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Thesis
Title:
Internet Crimes in the Saudi Society
Prepared
By:
Mohammad A.
A. Alminshawi
Supervisor:
Colonel Dr. Mohammad I Alsaif.
Thesis
Defence Committee:
1. Colonel Dr. Muhammad I
Alsaif (supervisor and reporter)
2. Professor Ibrahim
Alsha'ir (discussant)
3. Dr. Ali A. Almusallam
(discussant)
Defence
Date:
27/2/1424 H – 29/4/2003 AD
Research Problem:
Specifying and determining the most recurrent internet
crimes in the Saudi society, specially those that pertain to
sex, hacking, finance, creating or surfing opponent
websites, and piracy. And also characterizing those who
commit those crimes.
Research
Importance:
The study
can be utilized to face, deal with, and control internet
crimes. It might also help researchers in human, social, and
police sciences in creating useful concepts on explaining
behavioral phenomena that pertain to internet usage, which
needs be thoroughly studied and researched, and also to draw
the attention of the judicial and legal systems to such
criminal acts committed by PC and internet users in order to
set judicial and legal standards for treating and judging
such cases. The researcher also hopes to draw the attention
of education and press officials, masjid public speakers,
technological organizations, and parents as to control and
limit those crimes. The dangers of such acts and crimes are
also made subject to clarification and manifestation in this
study.
Research
Objectives:
The purpose
of this study is to uncover the most recurrent internet
crimes of any nature such as sexual abuse, immorality,
hacking, financial crimes, opponent websites, and piracy.
The subject of this study is the internet users in the Saudi
society. It also tries to characterize those who commit such
crimes.
Research
Questions:
How
recurrent are sexual, immoral, hacking, financial, opponent
websites' surfing and managing, and piracy crimes that are
committed by internet users in the Saudi society? And what
are their main characteristics?
Research
Methodology & Tools:
the method
used in this study is social surveys. The whole community
targeted in the study is all of the internet users in the
Saudi society who reach about 150.000 users according to
KACST's (King AbdulAziz City for Science and Technology)
census issued at the time of determining the study
community.
The questionnaire was distributed in a manner that assures
that all of the study community members get the chance to
answer it. A total of 10.138 questionnaires were answered,
274 questionnaires were discarded for being incompletely
answered. Any questionnaire that contains at least 40
unanswered questions out of the total 62 questions is always
ignored. Thus the total number of questionnaires used in the
study is 9.891, a ratio of 6.59% of the total study
community, which is methodically accepted.
The questionnaire is utilized to get the necessary data from
the study field. It was designed specially for this study
after having it methodically standardized. The questionnaire
contains 62 questions allotted to seven main axes.
.
Important findings:
1.
The recurrences of sexual
and immoral practices done by internet users in the Saudi
society is as follows:
- visiting
websites of sexual contents: 5341 users (54.3% of the total
users).
- 1675 users (19.2%) searched for pornographic contents in
these websites.
- 1791 users (18.3%) subscribed to mailing lists of sexual
nature.
- 235 users (2.4%) constructed website(s) of sexual
contents.
- 410 users (4.2%) established mailing lists of sexual
contents.
- 283 users (2.9%) defamed others.
- 278 users (2.8%) were subjected to defamation.
- 428 users (4.4%) had their relatives subjected to
defamation.
- 4055 users (41.2%) used a proxy to visit blocked websites.
- 1660 users (16.9%) used special software to surf
anonymously.
- 1156 users (11.8%) used special software to send email
messages anonymously.
- 1153 users (11.7%) disguised in other users' identities in
surfing or using email.
2.
The recurrences of hacking
crimes committed by internet users in the Saudi society is
as follows:
- 1348 users
(13.7%) destroyed websites.
- 381 users (3.9%) had their websites destroyed.
- 548 users (5.6%) hacked websites of governmental nature.
- 529 users (5.3%) hacked commercial websites.
- 869 users (8.9%) hacked personal websites.
- 376 users (13.2%) hacked local websites.
- 140 users (5.0%) hacked GCC (Gulf states) websites.
- 83 users (2.9%) hacked other Arab (non-GCC) websites.
- 88 users (3.1%) hacked Asian (non-Arab) websites.
- 9 users (0.3%) hacked African (non-Arab) websites.
- 51 users (1.8%) hacked European websites.
- 14 users (0.5%) hacked South American websites.
- 221 users (7.8%) hacked USA and Canadian websites.
- 1860 users (65.4%) do not recall the websites they hacked.
- 456 users (4.7%) had their websites hacked.
- 1688 users (17.3%) hacked PCs.
- 3278 users (33.3%) had their PCs hacked.
- 1479 users (15.1%) hacked email accounts.
- 1531 users (15.6%) had their email account(s) hacked.
- 1570 users (16.0%) occupied email accounts.
- 1084 users (11.0%) had their email account(s) occupied.
- 1017 users (10.3%) flooded (bombed) email accounts.
- 1832 users (18.6%) had their email account(s) flooded
(bombed).
- 1697 users (17.3%) stole others' ISP accounts.
- 1531 users (15.6%) had their ISP accounts stolen.
- 1211 users (12.3%) sent viruses and trojans.
- 5138 users (52.2%) had their PCs infected by viruses.
3.
The recurrences of
financial crimes committed by internet users in the Saudi
society is as follows:
- 435 users (4.4%) stole Credit Cards accounts.
- 126 users (1.3%) had their Credit Cards accounts stolen.
- 500 users (5.1%) gambled.
- 444 users (4.5%) committed forgery through the internet.
- 414 users (4.2%) visited websites of organized crimes.
- 290 users (3.0%) visited drugs' websites.
- 177 users (1.8%) visited money laundering websites.
- 791 users of those who visited websites of organized
crime, drugs, and money laundering (42.2%) surfed them for
scientific reasons.
- 839 users of those who visited websites of organized
crime, drugs, and money laundering (44.7%) surfed them out
of curiosity or by chance.
- 106 users of those who visited websites of organized
crime, drugs, and money laundering (5.7%) surfed them to use
their contents in committing crimes.
- 139 users of those who visited websites of organized
crime, drugs, and money laundering (7.4%) surfed them to
become members in those criminal organizations.
4.
The recurrences of
establishing or cooperating with opponent websites by
internet users in the Saudi society is as follows:
- 261 users (2.6%) established politically opponent
websites.
- 1336 users (13.6%) subscribed voluntarily in politically
opponent websites.
- 736 users (7.5%) were subject to compulsory subscription
in politically opponent websites.
- 561 users (5.75%) established religious websites, out of
whom 500 users (5.11%) established Sunni websites, 43 users
(0.43%) established Shiite websites, 5 users (0.05%)
established Christian websites, 3 users (0.03%) established
Jewish websites, 2 users (0.02%) established Buddhist
websites, 3 users (0.03%) established Hindu websites, and 5
users (0.05%) established Atheistic websites.
- 3728 users (38.06%) subscribed in religious mailing lists,
out of whom 3455 users (35.30%) subscribed in Sunni lists,
190 users (1.93%) subscribed in Shiite lists, 29 users
(0.29%) subscribed in Christian lists, 10 users (0.10%)
subscribed in Jewish lists, 6 users (0.06%) subscribed in
Buddhist lists,12 users (0.12%) subscribed in Hindu lists,
and 26 users (0.26%) subscribed in Atheistic lists.
- 292 users (3.0%) established hostile websites against
organizations or persons.
5.
The recurrences of piracy
crimes by internet users in the Saudi society is as follows:
- 395 users (4.0%) established pirated software websites.
- 3091 users (31.5%) downloaded pirated software.
- 3182 users (32.4%) used downloading software to download
pirated software.
- 577 users (5.9%) established pirated websites.
The
personal characteristics of those who committed such crimes
and immoral practices were also uncovered and manifested in
details.
It is
clear from the study that the most frequent of internet
crimes in the Saudi society are (in order) hacking, then
financial crimes, and lastly, the least frequent are crimes
and practices of sexual and immoral nature. |
