides us the various fields of benefit like nowadays being in touch with the remaining world is
just a click away but it risks the various threats with come with it. Like while using social
networking sites being in touch is the main objective but at the price of personal identity and this
personal information is sometimes used by a specific group of people with any evil intentions
known as cyber criminals. Further with the use of this information, sometimes the individuals are

denied of some services, like now-a-days the companies which are interested in hiring the
students for their company go through the facebook profile of that individual which at times
results in the denial of the job considering only his profile. There are cases where individuals are
denied of giving loans by banks based on their profiles of social networking nd totally
disregarding his capability to re-pay the loan.
However this is just one aspect: loss of identity, several other threats are becoming very
common like cyber stalking, financial threats, child pornography, and even the crimes at
international level. A person sitting in Nepal can do a huge disaster at USA and that too just by
sending some signals using the internet.
So on one hand the advancement of technology is very important but with the same rate there is
a need of some technology/ technique to tackle the problems which are arising out of this
advancement.