COMPUTER CRIMES
INTRODUCTION
Crime: Defined as "an act or the commission of an act that is forbidden or the omission of a duty that is commanded by a public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law". Computer Crime, therefore, to put it simply, means to commit any crime through special knowledge of computer technology. Some say that computer crimes are a reason for not using computers, but crimes would have taken place if there was no computer anyway. For example, some people may hesitate to calculate their company accounts on a computer because they are afraid that someone may hack into their computer and obtain the information. Surely, then, if they did not, a thief could also break into the office and also get the information? The increase in white-collar crime is mainly because of computers as more businesses automate and information becomes an important asset. Computers are labelled objects of crime when they or their contents are damaged, or when a computer virus is introduced into a computer system. As subjects of crime, the computers are actually representing the virtual and electronic environment where frauds are programmed and executed, for example, the transfer of money balances in accounts to perpetrator's accounts for withdrawal. Computers can also be instruments of crime. This happens when computers are used to plan or control such criminal acts as complex embezzlements over a long period of time, or when a computer operator uses a computer to steal valuable information from an employer.
VARIETY AND EXTENT
In
most kinds of crime, the modern criminals use computers. These include fraud,
theft, larceny, embezzlement, burglary, sabotage, espionage, murder, and forgery.
The first case was reported in 1958. Quoted from "New Era Encyclopedia" by
Consumers Marketing Group, Ltd - "One study of 1,500 computer crimes established
that most of them were committed by trusted computer users within businesses
- persons with the requisite skills, knowledge, access, and resources." This
shows us that computer criminals are usually harder to track down and arrest
as their crimes can go undetected for long periods of time given their positions
and knowledge. More so nowadays, with the usage of the Internet and such.
Much of these known computer crimes, though, were committed by entering false
data into computers, which is simpler and safer than the complex process of
writing a program to change data already in the computer. And that is certainly
much simpler and safer than the complex process of writing a program to change
data already in the computer. With the help of personal computers to manipulate
information and access networks by telephone, the numbers of computer crimes
were increased. Most of these crimes were simple but costly electronic trespassing,
copyrighted-information, piracy, and vandalism that were perpetrated by computer
hobbyists otherwise, known fondly as "hackers".
Organized professional criminals have also been known to attack and use computer systems as their surrounding and old activities were being automated. Since there are no valid statistics about the extent of computer crime, most victims would often hesitate to report suspected cases as they can lose more from the embarrassment, lost reputation, litigation and other consequential losses than from the act of crimes themselves. This is why computer crimes are actually more dangerous and destructive than they seem. These limited evidences also lead to the increase in the number of cases of such crimes each year, as the number of computers in business applications where criminal activities were commonly known to take place in are increasing. The largest recorded crimes, though, were usually involving insurance, banking, product inventories, and securities. These have resulted in losses of up to perhaps tens of millions to billions of dollars that are all facilitated by computers.
TYPES OF COMPUTER CRIMES
VIRUS The Information Age have been plagued by this word ever since it started. What is so devastating about it?
PIRACY Piracy is a threat to the software industry. What type of piracy are there . Have you unknownly violated one of the copyright laws? Find out more here.
HACKING The most challenging of perhaps most crimes, hacking makes use of a network or The Internet to infiltrate computer systems and steal otherwise private files.
