Computer Crimes
What are Computer Crimes?
There are no precise, reliable statistics on the havoc computer crimes have had on the economy, partly because many of these crimes are apparently not detected by victims or these crimes are never reported to authorities. Nevertheless, there is a consensus among both law enforcement personnel and computer scientists who specialize in security that both the number of computer crime incidents and the sophistication of computer criminals are increasing rapidly. Standler (2002) reports, “estimates are that computer crime costs victims in the USA at least $500,000,000 year, and the true value of such crime might be substantially higher”. Experts in computer security, who are not attorneys, speak of "information warfare". While such "information warfare" is just another name for computer crime, the word "warfare" does fairly denote the amount of damage inflicted on society. Cyber Crime is becoming increasingly prevalent. Cyber thieves assume identities, commit credit card fraud, alter web sites and maliciously destroy online users by setting loose viruses aimed at destroying hardware and software. Babu (2004) categorized cybercrimes into three groups: “Cybercrimes against persons, Cybercrimes against property, and Cybercrimes against government”.
Cybercrimes Against Persons
Cybercrimes perpetrated against persons include unauthorized use of a microcomputer which involves stealing a username or password, creating or releasing a malicious computer program and harassment and stalking by means of cyberspace. Computer criminals are categorized into five types as defined by O’Leary (2007) as “employees, outside users, hackers and crackers, organized crime, and terrorists” (p. 295-296). O’Leary (2007) identified the employee “as the largest category of criminals that commit crimes against people. The employee will steal things from the...
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