Hackers and Forms of Electronic Trespassing

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Hackers and Forms of Electronic Trespassing *Works Cited Not Included In the late 1970s, hackers were people who enjoyed learning the details of computer systems. Today, hackers (or crackers) refer to people who break into computer systems. Some malicious hackers use Trojan horses, logic bombs, and other means to infiltrate computer systems. Breaking into other computer systems is called electronic trespassing. This paper will speak of : On-line Outlaws: Computer Crime Computer Security: Reducing Risks Security, Privacy, and Freedom: The Delicate Balance Security and Reliability Safe Computing Computers are used to break laws as well as uphold them. Computer crime involves: Theft by Computer Software Piracy and Intellectual Property Laws Software Sabotage Hacking and Electronic Trespassing According to the FBI, the average computer crime is worth $600,000. More than 40 percent of corporate, university, and government sites report at least one break-in per year. The typical computer criminal is a trusted employee with no criminal record. Hacker Kevin Mitnick is alleged to have broken into several major organizations' computer systems, including those of Sun Microsystems, Motorola, and the Pentagon. Mr Mitnick was ARRESTED on February 15,1995, after an FBI computer expert Tsutomu Shimomura tracked him down. Mitnick, the first hacker ever to have appeared on an FBI wanted poster. With 25 counts of alleged federal computer and wire fraud violations still pending against him, the criminal prosecution of Kevin Mitnick is approaching its most crucial hour. In June of 1999, Kevin was sentenced for certain admitted violations of his supervised release and for possession of unauthorized access cod... ... middle of paper ... ...es that are too good to be true Senders who tells you to ignore virus warnings Subject lines or file names that are risqué or otherwise enticing Macros no matter the source. Use POP3 email client (e.g., Eudora, Pegasus, Zmail) Fewer features mean fewer opportunities for virus programmers Use MS Works, Star Office, or Word Perfect in lieu of MS Word. Less popular programs have fewer viruses. Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 97 (and 2000) have built-in macro virus protection:. Write protect the global template normal.dot. Only Word documents or templates can carry viruses: text files and RTF files cannot. However, one can simply rename a *.doc file with the *.rtf extension to fool some anti-virus programs. Set your anti-virus scanner to check all file types—at least add *.rtf and *.txt. Bottom line, Use Anti-Virus Software Keep your software up to date.

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