The New Crime
Created to be a military intelligence weapon by the US Defense Department, the Internet is now a vast mediocre commodity. The Internet is a publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. Therefore, people from every corner and crevice of the world can be found on the web. The Internet is becoming an increasingly popular form of entertainment and supplements the television. People of all types go online to entertain themselves, keep up to date with the news, and now with e- commerce, conduct their business. However, anything that appears to be too good is usually just that. "People of all types" includes the opportunistic criminals of the world whom look only to benefit themselves at the expense of other's lives, misfortune, and misery. With good intentions the internet can be a safe place, but the Internet can also be used as a mediated channel of communication in which criminals can research, conduct, and conceal their crimes with little or no resistance from security. It is a channel that has given birth to a new breed of criminals that have only just begun to uncover the depths and horrifying potential of cyber crime. The Internet is immensely vast. With little effort on
Computer viruses have been a threat to people and businesses since the beginning of the computer era, but now with the use of the net, a virus can be distributed to a countless amount of people in a small amount of time. A review from the Law Review from the University of the Pacific called "Prosecuting Computer Virus Authors," says "However, a new villain - the virus author - has surfaced, bringing a new crime into the international forum: the spread of the computer virus. Free from the fear of prosecution, the virus author feels no need to stop wreaking global havoc," (Cesare, 2001) and because the virus is spread over the net, the author is very difficult to trace. After researching and obtaining the information they need to complete the criminal act, criminals then commit the crime. Using the Internet offers a fairly safe smokescreen which the criminals can hide. In an article by Bruce Schneirer called "Semantic Network Attacks"(2001) Schneirer writes about a forged internet wire from Emulex Corp. that dispersed false information making a business drop over 61% of its value in stocks. The perpetrator was trying to make money off the stock movements. Although this net-offender was caught rather quickly, "with better planning, a similar attack could do more damage and be more difficult to detect," (Schneirer, 2001) anyone with a crude knowledge of computers can send out false information to companies and collect huge on the stock market. If this type of crime was perfected it would mean horror for the world stock market. To students, teachers, web surfers and businessmen with good intent, the net can be a safe and useful asset to contemporary life. However, to criminals with the intent to steal, cheat and murder, the Internet can be a handy tool to assist them with committing their unlawful deeds. The Internet has proven time and time again to provide criminals with the information they need to research a crime. The net has also given criminals a medium in which to commit their crimes and provide a haven in order to protect themselves from the consequences of the acts. The law, in all it's effort has proven to be ineffective in the prevention of net-crimes, but seems to be adapting slowly to the new trend of the criminal world. Without some immediate action the internet will continue to be a well-played pawn in the hands of the masterminds of new-aged crime; law enforcement may as well be phantoms, ever watching and waiting, but without the power to make a difference. Netcrimes have risen dramatically in the past few years and as usual, the laws c
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1749
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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