Computer Crime
James George states that it is a story as old as humanity: "New times bring new crimes" (97, F1). First came cars, car thieves followed. Telephones were followed by telephone fraud. Now we have computers. Computers have made home, school and office life easier. Our society relies on computers. As a result of this dependency, computer use grows everyday. Along with the growing use of computers comes widespread computer crime. With the Internet becoming increasingly popular, more and more people are becoming computer literate, and networks are becoming more readily accessible. The rise in computer crime can easily be blamed upon the increasing number of users. The Internet is widely deemed as a new community and "wild" electric frontier. Either way you look at it, the Internet offers cover for con artists, ground for drifters, and plenty of places where larceny can lurk. It provides the same opportunities for crime that the real world offers. Internet crimes, however, carry their own intricacies and innovations. These online crimes take advantage of the very same technologies that make the Internet possible. The Parkers noted that the most common crimes committed on the Internet are the
Data theft is another way of committing a computer crime. For example, if an office manager of a stock law firm obtained merger and acquisition information from one of the company's files, he could then use that information to trade the securities of the companies involved with the merger. In this case, the criminal would make millions of dollars from trading the related securities, and the companies could end up at a huge loss. Output theft commonly occurs when information is taken from another's printout or screen. This information is then used to profit unfairly. The motivation behind terrorist attacks is simple: why knock out electricity in only one city when you can do the same for an entire state? Computer facilities and technology companies are a terrorist's choice attacks since the damage can be more widespread and devastating. Grudge attacks are committed for one reason only, revenge. Former employees often commit grudge attacks as the result of a recent firing or demotion. Other computer criminals include terrorists, company competitors, and aggravated employees. Aggravated employees are a company's worst nightmare since they have easy access to the companies system, and are usually fired or leave on bad terms. Competitors will often do whatever is necessary to get an edge on their industry leaders by riffling through their competitors' trash, bugging phone lines, and now breaking into their competitors' networks in an attempt to gather inside information. Terrorists are becoming more computer literate because they realize the amount of information regarding the government defense are stored and found on computers. Terrorists are also targeting technology and utility companies because they realize the damage caused would be widespread and devastating. Various techniques are used to commit computer crimes including a trapdoor, round down, salami, masquerading, and eavesdropping. A trapdoor is a set of computer instructions that will let a user bypass the system's normal controls. It is usually used during system development and removed before system operation. If the trapdoor is left in place, it is done so in order to allow access to the system easily. The round down technique takes advantage of financial institutions, more specifically those that pay interest. A user of the financial institution's system, such as a knowledgeable band teller, can program instructions into the business's system that will round down all interest calculations to two decimal places instead of carrying out half cents or even smaller amounts of pocket change. The user then can deposit the difference into their account. While this may not seem very profitable, the fractional cents add up very quickly. The salami technique is also used to s! Internet users should always be extremely cautious about releasing any important information on the web. Even secured transactions are not always safe from fraud. Tools used to break into computer systems can be obtained easily. Many can be found on underground Internet sites, discussion groups, or private bulleting boards on the web. These break-in programs are becoming more and more user-friendly to allow perpetrators to point and click their way around any system. In this world of computer crimes, how does one go about protecting themselves? For starters, a way to privatize your e-mail is to use an anonymous re-mailer. A re-mailer is a free service that allows you to send anyone an e-mail message without the recipient knowing who sent the message. A person who may not want their identity to be known may send a message to someone through an anonymous re-mailer who, in turn, will assign them a different e-mail address through them. After assigning this new address, ! ellectual challenge. Crackers are considered malicious with the intention of harming or causing damage to a computer system. The motivations behind crackers' actions are profits, reven
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2850
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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