COMPUTER CRIME

Computer Crime



Computer Crime

Introduction

Business, economic, and white-collar crimes have changed rapidly as computers proliferate into the activities and environments in which these crimes occur. Computers have engendered a different form of crime. The Internet (q.v.), in particular, provides many new avenues for crime, such as identity theft and spreading new kinds of computer viruses. Computers have been involved in most types of crime, including fraud, theft, larceny, embezzlement, bribery, burglary, sabotage, espionage, conspiracy, extortion, attempted murder, manslaughter, distribution of pornography, trespassing, violation of privacy, and kidnapping.

Computer occupations have extended the traditional categories of criminals to include computer programmers, computer operators, tape librarians, and electronic and software engineers who function in new environments. Although crime has traditionally occurred in ordinary human environments, some crime is now perpetrated using personal computers in bedrooms or with mainframe computers in the specialized environment of rooms with raised flooring, lowered ceilings, large gray boxes, flashing lights, moving tapes, and the hum of air-conditioning motors (Parker, 2003).

Discussion and Analysis

The methods of committing crime have changed. A new jargon has developed, identifying automated criminal methods such as data diddling, Trojan horses, viruses, worms, logic bombs, salami techniques, super-zapping, piggybacking, scavenging, data leakage, and asynchronous attacks. The forms of many of the targets of computer crime are also different. Electronic transactions and money, as well as paper and plastic money (credit cards), represent assets subject to intentionally caused automated loss. Money in the form of electronic signals and magnetic patterns is stored and processed in computers and transmitted through the Internet. Money is debited and credited to accounts inside computers. In fact, the computer has become an electronic vault for the business community. Many other physical assets, including inventories of products in warehouses and materials leaving or entering factories, are represented by electronic and optical documents of records ...