Information Theft
The world grows continually smaller. Each passing day interconnectivity amongst personal computers becomes increasingly normative. These electronic bridges are at the foundation of the networks of networks which comprise the Internet, which was initially a concept developed as a means by which both communication and vast archives of information could be preserved in the event of a nuclear war. The design was simple: a system of information exchange which was indestructible in its redundancy. In other words, Russia would need to vaporize North America entirely to with the Cold War.
In the absence of a real war, for years the Internet remained inhabited largely by members of academic and scientific communities who prized and throve upon instant exchange of information. It was these individuals who became the first denizens of cyberspace, a new frontier characterized, like the wild west, by anarchy and governed, similarly, by the good sense of inhabitants.
With interest in the Internet as a phenomenon increasing steadily over the past decade, however, it is evident that those now living are witnesses of a bizarre transformation whereby technological experience becomes wholly integral to our daily routine. As scores flock to experience the new online realm, tiny enclaves of similarly-interested individuals coalesce into electronic communities engaging in facilitated exchange of ideas, goods and information. As these communities continue to grow, codes of conduct are frequently established, challenged, and broken. People begin to engage in ecommerce, to establish eculture and to discuss being a good netizen. These are the inhabitants of today's cyberspace. Among these inhabitants are some individuals whose ...
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...being said, it is intuitively understood that on some level Kevin Mitnick did engage in the theft of information. What remains unclear is how we as a society should respond. It does not seem that he ought to be severely punished for what amounts to curiosity. Certainly he could have made a great deal of money and caused extensive damage, but there is simply no evidence of this being his intent. In the absence of a precedent, it is difficult to judge wisely. The only certainty is that as more people come to inhabit cyberspace, more of these cases will come to the forefront of our imagination and attention, more legal decisions will be made and more precedents set which will have real bearing on your very own little corner of cyberspace.
Works Cited
Littman, Jonathan. The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick. Little, Brown and Company. New York: 1997.
Kevin Mitnick, Former Fugitive Hacker, Laments How The Game Has Changed. (2013, January 11). Retrieved from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/16/kevin-mitnick-hacker-book_n_928107.html
As capitalism runs its course and develops new technologies, society is left to pick up the pieces and figure out where these new technologies will lead them. Ever since I learned to use the Internet as a child, I have become accustomed to seeing more and more fascinating technology developments that have changed the way I communicated as the years went by. Now that the Internet has infiltrated more aspects of human life, it has become necessary to reflect on how this critical juncture will continue to affect our society. In Digital Disconnect, Robert McChesney provides an analysis of the arguments that the celebrants and skeptics used to express their views of the Internet. McChesney then moves past these arguments to explain how the PEC plays a key role in determining the direction that the Internet is heading towards. By assessing McChesney’s views, I hope to develop my own interpretation of the Internet’s impact on society.
Law enforcement officials have stated that identity theft crime has been one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. Identity theft is also one of the fastest growing white collar crimes. This is a serious crime. Identity theft is the act of knowingly transferring or using without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable state law. If the offender is found guilty, then the person committing the act could get a fine, property forfeiture, or at maximum of 15 years in prison.
From 1992 to 1995, the concept of the Internet, the technology moved from primarily government and research usage to that of the general public. Terms such as “log on” and surf were born, along with perhaps every conceivable usage of the Internet, from commercial purposes to pornography. With the introduction of Mosaic, the first truly successfully graphic user interface for the Internet, popularity took off, even being proposed as a candidate for Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year”. Starting between 1994 and 1995 though, the perils of internet usage began to emerge, at first in the form of disrupting online business operations. The Internet, quickly dubbed as a new social system in which the newcomers, unaware of the existing rules, redefined what the Internet was all about.
. Cyberspace is a realm of communication. Cyberspace is like its own way of talking. People are part of this cyberspace as well. I say this because humans don’t really talk in person anymore. Do humans intentionally do this to the community or were it unintentional, and we were just consumed without knowing? Intentional is something done with a purpose or pertaining to it. Unintentional is something done by accident or no reason. A community is built by people with a purpose, or it can be built by accident because people decided it would be a good idea. The purpose of this essay is to explain the difference in an unintentional and intentional community and how the author feel about these two different types of communities.
Computer crimes have been occurring since the late 1960’s. Computers and technology has evolved very much so since the 1960’s and it is now nearly impossible to do business without them. With the invention of small thumb drives and cards that can store large amounts of data it can be very easy to steal valuable information from a computer without anyone knowing. Since much of this valuable information is made up of people’s financial and health information as well as trade secrets and company information this is an important issue to be addressed. Laws need to be continually updated or created in order to adapt to computer crimes and to punish those committing them.
The history of the internet shows that the internet is not a new medium. The internet was initially created in the 1960's to as a way for the United States to stay connected in case of a nuclear fallout due to the possible consequences of the Cold War. F...
Chamelin, Neil C., and Leonard Territo. "Cybercrime." Criminal Investigation. By Charles R. Swanson. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2012. 472-87. Print.
“Cyberspace is both the popular media's new darling and new demon, revealing a new, expansive intellectual horizon but simultaneously providing easy access to an infinite, virtual Pandora's box” [1].
Have you ever received a credit card bill at the end of the month with a ridiculous amount of money needed to be paid that you never spent? This is because of identity theft. The FTC estimates that each year, over 9 million people are affected by identity theft. According to Sally Driscoll, this is because almost anyone with a computer and a slight bit of computer knowledge can pull off identity theft. Experts also claim that identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the world. Identity theft is a global problem that cannot be stopped without effective measures. The problem is, effective measures are very hard to come by when dealing with identity theft because almost any security protocol can be by-passed.
Credit card identity theft is become more common in today’s time than it ever has been before. The more credit cards that are made, the riskier they get. Credit card theft is leading to identity theft. One’s personal information such as social security, birthday, bank information, name, address, and other important information can be received through a credit card if it is hacked. Having one’s identity stolen can cause a negative impact for their entire life but there are some solutions that could prevent identity theft through credit cards. Credit cards should use a new identification number for each credit card the user owns, each transaction should have a different number code, and a secret code used just by the user for the specific card.
In today's society, there is a white-collar crime that has greatly risen in popularity among criminals. This crime is identity theft. Hundreds of thousands of people have their identities stolen each year. Identity theft is when these criminals obtain and use consumers personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, insurance information, and social security numbers to purchase goods or services fraudulently. According to the Federal Trade Commission, over 1.1 million people were the victim of identity theft. With this number, it is very evident that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in our country. This paper will attempt to more thoroughly define identity theft. It will give examples of identity theft by examining the stories of Rosalie Pugliese and Mari Frank. It will show ways in which this very easily committed crime can be avoided, and in the extreme case that a person is a victim of identity fraud, to show the steps one can take to get their lives back on track.
In summary, cyberspace has become an interactive world that many of us have fully integrated into our lives. There is dark side to this phenomenon. The ease and anonymity by which we are able to perform all and many more of these feats of contact and access with an entire universe of places and people have created a dilemma: the need of cyber ethics.
First language, then print, and now telecommunications allow us to link thoughts and form communities, or groups based on common interests or common localities. However, in the not so distant past of the pre-virtual reality and pre-telecommunications age, community was the place where people lived, worked or played. For most of human recorded history, community was close to home and place dependent. Nowadays, cyberspace exists and permeates the 'real' world in which we live. Increasingly more humans belong to multiple communities, some of them transcending the limitations of location, time and space. As a result, new kinds of communities have emerged. Cyber communities have expanded the parameters of what we call communities and that process demands a new look, or a definition of electronic communities, most particularly educational cyber communities.
The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The Internet enables communication and transmission of data between computers at different locations. The Internet is a computer application that connects tens of thousands of interconnected computer networks that include 1.7 million host computers around the world. The basis of connecting all these computers together is by the use of ordinary telephone wires. Users are then directly joined to other computer users at there own will for a small connection fee per month. The connection conveniently includes unlimited access to over a million web sites twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There are many reasons why the Internet is important these reasons include: The net adapts to damage and error, data travels at 2/3 the speed of light on copper and fiber, the internet provides the same functionality to everyone, the net is the fastest growing technology ever, the net promotes freedom of speech, the net is digital, and can correct errors. Connecting to the Internet cost the taxpayer little or nothing, since each node was independent, and had to handle its own financing and its own technical requirements.