Computer Crime I. Introduction Current situation: the

Computer Crime
   Good morning, today’s lecture is the very first of a series of lectures on types of modern crimes, so I’d like to discuss the first type—computer crime right now. As computer crimes are getting more and more rampant, laws must be passed to address the increase in the number and types of those crimes. Over the last twenty years, large computers are used to track reservations for the airline industry, process billions of dollars for banks, manufacture products for industry, and conduct major transactions for businesses because more and more people now have computers at home and at the office. So, who committed computer crimes? What’s the definition of computer crime and what forms does computer crime take on? And what are our protection measures? We shall answer the preceding questions one by one.
   First, what kinds of people tend to commit computer crimes? According to experts, computer criminals tend to be relatively honest and in a position of trust: few would do anything to harm another human, and most do not consider their crime to be truly dishonest. Most are males: women have tended to be accomplices, although later they are becoming more aggressive. Computer criminals tend to usually be between the ages of 14-30 ; they are usually bright, eager, highly motivated, adventuresome, and willing to accept technical challenges. It is tempting to liken computer criminals to other criminals, ascribing characteristics somehow different from "normal" individuals, but that is not the case. It is believed that the computer criminal often marches to the same drum as the potential victim but follows an unanticipated path. There is no actual profile of a computer criminal because they range from young teens to elders, from black to white, from short to tall.
   Second, we shall discuss the evolutionary definition of computer crime. Definitions of computer crime have changed over the years as the users and misusers of computers have expanded into new areas. When computers were first introduced into businesses, computer crime was defined simply as a form of white-collar crime committed inside a computer system. Congress has been reacting to the outbreak of computer crimes. The U.S. House of Judiciary Committee approved a bipartisan computer crime bill that was expanded to make it a federal crime to hack into credit and other data bases protected by federal privacy statutes. This bill is generally creating several categories of federal crimes for unauthorized access to computers to obtain money, goods or services or classified information.
   Third, computer crimes can take on many forms. The first form is swindling or stealing of money which is one of the most common computer crime. An example of this kind of crime is the Well Fargo Bank that discovered an employee was using the bank’s computer to embezzle $21.3 million, which is the largest U.S. electronic bank fraud on record. The second form is called credit card scams. This is one that fears many people for good reasons. The following story is a real case. A fellow computer hacker is someone who uses his computer to access credit data bases. In a talk that I had with him he tried to explain what he did and how he did it. He is a very intelligent person because he gained illegal access to a credit data base and obtained the credit history of local residents. He then allegedly used the residents’ names and credit information to apply for 24 Master cards and Visa cards. He used the cards to issue himself at least 40, 000 in cash from a number of ATM machines. He was caught once but was only withdrawing $200 because the police couldn’t prove that he was the one who did the other ones. Finally, one of the thefts involving the computer is the theft of computer time. Most of us don’t realize this as a crime, but the congress considers this as a crime. Every day people are urged to use the computer but sometimes the use becomes excessive or improper or both. For example, at most colleges, computer time is thought of as free-good students and faculty often computerize mailing lists for their churches or fraternity organizations which might be written off as good public relations. But, use of the computers for private consulting projects without payment to the university is clearly improper. In business it is similar. Management often looks the other way when employees play computer games or generate a Snoopy calendar. But, if this becomes excessive the employees are stealing work time. Although considered less severe than other computer crimes, such activities can represent a major business loss.
   Finally, how to protect our computers from the hackers’ intrusion? Protection measures such as hardware identification, access controls software and disconnecting critical bank applications should be devised. However, computers don’t commit crimes; people do. The criminals’ best advantage is ignorance on the part of those protecting the system. Proper internal controls reduce the opportunity for fraud.
   OK, now we will come to the end of today’s lecture. Something we must be aware of is that computer crimes are growing fast because the evolution of technology is fast, but the evolution of law is slow. Anyway, I hope after today’s lecture, you’ll understand better the definition and forms of computer crime and the practical protection measures against it.