Meaning Of A Computer Crime example essay topic

INTERNET CRIMES (c) Belden Singh and Annette John The wired world anticipates the convenient alternative of on-line shopping and e- commerce or e-banking or e-insurance. Imaging science will dramatically improve digitised images, which will be a boom to virtual museums, galleries and telemedicine. Many retailers will become e-tailers. Behind this new dimension of rapid advances in technology is the shady internet criminal. Exceedingly rapid advances in technology leaves loopholes for the criminal mind and slow legal reform adds risk to the technology for consumers. Internet criminals were once thought to be just "hackers" - some idle genius who needed a challenge for pride or to prove a point.

Whether, hacking is carried out for a sense of achievement and satisfaction, it remains an infringement that hits consumer confidence, if not, in some way affects the activity of the honest user of internet facility or computer or cyberspace. In other words, hacking for simply bragging or for political purposes or for illicit gain of any form is an internet offence. Internet offences can be generally classified as shown in Fig. 1... Fig. 1. CLASSES OF INTERNET CRIME ILLEGAL USE. Money laundering.

Porn. Selling illicit drugs. Propaganda by illegal organisations. Defamation, slander. Untrue or false information. Illegal flesh - traffic.

Illegal gambling. Copyright violations of Software. Market manipulation COMPUTER CRIMES. Unauthorised access into a computer. Making unauthorised changes in data or information. Inserting bugs or viruses.

Bombardment of website with junk messages. Defacing websites CYBER CRIME. Cyber touting: stealing or rerouting information from cyberspace to another web-site. Stealing password VIRTUAL CRIME. Use of virtual reality, holograms or projection technology for an illegal purpose Internet crime is a problem that cannot be ignored. Cyber security is as important an issue as enacting new laws.

On the same parity is the need to train "cyber cops" in the police, customs, immigration and anti-corruption units which are coordinated under a central unit. Fortunately, judges are no longer amused by teenage hackers and, rightly the courts are adopting a stern approach on teenage hacking. The courts should be allowed to weigh the seriousness of each internet crime and consider the real impact and damage in every case with less regard for the age of the perpetrator as the criminal act originates in the mind and intellect of the perpetrator and is an "intelligent" crime. This mind, intellect and intelligence is equally capable of deliberation to direct itself as an honest user of the computer, the internet facility and cyberspace at large. A good example is the sender of the virus in the "ILOVEYOU" e - mail.

This is also a good example of a multi-billion dollar damage caused by expanding fewer than a hundred dollars in contrast to the tens of millions of dollars required by a military venture and bombs for an equivalent damage to property. The virus is mightier than a bomb as it can unleash more destruction in many countries. Magistrate Ian Candy of a local court in Hong Kong had initially considered imposing a suspended sentence on a computer technician for hacking into a internet user's chat room account but the global chaos inflicted by the "ILOVEYOU" virus made him reconsider and a custodial sentence was imposed to send a strong message (The Star, 16/05/2000, In-Tech). Most, if not all traditionally criminal activities, such as theft, fraud, forgery or mischief which may be accompanied by damage or loss to third parties are subject to criminal sanctions. The computer system can be used as a tool to carry out such criminal activities and it exists as a phenomenon. A computer crime is any illegal act that involves a computer system where the computer is used as a tool for committing a crime.

Many telecommunications systems are themselves a computer system and any unauthorised use or illegal use or use for a fraudulent act of a telecommunications systems may be considered a computer crime. These systems include hand phones, phones linked to a computer, microwave and satellite systems. Where a computer is merely used to store information of a crime or store information which is evidence to a crime and that computer is nothing more than a repository, there is no computer crime. However, when a computer is manipulated to deal with data or a software program in a way that creates loss or damage or embezzlement, a computer crime takes place and a theft or larceny or breach of trust has taken place by electronic means.

In some countries there is no law against computer crime. However, there is no law which stipulates that a crime by electronic means or a crime perpetrated by the use of a computer is not a crime at all. In the absence of such laws, a computer criminal can be tried under other laws that cover malicious acts or deliberate damage to other peoples' property. The problem with such situations is that a conviction under such laws may carry a maximum jail term of up to six months only. To prevent a vacuum in penalties, the length of custodial sentences should be left to the courts so that the courts can mete out sentences to match the gravity of the crime taking into account the cross-border damage caused by each crime. Courts should have the power to order forfeitures or restitution wherever these orders are deemed fit.

Hacking is an unauthorised access by any person using a computer and any other communications device to break computer security or circumvent it to enter into a computer system. It is an infringement that is at par with "break and enter". The gravity of hacking is to be weighed against what is actually done upon illegally entering the computer system. Data may be stolen or integrity of the information may be affected which is at par with sabotage and in both cases there is damage. Some hackers may do nothing but browse. If the intention of a hacker is to destroy files, these is a crime by electronic means.

A crime is a crime by whatever means it is perpetrated. For instance, if manipulation of a software program in any device in an intensive care unit or surgical room of a hospital leads to the death of a patient, there is murder by electronic means within the meaning of a computer crime. The legal logic that nowhere in law is manipulation of computers or electronic devices run on software programs and the effects thereof dealt with and so death by electronic means cannot be considered covered, is an absolute fallacy and an unjust concoction. Pirated software is often made available on sites on the internet and is fairly common. They even have a slang term for it - "Warez" (Molly Mas land, Software Piracy A Booming Net Trade). Some people download or purchase pirated software from warez sites on the internet.

Providing pirated software for others to use is a copyright infringement. When you buy software you do not own it but only acquire the right to use it as described in the end - user license provided by the software publisher. Copying a program in its entirety is a contribution to software piracy whereas fair use only allows the reproduction of a part of the copyrighted work. No person can use the internet to provide access to the copyrighted work of others as it violates the author's right to control distribution of their own work.

Electronic theft has been properly dealt with recently when President Clinton signed the "No Electronic Theft" (NET) Act in 1997. This Act allows for criminal prosecution for copyright infringement, even when no profit motive is proved. Copyright infringement involving pirated software is a serious offence when viewed in terms of its impact on economic growth which is in millions of dollars and huge also in terms of the thousands of jobs lost. In terms of loss in tax revenue, the loss is in billions of dollars. Good service providers attract many customers. The aim of businesses is to satisfy customers in ways that create long term customer relationships to profit from the life time value of a customer.

Poor service providers create dissatisfied customers or create irate customers. Dissatisfied customers may just stop consuming the service. Very dissatisfied customers will tell, on the average about twenty people about the poor service. Irate customers may become angry and may throw a fit of rage. This behaviour is well known and companies spend time and money to train their frontline employees how to manage the difficult customer or the irate customer or the angry customer.

On the internet, the same fit of rage can translate into thousands of e-mail to deluge the computers. However, this form of cyber rage is unacceptable and the public should be duly informed so that "e-mail deluge" senders can be charged in court. Otherwise, such behaviour may more readily be classified as a "misuse" or an "abuse" rather than a crime. There is a distinction between genuine irate customer behaviour, antisocial behaviour and criminal behaviour. After the invention of the wheel, the computer is the most important invention around which human revolutions have developed. Both the wheel and the computer have had profound implications for human progress, industrial economic and service functions but from the potential of a negative use of the computer looms great dangers; naturally more danger than the negative use of the wheel.

A computer virus crisis may turn out to be equally ugly and can produce equally potent impact on societies, as a currency crisis. A bombardment of intelligent viruses can have a disabling and crippling effect, especially if these viruses have the ability to hide or mutate or implant a seed or mail a copy of itself to others or reroute or alter information while in cyberspace. Such a problem is foreseeable if one considers the possibility of the computer psychopath or computer terrorists who may use Trojan horses. Trojan horses can also be used covertly by "intelligence agencies" and there is nothing to prevent "cyber wars" between hostile nations. The creation of computer viruses and destructive Trojan horse programs should be illegal acts under statutory laws that must attract severe penalties including a custodial sentence. Transmitting viruses or modifying viruses and releasing them under a new guise should attract even more sever penalties and longer custodial sentences.

A legal framework, a serious view by the courts and ethics are insufficient even if we have the best of cyber cops. This effort must be topped up by proper security measures. Computer crime is an international problem requiring a formal system for international cooperation. Extradition and mutual assistance treaties must be put into place fairly quickly which must necessarily take into account the harmonization of laws in different countries, including establishing some norms in investigating computer crimes and establishing common legal definitions for criminal acts as well as for accidental or negligent misuse of computer systems. All of these changes and improvements must take place with due respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Modern societies are very dependent on computer systems. Medical services, national security, communications, transportation, traffic control, and banking and insurance services are operated on computer systems. Governments must understand that this new dimension of information technologies has a door to anti-national, anti-social and the criminal mind. The crimes are traditional crimes in new areas of technologies. Computer crimes are crimes of traditional infringement in a new dimension. Some of these infringements result in damage, usually extensive damage across the globe at a very low cost.

That's the only difference when compared to a house break-in, theft and any consequential damage. Intelligent minds now have a sophisticated opportunity for law-breaking. An equally intelligent approach is required to allow the courts to engineer creative deterrents, taking into account the economic costs of global damage and threat to human security everywhere, when the courts have to deal with computer criminal behaviour. Governments had continually endeavoured to make the streets safe and now must endeavour to make the internet safe. For the previous millennium the criminal was usually one step a head of the police. Very little was done to put the police ahead of the criminal.

In the new millennium, this paradigm must be broken. The police must be trained in anticipation of criminal behaviour in new areas due to technology advancements and lifestyles changes and the police must be equipped to apprehend criminals red handed or otherwise as quickly as possible or better still if the police can be trained to prevent internet crimes, which is the world's toughest job. "Virus hunting" and intercepting viruses is a tough job but something big and concrete needs to be done to address the escalating worries of the honest computer users and the worries arising from computer system crashes due to viruses as each viral episode infects millions of sites across the world. The computer virus is no laughing matter.

It warrants an urgent and serious attention of governments, the best legal minds and the best IT expertise to tackle the mischief arising from internet crimes, especially in view of the fact that by the year 2005, consumers will spend a whopping USD 1.0 trillion on internet shopping while more governments, corporations and institutions and homes will become more dependent on the computer and the internet. With digital signatures will come digital forgeries. "Computer viruses" that infect mobile phones could create even more havoc. The danger will increase as mobile phones become more sophisticated, especially those that have e-mail are programmable. To defeat viruses, designers may be forced to limit the programmability of devices so that they are unable to run on viruses (The Star, 23/05/2000, In-Tech).

This means that criminal behaviour of a small segment of society will prevent the rest of the honest humanity from enjoying the full potential of new technologies, unless built-in programs are separated in a way that prevent one program to start another to prevent a virus from dialling out. It is clear that criminal behaviour of a small number of people has always dictated trends in technologies. A legal framework must be quickly put into effect to ensure that criminal behaviour bring no rewards, to ensure restitution and finally to severely punish it so that such punishment serves as a meaningful deterrence. Perhaps, in this case, because of the international character of the internet, the best solution is an International Internet Crimes Act that can be adopted by the various countries. This will harmonise laws as well as facilitate the use of cases in one country as a persuasive authority in another country. This Act must have a provision to facilitate rapid investigation by an Interpol-like agency in member countries.

Ideally all countries should become signatories to adopt such laws. A me nance of international magnitude requires an "out-of-box" solution and nations must be prepared to deal with it in a way that departs from the usual norms and a way that departs from past approaches. Introduction he growth of technology has changed our lives dramatically. Computers were viewed as a luxury or even an extravagance 30 years ago. We relied on television, newspapers, and radio as primary sources of news and information. Cables, modems, and online services were virtually nonexistent.

Today, computers are prevalent in businesses, homes, schools, libraries, and even airports. The World Wide Web provides instant access to news, reference information, shopping, banking, stock trading, auctions, and travel information and reservations. People routinely use the Internet to take college courses, play games, listen to music, and view videos. Chat rooms and e-mails are now replacing telephones as our favorite means of long-distance communication.

The proliferation of computer technology obviously has enhanced our lives in many ways, such as enabling improved productivity and efficiency at work, school, and home. Anyone with access to a computer and modem now has unparalleled recreational and educational opportunities. Unfortunately, criminals are also using modern technology-to prey on innocent victims. Computers and the Internet have made the predator's job easier. Historically, child predators found their victims in public places where children tend to gather-schoolyards, playgrounds, and shopping malls. Today, with so many children online, the Internet provides predators a new place-cyberspace-to target children for criminal acts.

This approach eliminates many of the risks predators face when making contact in person. Scope of the Problem he sheer number of young people using computers today makes our concern for them well founded. Recent years have seen a great increase in access to and use of the Internet. By the end of 1998, more than 40 percent of all American homes had computers, and 25 percent had Internet access. 1 This trend is expected to continue. Children and teenagers are one of the fastest growing groups of Internet users.

An estimated 10 million kids are online today. By the year 2002, this figure is expected to increase to 45 million, and by 2005 to 77 million. 2 With so many youth online and vulnerable to predators, it is extremely important for parents, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and victim service providers to know as much as possible about Internet crimes against children so they can prevent victimization and prosecute offenders. Children as Targets of Internet Crimes-Who Is Vulnerable? radiationally, both intra familial offenders and strangers have found that young children and teenagers are perfect targets for criminal acts because they are often trusting, naive, curious, adventuresome, and eager for attention and affection. However, the most attractive factor to predators is that children and teenagers historically have not been viewed as credible witnesses. Today, the danger to children is even greater because the Internet provides predators anonymity.

Whether the victimization occurs in person or over the Internet, the process is the same-the perpetrator uses information to target a child victim. For example, the predator may initiate an online friendship with a young person, sharing hobbies and interests. This may lead to the exchange of gifts and pictures. Just like the traditional predator who targets children in person, the online predator usually is willing to spend considerable time befriending and grooming a child. The predator wants to build the child's trust, which will allow the predator to get what he or she ultimately wants from the child. Although no family is immune to the possibility that their child may be exploited and harassed on the Internet, a few factors make some children more vulnerable than others.

Older children tend to be at greater risk because they often use the computer unsupervised and are more likely to engage in online discussions of a personal nature. Some victims become unwitting participants as they actively participate in chat rooms, trade e-mail messages, and send pictures online. Troubled or rebellious teens who are seeking emancipation from parental authority can be susceptible to Internet predators. The risk of victimization is greater for emotionally vulnerable youth who may be dealing with issues of sexual identity. These young people may be willing to engage in conversation that is both titillating and exciting but appears innocent and harmless. Unfortunately, Internet interactions that initially appear innocent can gradually lead to sexually explicit conduct.

3 Types of Internet Victimization internet crimes are often thought of as victimless. Nothing could be further from the truth. Children and teenagers can and do become victims of Internet crimes. Predators contact teenagers and children over the Internet and victimize them by SS Enticing them through online contact for the purpose of engaging them in sexual acts.

SS Using the Internet for the production, manufacture, and distribution of child pornography. SS Using the Internet to expose youth to child pornography and encourage them to exchange pornography. SS Enticing and exploiting children for the purpose of sexual tourism (travel with the intent to engage in sexual behavior) for commercial gain and / or personal gratification. Introduction The new millennium is fast approaching, and the information superhighway is undergoing rapid growth. The Internet and other telecommunications technologies are promoting advances in virtually every aspect of society and every corner of the globe: fostering commerce, improving education and health care, promoting participatory democracy in the United States and abroad, and facilitating communications among family and friends, whether across the street or around the world. Unfortunately, many of the attributes of this technology - low cost, ease of use, and anonymous nature, among others - make it an attractive medium for fraudulent scams, child sexual exploitation, and increasingly, a new concern known as "cyberstalking."Make no mistake: this kind of harassment can be as frightening and as real as being followed and watched in your neighborhood or in your home".

Vice President Al Gore What Is Cyberstalking? Although there is no universally accepted definition of cyberstalking, the term is used in this report to refer to the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other electronic communications devices to stalk another person. Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person's home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person's property. Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a credible threat of violence against the victim; others include threats against the victim's immediate family; and still others require only that the alleged stalker's course of conduct constitute an implied threat. Safe cell phone use o Here are tips from the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association on safely using your cell phone in your car: o Safe driving is your first responsibility -- always buckle up, keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. o Make sure your phone is positioned where it is easy to see and easy to reach.

Be familiar with the operation of your phone so that you " re comfortable using it on the road. o Use the speed-dialing feature to program in frequently called numbers. Then you can make a call by touching only one or two buttons. Most phones will store up to 99 numbers. o When dialing manually without the speed-dialing feature, dial only when stopped. If you can't stop or pull over, dial a few digits, then survey traffic before completing the call. Better yet, have a passenger dial. o Never take notes while driving.

Pull off the road to a safe spot to jot something down. Let your wireless network's voice mail pick up your calls when it's inconvenient or unsafe to answer the car phone. You can even use your voice mail to leave yourself reminders. o Be a wireless Samaritan. Dialing 911 is a free call for wireless subscribers -- use it to report crimes in progress or other potentially life-threatening emergencies or accidents, or drunk driving.