Beth James Computers and the Internet: Crime and Privacy As computers have developed, so also have crimes associated with their use. The development of the computer, and the internet have brought great strides in technology, and communication. Along with each advancement comes a greater risk of infiltration, and deception. There are numerous types of technological crime in use today; the most valuable weapon to the individual is education and, protection. Computer crime takes on many forms, each considerably different. Theses crimes can fall into two general categories 1)Physical harm against a system, 2)Infiltration of the system and its data. There are 13 types of computer crimes with recorded incidents of occurrence. 1)Computer Violence is bombing or arson directed at the computer facilities, or the machine itself. 2)Computer Theft is the stealing of computer related materials such as magnetic media, computer terminals, personal computers, test equipment, and semiconductors. 3) Embezzlement is the act of employees stealing money from computer systems. 4)Fraud is hardware and software repersenatives misrepresenting their products in the marketplace. 5)Misuse of a computer, is employees using their employers computer facilities for their personal pleasure or profit. 6)Alteration is the changing of computer stored records, such as criminal records, or credit reports. 7)Espionage is industrial or foreign stealing of trade secrets, programs, or manuals. 8)Export violation is the act of selling sensitive hardware or software to potentially hostile foreign countries. 9) Hacking is the electronic trespass into other people's computer systems via telephone lines. 10)Denial of a computer system to its rightful owner. 11)Criminal use of personal computers in the commission of crimes such as storing pornography. 12)Copyright Violation is making, and distributing of illegal copies of computer programs. 13)Business Crimes such as antitrust violation, bribery, kickbacks by companies selling computer equipment. Each of these categories encompasses a wide variety of possible ways to execute a crime(Carroll, 50). The history of computer crime dates back to almost the invention of the computer. In years prior to 1974 forgiveness was granted to computer criminals. Most of which were youthful hackers who broke into computer systems, and were considered budding geniuses, punished only by writing essays on how they did it. Some famous early incidences include the 1967 MIT students, who broke into an airfoce database and left indications of their presences. Not all break ins were simple college pranks, Jerry Schneider defrauded Pacific Bell of $2 million dollars (Carroll,19). By the mid-1970's the cost of computer crime began to worry major computers companies, and the government. The budding geniuses had finally been recognized for the thieves, and mischief-makers they were,and soon legislation would halt their progress. In 1978 florida was the first state to pass a computer crime law. In Florida it was made a felony to commit computer offenses against programs and data, equipment or supplies, and computer users. The US federal law against computer crime was enacted in 1984, and amended several times thereafter, this applied to federally owned computers. This act condemned six offenses: obtaining financial information, intent to defraud, alteration or damage, trafficking in stolen passwords, or interfering with government operations. Countries around the world struggled with computer crime administration, and enforcement(Parker, 89). Most Computer crimes that occur offline are in the work or business environment. It is essential that management, and computer operators monitor the actions of personel to ensure security. For all mainframe computers with access to sensitive material, it is important to have multiple clearance measurers. Background checks, and security interviews are essential to hiring trustworthy employees. The location of secured information within a facility should be central and require scan card, or palm recognizor to gain entrance. All computers should be password protected, and no private information should leave the facility without authorization. The ability of a company to protect its internal information can insure the safety of its funds. The dawn of the internet has provided a whole new range of crime for the master computer criminal, and the techi school student. The internet is not only plagued with crime, and scams but simple annoyances, and invasions of privacy. The first and, most obvious ways for an armature to commit a crime is to obtain a person passwords, user ID's, or credit card numbers. Failure to control your personal information can cause not only aggravation, but many expensive problems. Passwords are used on most computers to gain access to accounts, and personal information. If using an on-line service password, you stand to lose money for per-minute charges and monthly fees, if your password is stolen. Also depending on the their use you can lose your entire account, for fraudulent activities. Credit card numbers are easily intercepted by thieves, and you may not know it for more then a month. Numbers can be used at many sites to buy just about anything you can imagine(Banks,33). Viruses, one of the main fears of computer users, are basically computer programs that take action which is usually destructive. Viruses come in many forms, some are date activated, or go into effect when you boot your system. Viruses usually enter your system disguised as a program, or download. Internet hosted viruses are popular because they move faster, and have the best chance for longevity. The best defense against viruses is to be careful what you accept. Take downloads, and e-mail only from people you know, and then download only to a disk. Anti-Virus programs will also help protect your computer by, blocking suspected virus programs(Banks,138). Spam is not a crime but it should be, by most accounts. Spam is all the junk e-mail you receive everyday that you didn't request. Spam usually comes from regular people, hiding their identity, because they don't want to receive all the complaints. Spam is best avoided by not giving your e-mail address to public forums. You can request to be taken off spammers list but many times it dose a little good(Barrett,186). Scams are one of the most harmful plagues on the internet. They like offline scams target the young, and the old and come in many different forms. Most ask for money or credit card numbers in return for a product or service. Pyramid Scams usually involve chain letters, stating if you send in one dollar and send this letter to five friends you will receive a large sum of money in a few days. These scams are never true, and they are illegal. Investment scams are big and come in many different forms, the most popular of which is the Porizi scam. These investments usually involve an unknown high tech company that promises huge returns, that never come to light. Financial scams are always illegal and unethical, most involve credit-repair, offshore banking, credit cards, and loan guarantees. Credit repair companies promise to remove all bad credit from your report which is close to impossible and never happens. Off shore banks promise to hide income from the government which is illegal and usually discovered, and clients end up paying large sums of money(Guisnel, 134). E-Mail is not private by any means, it travels through a very complex system.Starting with the users terminal, and going through various server computers, into your recipients, and onto their drives.People can get complete infomation on your home computer, check for youself at http://www.anonymizer.com/cgi-bin/snoop.pl Most server employees are honest, and have no intreast in your mail, but it has happened. The most common problem with e-mail is someone getting into your account, and writing in your name.(Barret,34) The only way to truly keep your mail, ISP, and information private is to delete all server information, which will diabable your e-mail until you return the information. To protect your e-mail from internet prowling robots, enter your address as " me at myisp.net" robots will ignore this as they look at onlyconventional addresses(Banks, 149). Many web sites have been designed to help you achieve online privacy. A few of the most useful sites are listed below, with their uses. The Stalker homepage at http://www.privacyrights.org/ has useful coverage of privacy rights issues, and also offers safety products for sale. CyberAngels at http://www.cyberangels.org this site is a group of volunteers that provide information, education, and support for online victims. This site also provides links to cyberstalking and cybernanny sites, that can be installed to your computer. Scam Watch at http://www.scamwatch.com is a group of web developers and citizens that provide information and advice for web scams, and allow visitors to post information about scams they have seen(Banks, 251). The ability to protect computers, and individual privacy is vital to the continuing success of technology. For every scam, fraud, and corruption that exist, computers and the internet provided 10 times as much good. The key to never confronting these problems is education, and taking all the precautions available to you. 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