Riya Jain
6 min readDec 20, 2020

Title- Virtual Crime Block

About my company-

The nature of cyber terrorism has rapidly changed in the past 15 years and it has caused lot of damages, whether we consider individuals, governments or even countries. We believe what do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone. Know your customer and have a burning desire to succeed and achieve new heights.

“Virtual crime block” will not only let people report any anti-national activity taking place on any social platform but also report if they encounter one in person. Individuals can report or talk to the analysts via text messages, providing snapshots of the activity they encounter and even send direct link. It is very easy to use and safe, no part of your information will be sent out.

MARKET DEMAND-

The present cyber threat landscape poses significant challenges due to rapid technological developments in our country and keeping that in mind it is very important for us to create a cyberspace which counters such activities. The world is online which gives a safe space for intruders to work on their propaganda using social platforms. People also tend to steal identities and misuse them in order to achieve their agendas. The “Virtual crime block”, will also provide advantage to people that if their identity is being used by someone else then they can report the same on this app. Concern about the potential danger posed by cyberterrorism is alarming and action must be taken.

RELEVANT PRODUCTS IN THE MARKET-

Many products related to my Idea does not exist or are not in action, but some relevant products are, Wireshark: It is a free and open-source packet analyser. Wireshark captures network traffic from Ethernet, Bluetooth, Wireless (IEEE) which can be used to pull the wanted users information and it also traces the IP address of the same. Nmap is also such network scanning tool, uses IP packets to identify all the devices connected to the wanted network and to provide information on the services. Aircrack-ng is a network software suite consisting of a detector, packet sniffer, WEP and WPA/WPA2-PSK cracker. However, these apps do not allow an individual to report the counters taking place to any authority which the “Virtual crime block” will provide. We cannot limit others or their abilities, but we can challenge ourselves everyday and change the world.

TARGET CUSTOMERS:

Cyberterrorists, who are very skilled in terms of hacking can cause massive damage to government systems, hospital records, and national security programs, which might leave a country, community or organization in turmoil and in fear of further attacks. Every citizen of our country is affected by such crimes, which leads to negative impact ranging from threats to life, causing depression, regulatory fines or disrupting daily activities. The virtual crime block app is safe to use and user friendly. Cyber attacks can lead a person to have a negative perception of technology which can provide numerous oppurtunities and drop in morale and trust in organisations, hence we think this app if for everyone who is indulged in technology.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE OR EXPERTISE-

In order to develop an app based on cyber security, an individual must have analytical skills and understand what user wants, problem solving, communication, attention to detail, an understanding of basic hacking are basic skills required as it will help us to relate to problems taking place in real life and find a solution for the same. Python, Java, C++, SQL are some of the basic languages which the Virtual crime block supports. Besides technical aptitude, the concepts of Object-Oriented Programming are necessary. A cyber security expert must be able to operate the IDS and then identify any suspicious traffic on the network as well as any security policy violations. The only hardware required is a laptop or a desktop. We will be using android studio and X-code for developing the application, so that this can be downloaded in mobile phones.

The problem and my solution-

The problem existing apps deal with is they do not provide sure shot solution to the counter activities, and they are majorly based on cyber transaction frauds, cyber stalking, and cyber crime which includes of capturing specific traffic, such as communication between two internet protocol addresses or DNS. The other apps may also scan for insecure passwords and physical file paths available in libraries. They may also help in identifying areas of insecure wireless security which may also leave a Wi-Fi network open for an attack. Such apps are difficult to use for people who do not know technical terms or are unfamiliar with all the security functions. My app the “Virtual crime block” will be easy to use, it will provide guidelines for the user which will clear all the functions, uses, technicalities included in working of my app as data beats emotions. It will also very well tell the user why this app is important for an individual.

Estimated Budget:

The known financial services spend 10% of their IT budgets on cybersecurity. That is approximately 0.3% to 0.9% of the company’s revenue or $1,300 to $3,000 spent per full time employee. Considering the cost for Virtual crime block, on average the employee salary will be $50 per hour. A medium complexity app takes from 800 to 1200 hours. On breaking down the basic features, Login page takes 18–20 hours which is $1500-$2000, then for making a profile which is a safe deal costs about $1000-$1200, file uploading feature again costs $1000-$2000, push notifications through which user can get informed how the authorities took the matter can cost $1250-$2100. The basic admin feature which includes user management, payment methods can totally cost $3500-$4000.

Product pricing: Such apps which work for the safety of a country, government and its people is usually government funded. As it will be easy for them to pick out the imposters who are up to some anti-national activities. However, this app will provide a package where the user can buy it in order to experience premium services.

Risk analysis-

Weak Server-side controls, servers become a primary target that gets exploited by the hackers, and the only way can prevent them is to scan the apps. The lack of binary projections can be one of the major risks as an adversary can reverse engineer the desired code and threat of malware may increase. The insecure data storage is another loophole as the client storage is not the sandbox environment to store data. The data can be easily accessed or manipulated, which may result in identity theft, reputation damage and other threats. Poor or missing authentication allows an adversary to anomalously operate the backend server of the app. The users are not expected to be offline throughout, and mobile connections are not as reliable as web connections, this offline requirement can again create several security loopholes but we believe in turning risks into assets, and we’ll work on that since day one.

Milestone and Timeline-

We believe in delivering high end product, and hence considering the time taken to deliver that our product “Virtual crime block” will be available to users by 17 January 2024. Assembling a team, working on the initial phase, design creation, software requirement specifications (SRS), testing the application, looking for improvements as we believe “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” and then finally application release.

By-Riya Jain,

Bennett University

Riya Jain

Security Analyst | Penetration Tester | Red Team | Blue Team | eJPT|CAP | CND | Purple Team