Crime on the High Networks:
In a world where computers and technology are reigning supreme as some of the most crucial, not to mention efficient ways of managing the production of products, our economy and the way businesses are run: It should come as no surprise that there are people that are going to sabotage the newly introduced infrastructure known as the internet. The internet (or 'cyberspace') is a community in itself - a giant network of computers connected to each other. Just as any community or society, people are going to set up shop. There are online-stores, online-businesses, online-schools, online-doctors, and as expected; there are online-criminals.
The internet provides access to information from the many governments, schools, individuals, corporations and other organizations. The problem lies in the fact that unlike 'real' society, the internet doesn't have any law enforcement, the actions and laws in cyberspace are dictated by the population that occupies it. "Cyberspace can be exploited to a large degree mainly because of the con artists and criminals are both nameless and faceless." (Godwin) There are a wide variety of crimes in today's world, and the same can be said of the ones on the internet. Because of both the increasing levels importance and seriousness in the cyber-world of today, two main groups have dedicated themselves to protecting the rights of people and to subdue the criminals on the internet: One being the FBI, the other being the National White Collar Crime Center. (Godwin/NWCCC/FBI)
Because the internet is worldwide, computer crimes affect not only Americans, but people all over the world, it is seen by many that this is an oncoming epidemic that must be dealt with in a timely manner. "More and more cyber-criminals are being caught and prosecuted each day, it is a must that we have worldwide effort". (NWCCC)
Computer-crimes of the world are basically split into 8 basic sections; Industrial Espionage, Software Piracy, Computer Network Break-In/Theft, Child Pornography, E-mail Bombings, Password Sniffers, Spoofing, and Credit Card Fraud. (Godwin) With some of these crimes are less mild than others, each plays an important role in effecting our society in a negative way.
The most popular of these distinctions are the Computer Network Break-Ins. These are the computer-crimes that we hear most often, "another company has been hacked today/another virus was released causing mass panic, and the search is on for the wrong doer" is one of the things we hear spouted on the 9 o'clock news. Hackers break into computer systems and website domains to steal data, plant viruses, Trojan horses, play with the network properties, defile or delete pages, or to simply prove a point. (Godwin) These network intrusions have been made illegal by the U.S. federal government, but the detection and enforcement of these crimes remains in a high level of difficulty. (FBI)
Industrial espionage also serves a highly serious problem between many companies, and even governments. (Borrus) The new intranets - local networked computers in one building - are allowing hackers achieve a new level of mobility once inside a networks system. People often hire hackers to retrieve information about things such as financial status, product developments/patents, marketing strategies etc. (Borrus) Enforcing laws here is also difficult because when hackers gain their way in, they usually leave little to no evidence of their break-ins - often gaining access through legit accounts on the system. To gain access to these computer accounts, hackers use techniques known as sniffing - logging all key hits on a keyboard for a computer using a 'Keystroke recorder' and find a password, and spoofing - the process of disguising ones computer to electronically "look" like another compute to gain access to a network system. (Borrus)
The third biggest and most abundant problem with computer crime today is the steadily increasing 'Software Piracy.' (Godwin) According to estimates by the U.S. Software and Information industry Association, as much as $7.5 billion of American software is being illegally copied and distributed worldwide. (FTC) With the new advent of CD burners, and P2P technologies (person-to-person), it is becoming increasingly easier for people all over the world to both copy and acquire any software programs they wish to obtain with a few clicks of a button. Piracy is both the easiest to do, and the easiest to track of computer crimes, mostly because it can be traced to producers, the problems lies in the fact, that it's so abundant, only the major offenders are worth finding and prosecuting. (FBI/NWCCC)
Millions of dollars a year are lost to credit card fraud, a few years ago, this was on the uptake, but with time and the new security methods, the amount of credit card fraud over the internet has decreased a significant amount. (Holland)
Through all these different techniques of criminal activity, authorities are beginning to scramble so they can catch up to sophisticated intelligence of the modern-day hi-tech criminals. Possibly the most famous among them named Kevin Mitnick. (Markoff) This hacker is known for his criminal romps around the internet, breaking into personal computers, company computers/networks, and government ones as well. (Quinter) The sentences for his crimes were comparatively light, it has only been recently that the government has been trying to contract a reasonable sentences for the determined seriousness of certain computer crimes. The governments of the world - the U.S. Government in particular - have little or no set regulation/punishment for computer crimes. Each day they are being set more steadily, but it will be a while off before it can be as stable as today's justice system. (Quinter)
In today's society, there's no question that computers are an important and still upcoming technology. Since the creation of Jack Kibly's microchip, the computer world has only taken off. The computer and every derivation of its technology has affected us in a huge way, allowing us to do everyday business in a quicker, more efficient manner, making things more clear, cleaner looking, and easier to explain. Communications are ten times quicker, faster, and easier over the internet; bills are easily paid, and things are more convenient. On the same token, just as in real life, we must take measures to not only protect our physical assets, but our intellectual properties as well. Just as the computer has affected us, the internet, and the crime within it have done the same.
We must deal with computer-crime just as fanatically as we do real crime. Crime of any kind can end up causing serious problems for our population in the long run. Cyber-crime has highlighted a whole new area to protect in our societies. These acts of vandalism do not only hurt us, but they help us as well. These crimes force our technology to grow at faster speeds; our protection schemes against not only hackers, but other companies as well to become more complex; a greater advancement in the development of protection our personal email and credit card accounts; and give us a more secure feeling about conduction our daily operations over the net.
All-in-all computer crime has both helped and damaged our society, it's costing us great amounts of money, but is also forcing us to stress an emphasis on a better protection plan. Computer-crimes effect the whole world from day to day, often we hear about hackers from other countries breaking into our own systems, and visa versa. This is certainly an important problem that we are going to have to deal with worldwide; everyone is doing their best to track and bring these new cyber-criminals to justice. It will be a while off before there's a specific and stable basis on which to build prosecution methods, but the wrong will not go unpunished.