Computer Crime: Prevention and Innovation
Since the introduction of computers to our society, and in the early 80¡¦s the Internet, the world has never been the same. Suddenly our physical world got smaller and the electronic world set its foundations for an endless electronic reality. As we approach the year 2000, the turn of the millenium, humanity has already well established itself into the ¡§Information Age.¡¨ So much in fact that as a nation we find our selves out of a service economy and into an information based economy. In a matter of only a few years almost all systems are run buy computers in some way, shape, or form. We depend on them for everything. Even the smallest malfunction or glitch in a system could now cause unfathomable amounts of trouble in everything from riding the bus, having access to your money, to getting your prescription at the pharmacists. Furthermore, Icove suggested that with the price of home computers that work faster and store more memory going down every year due to competition in the market, it is estimated that by the year 2011 most every American home will have a PC with instant access to the Internet. With an increase in users everyday and new businesses taking advantage of perks of an alternate electronic world, this information dimension will only get bigger, more elaborate, provide more services, and we will find society as a whole more and more dependent on it.
However, even in an artificial environment such as the cyberspace, it appears mankind cannot escape from its somewhat overwhelming natural attraction to wrongful behavior or criminal tendencies. In turn this alternative dimension has been infected with the same criminal behavior that plagues our physical reality. The information age has opened the doors to anti social, smart, and opportunistic people to find new and innovative ways to commit old crimes. These people are called hackers.
What is the social Problem?
Computer crime is the official name given to this criminal phenomenon driven by hackers. Although a solid definition of computer crime has yet to be agreed upon by scholars, it is described in a functional manner encompassing old crimes such as forgery, theft, mischief, fraud, manipulation or altering of documents; all of which are usually subject to criminal sanctions everywhere. Also included in the description or computer crime is the unauthorized invasion or trespass of data base systems of private companies or government agencies.
Computer Crime In The 1990's We're being ushered into the digital frontier. It's a cyberland with incredible promise and untold dangers. Are we prepared? It's a battle between modern-day computer cops and digital hackers.
Cybercrime is often misconstrued as a specific or big crime causing global effects; in reality even small things are considered Cybercrime. Cybercrime is defined as crimes committed on the Internet using the computer as either a tool or a targeted victim. ...
Hacker only has 50 years history, computer hacker crime is one of the mots dangerous crime threat at 21th century. Hacktivism is a new class of hacker has emerged, “the so-called hacktivist, who engages in hacking of computer networks and systems as a form of protest”(Hargrave,2012). Hacker crimes have use computer programming skill to make errors on your computer that control your computer to get information and change your computer system. Since in 1970s, computer hackers are called “phreaks”, which mean by phone hacker. Computer hacker is becoming form phone hacker. In the early 1970, Computer hacker is positive to the society, many of computer programmers were “began looking for ways to get the most out of the machines. “(Deivtt,2001) And then, they are created applications called hacks, which are “applications and allow more tasks to be completed in a shorter time.” (Deivtt,2001).In the early 1980.Hackers using computers and the internet for their own questionable gains. The first computer hacker crime is in the 1983.” six teenagers from
Computer crimes are often heard a lot about in the news. When you ask someone
The documentary Rise of the Hackers, focuses on the rising criminal use of hacking and how it is effecting multiple areas of technology. The documentary describes simple and complicated situations concerning hacking, but there still questions that must be answered when it comes to hacking and crime. The main question is in trying to determine why a person would choose to commit computer hacking. There are various theories already present within the criminal justice system that may explain at a micro-level and macro-level. These theories would explain why offenders would commit the crimes, but it may not answer the full scope of the question. The Routine Activities Theory would help to explain why offenders offend, why victims are victimized,
Lu, Polgar, Luo, & Cao (2010) hypothesized that computer security is not as much about the aspect of technology, instead it is more concerned with the mental and social science activities of the individuals who utilize computer technology. The authors supported this point of view by stating that computers only channel the transgressions of the individuals who exploit them. Xu, Hu, & Zhang (2013) attributed the upsurge of hackers to the popularity of the internet and the prevalence computer systems. The authors maintained that a notable portion of the hacking community is intelligent college-age individuals who begin hacking out of curiosity and end up exploiting their talents to commit cybercrime (Xu et al., 2013) Originally, hacking did not have a negative connotation. Deriving around the late 1950s, the expression hacker referred to an exceptionally adept programmer and convergent thinker that could formulate innovative solutions to overcome constraints of primitive computer systems (Bachmann, 2010; Lu et al., 2010).
There are a few elite in our technology-driven world that possess the unnatural ability to understand and wield the power of computers. To the media they are known as hackers, threats to computer security everywhere. To the underground they are known as "console cowboys", samurais, and the last defenders of free information. To the common man they are young teenage boys that break your computer and ruin your e-mail. Hackers are not criminals or mischievous kids with no purpose. They play an important role in our culture and are the fuel behind our technological revolution.
A cyber-crime is an illegal activity that takes place on the computer or internet (Williams). Before the internet was invented criminals were stealing information from the computers committing data theft (VPN). The first major cyber-crime was in the 80s, criminals would send a lot of scams to the inbox of emails (VPN). Most of the scams included a desperate story hoping that someone would feel bad for them and send them money or they asked for bank card numbers in order to send them some money. Shortly after is when Congress passed a bill making it illegal (VPN). In the 90s the major cyber-crime was viruses (VPN). Viruses were sent through various websites and once opened the virus puts copies of itself into the computer without the owner knowing (Williams). Once the virus makes copies it slows the computer down, sends pop-ups to the computer screen, and can even shut the computer down (Williams). When social media became essential in the 2000s identity theft became a problem (VPN). People upload all of their information to their accounts giving all of the criminals’ easy access to all personal information (VPN). Every day someone makes a new Facebook profile of someone to scam them and steal information from their friends. Cybercrimes
Our nation's infrastructure is daily becoming much more of an abstract environment due to the use of organized cyber criminals hacking away at our super computer information systems. They are generating unpredictable challenges for law enforcement in discovering the unethical abuse on computer systems and a concentration on the young topic of cyber terrorism threatening our criminal justice system. Our law enforcement continues to invent newer methods to function and learn from this new social phenomenon and define cyber terrorism activity as motivation by the rapid growth of technology as a challenge, dominance, and as pleasure to obtain privileged information for illegal use to intentionally harm others and our information networks as well. Therefore, it is of relevance to explore the behavior of a computer hacker and a cracker; including the control, response, and the appropriate measures to combat this new crime wave, and how the academic community, courts, police, and the scientific government are approaching this radical form of crime.
Computer crime is defined by Mariam Jennings as “theft, espionage and other illegal activities accomplished through the use of a computer” (Jennings G-5). Some crimes using a computer can include using computers to commit economic espionage, to commit electronic fund transfer crimes, to circumvent copyright protection devices, for unauthorized access, spamming, commit fraud, and cyberbullying. Since there are so many ways to commit crimes with computers there are many laws to protect people from criminals.
In today’s day and age there are many ways to commit crimes. A few of the many ways to commit crimes is electronically with Tablets, computers and other such instruments which is called Cyber Crimes. Cyber crimes are very easy to commit with all the technology available to kids and adults alike but with that said there is varying ways to commit them and some are committed by accident or are very miniscule. Cyber crimes are crimes such as stealing or posing as someone by taking their information such as bank security pins, social security numbers, and Id's. By doing this some people open themselves up to being traced back which is what the police use to backtrack and trace the signal to the person who committed the crime. With the people trying to catch the perpetrators it all comes at a price and it’s not cheap.
In today's society our most valuable commodity is not grain, steel or even technology; it is information. Because of computer networks, just about everyone can now access an astounding range of information. The Internet is international, even though 80 percent of the Internet use occurs in the United States, and a staggering amount of information on every subject imaginable is available for free. Because so many people now have access, computer crimes have become more frequent. Everyone with a computer and a modem can commit a computer crime if so inclined. Anyone, conceivably, could become a "white collar" computer criminal. When the term "white collar" crime came into wide spread use several decades ago, it was thought that certain crimes were committed by persons whom no one would normally suspect of criminal behavior: professional, "white collar" workers. In the late 1990's, however, the term "white collar" is somewhat inaccurate. The playing field has been leveled by the widespread use of computers. Now "white collar crime" tends to mean simply "non violent crime" or "economic crime." As technology becomes increasingly accessible to more and more people, it also becomes a potential tool for increasing numbers of criminals. Most computer crimes do not involve violence but rather greed, pride, or play on some character weakness of the victim. They are based on dishonesty and not force. For these reasons, computer crimes are considered white collar. Just as the term "white collar crime" designates several kinds of crime, the term computer crime also designated several types of crime.
Computer crime is defined as, “Criminal activity directly related to the use of computers, specifically illegal trespass into the computer system or database of another, manipulation or theft of stored or on-line data, or sabotage of equipment and data.”(1). This includes both crimes using computers and crimes against computers.
The term “hacker” has been in use since the early 1980’s due to mass media usage to describe computer criminals. The use of this term is vastly used by the general population and most are not aware that there are different meanings to the word. People within the computing community especially within the programming subculture emphasize the use of the term “crackers” for computer security intruders (cyber criminals). Early hackers rarely used their skills for financial gain as a motivation for their criminal behavior in that time cybercrime was infantile and largely seen as a practical joke or game by those who committed it. Bob Thomas created the first credited computer worm n...
The advantages of technology and the internet have led more criminals to use cyberspace to commit crimes. The threat of cybercrime is increasing as globalization continues to spread across the world. While the impact of globalization has led to amazing, new discoveries throughout the world, Internet connectivity has also made cybercrime easier. America and the rest of the world have become more reliant on technology and use it in more aspects of their lives, technology-users make themselves more vulnerable to cyber attacks. Globalization and the growing use of computers in the world have given people a motive to learn more about computing and become more knowledgeable as programmers. As these people learn more, there is a risk that they will use their new intelligence to commit cybercrimes.