Computer Crimes in the Modern World - Term Paper Example

Running head: Computer Crimes Computer Crimes Allen Green Computer Literacy 10 Lisa Turner November 23, 2009 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Abstract 2 Computer Crimes 3 Security Concerns 4 Types of Computer crimes 4 Organized Computer Crimes 8 Malicious Programs 10 Other Crimes 11 Security Implementation 11 13 14 Conclusion 15 Bibliography 15 Abstract With the passage of time, huge developments have been done in the field of computer science. The computer is being used in every field of life. Computer is being used in scientific research, medical department, missile technology, banking, laboratory, and other walks of life. The concept of cyber world and Internet has revolutionized the World to a great extent. Every technology has some pros and cons. The above mentioned are the advantages of computer but there are also some weak points of this technology. The computers have mechanized the whole world too much and people heavily depend too much on computers. On the other hand the biggest pessimistic use of computer is for crime purposes. As people make use of the computers they typically think that their activities are confidential and also their personal information are protected (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004) and (OLeary & OLeary, 2007). For instance, web sites of business nature often gather details from many visitors; later on many web sites sell these personal details against the desires of the visitors. This paper offers detailed analysis of the computer crimes. This aim of this research is to offer a deep analysis of computer crimes, their types, characteristics, and attacking areas. This research will also outline the computer crimes consequence and potential way to stop them. Computer Crimes According to (Parker, 2002), “the exploitation of computer has given birth to a concept called ‘computer crime’” (Parker, 2002). Computer crimes are available in many forms and also bring numerous problems regarding the online working. In addition, online frauds are the modern form of the online criminal activities that involves the information and data hacking and later on use of that information to perform the illegal activities, such as cash based scandals. Numerous modern and up-to-date technologies in the industrial period have given birth to the innovative criminal activities. Information technology, especially Internet is open for everyone which gives the opportunities to criminal people, to steal, new ways to steal them, and new techniques to harm others. In most simple word computer crime can be defined as the unlawful actions by using a computer or against a computer system. The Internets user-friendliness and convenience have given birth to modern ways for computer crime, renowned forms of which are phishing, pharming, and vishing (Laudon & Laudon, 1999, p. 147). Security Concerns From the perspective of computer crimes the basic need is to identify the security in terms of online and computer based working. According to Laudon & Laudon (1999), the computer security is a group of activities which encompass the policies, measures, and actions which are utilized to stop unlawful access or alteration, theft, and physical damage to information or computer. Security can be supported with an assortment of techniques and tools to safeguard computer hardware, software communications networks, and data (Laudon & Laudon, 1999, p. 502). Since, in the modern age of the information technology, various threats have appeared for the organizational information and personal information. Therefore, there is need of a security model that has the ability to manage and secure information reserves. However, technical administrative safety /security measures such as security plans, actions and techniques are the key practices for the organizational information security measures. Awareness of building actions are concerned by the organizations to a significantly smaller extent, on the other hand at the same time these are evaluated as being additional effective organizational procedures than technical administrative ones. Client information security and privacy is the most important issue in any organization (OLeary & OLeary, 2007) and (Laudon & Laudon, 1999). Types of Computer crimes An increasing number of domestic and worldwide criminal actions are using the Internet for the crime purposes. Computers as well as other electronic instruments can be the tools to commit crime or are besieged by criminals. A home computer connected to the Internet without security might be infected with malicious software just within a minute. The briefing under consideration talks about the level and nature of computer crime, available technologies to protect and safeguard computers, and emphasizes the key strategy challenges (parliament.uk, 2006). Figure: 1- Employees Computer Crimes, Image source: http://www.computerevidenceexperts.com/images/computer-crime.jpg There are numerous types of computer crimes the most hazardous is employees’ computer crimes. In this type of computer crimes the main actors are business or organizational employees. Sometimes a dissatisfied employee or terminated worker can create a big danger for the organization. These people are aimed to damage the business with their extensive criminal activities. Often these people are derived by the competitive organization. Let us consider a case in which an employee has been terminated from an organization and still a potential for computer crime exists, then the former employer should update his records to show that the person involved is no longer employed in the company (Parker, 2002) and (OLeary & OLeary, 2007). Therefore, employers should properly scrutinize the background of persons being attached with critical computer related tasks. Some people falsify resume to get jobs. Also, the company should hire trustworthy personnel to minimize crimes related to computers (Parker, 2002) and (Worthington, 2003, pp. 621-623). The is the most common type computer crimes that involves a criminal activity in which a criminal attacks the computer system from an outside business, organization, or personal system, as well as has no direct link to the business and any access to resources. In this type of crimes outside user is aimed at accessing the business system to gain the access to resource of business. In addition, these resources can comprise business or personal information. The main intension in this type of criminal activity is the theft of above mentioned resources (OLeary & OLeary, 2007). The types of illegal access in outside attack generally involve the following: (Standler, 2002) 1. Computer voyeur: The criminal reads (or copies) private or proprietary information, but data is neither deleted nor changed. 2. Deleting data: Deleting entire files could be an act of vandalism or sabotage. 3. Refusing service to legitimate users: A time-sharing computer of modern age, any user can take disk space and time thus access to resources is denied to the legitimate users. Figure 3 Hacker and Cracker Image source: http://www.lariaeditutti.org/merlino/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/1043_evil_male_computer_hacker_typing.jpg Hacker and Cracker are most widely used terms in computer crimes. Hacker is a term used to explain an external person who has broken through a computer system, typically devoid of illegal intention. On the other hand, a Cracker is a nasty hacker, who may perhaps produce a stern crisis for the organization (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004). Moreover, Hackers retrieve information to give a danger to the individual (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004) and (OLeary & OLeary, 2007). Organized Computer Crimes The computer crimes are turning out to be more and more organized. Sometimes members of organized criminal group implement techniques of IT in their criminal jobs. Therefore, explorations of these areas are essential so as to implement great policy of counteraction to organized criminality in web based business and computer technologies areas. Also, the interests of organized groups include laundering money, bank sphere, and financial machination, distribution of false information, where automated systems are extensively functional (Sabadash, 2004) and (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005, pp. 693-694). According to an online research carried out by the FTC in 2006, more than 67500 complaints of identity theft were reported in United States (National Criminal Justice reference Service, 2008). Figure 4 Organized Crimes, Source: http://www1.cj.msu.edu/~outreach/security/crime.jpg Figure 5Terrorist base computer crimes, Source : http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/223586-38216-57.jpg Sometimes organizations or individuals face the Terrorist based online threats. As the combination of terrorism, transnational crime as well as corruption is deep set of terrorist based crimes. Terrorists and transnational criminals utilize various similar policies to carry out criminal activities (Shelley, 2004). Malicious Programs There are many types of malicious programs, but the most common type is virus. A virus is a program that infects and spoils an executable file. The infected file works in a strange way than before: perhaps only showing a gentle message on the monitor, perhaps erasing various or almost all files on the users secondary storage or hard drive, possibly changing data files. There are two salient characteristics of a computer virus: (OLeary & OLeary, 2007), (Brenton & Hunt, 2002), and (Standler, 2002) and (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005) 1. The virus causes damage just after infecting the file or application software. 2. The capability to spread by attaching itself to executable files (e.g., application software, programs such as operating system, macros, scripts, master boot record of a hard disk or floppy disk, etc.). And an infected file makes as many copies as many times the infected file runs. A worm is a program that replicates itself. And the difference between a virus and worm is that a virus not at all replicates itself – a virus is copied on the hard drive simply as the infected executable file is run by the operating system or by some other means (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004), (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005) and (Standler, 2002). Another most common type of malicious program is Trojan horse. A Trojan horse is a deceivingly labeled program that holds at least one function that is unfamiliar to the client and creates unknown problems to the user. Usually Trojan horse does not copy itself, and this is the difference between Trojan horses and viruses/worms. In addition, some Trojan horses of serious nature permit a hacker to manage the sufferer’s computer remotely, perhaps to get passwords as well as credit card numbers, or might be with intent to launch denial of service attacks on websites (OLeary & OLeary, 2007), (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004), (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005), and (Standler, 2002). Other Crimes Nowadays, the identity theft is most popular threat. The executor of this act could go behind doesnt matter what economic capital victim had for instance the credit or debit card number, bank account, etc. Moreover, the attacker could copy or steal enough data and information from targeted computer to obtain identity. “The unlawful supposition of another’s identity is identity theft and this is one of the top increasing crimes in the United States” (OLeary & OLeary, 2007) and (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2005). Scamming is to send fake email messages or web contents or web pages to tease or blackmail people to get their personal information or to get money from the user by deception (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004) and (Standler, 2002). Unluckily the Internet is full of different programs and application that are aimed at harming the personal identity and personal information. Moreover, a number of scams are particularly intended to take benefit of the means the internet operates (OLeary & OLeary, 2007). Security Implementation There are several ways to implement security against these threats. The most important way an organization can diminish the criminal threats is by having a good plan for security, and the centerpiece of such any plan is an assessment of which operations are most vulnerable to attach. Thus a list can be made about disaster-level events that can take place (Parker, 2002). However, no security implementation guarantees 100 percent safety, therefore, organization should specifically take steps to have backup ready if or when disruptive events such as fires, floods, or computer outage occur (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004) and (Norton, 2001). In addition, properly designed controls may avoid errors from taking place, dissuade criminals from attacking the system, and better yet deny access to unauthorized people (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004).Furthermore, to stop and avoid computer crimes over the Internet a useful technique is to encrypt the network traffic crossing over the network. Encryption makes certain the secrecy of sender and the receiver (Turban, Rainer, & Potter, 2004) and (Parker, 2002). Firewalls are utilized to put into practice control access policy as it allows certain type of traffic to cross through the network that meet certain criteria otherwise it blocks the traffic. To turn away the threat of hackers, firewalls should be utilized at the border of the network (Brenton & Hunt, 2002) and (Norton, 2001). Figure 6 Computer Security Source: http://rlv.zcache.com/computer_security_guard_gorilla_photosculpture-p1537892332357335683s98_400.jpg Figure 7 Encryption, Source : http://www.cohn-family.com/images/cert-rsa-encryption.jpg Figure 8 Restrict the System, source : http://www.online-security-solution.com/security2.gif Figure 9 Use passwords, Source: http://www.watchonepiecepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/password-hack.jpg Figure 10. Use Firewalls, source: http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisserver/9.2/java/manager/graphics/firewall.png Conclusion The network based structure has evaluated so much and offered us a great advantage regarding the better business management, effective commutation and enhanced operations handling. The information technology is making progress in every walk of life. As it has facilitated our lives, it has also brought lot of troubles in the form of computer crimes. Criminals target computer systems as tools to carry out old as well as modern types of crimes. This paper has discussed the computer crimes in detail. In this paper I have outlined main type of crimes. I have talked about the different type of attacks. I have discussed the main ways of attack and potential damage due to these attacks. I have also outlined the methods to minimize the effects of computer attacks and making them in under control regarding the effective management of the business and personal security. Bibliography 1. Brenton, C., & Hunt, C. (2002). Mastering Network Security. Sybex. 2. Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (1999). Management Information Systems, Sixth Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall . 3. National Criminal Justice reference Service. (2008, 09 15). In the Spotlight, Identity Theft - Facts and Figures . Retrieved November 21, 2009, from NCJRS, National Criminal Justice reference Service: http://www.ncjrs.gov/spotlight/identity_theft/facts.html 4. Norton, P. (2001). Introduction to Computers, Fourth Edition. Singapore: McGraw-Hill. 5. OLeary, T., & OLeary, L. (2007). Computing Essentials. New York: McGraw-Hill. 6. Parker, C. S. (2002). Understanding computers Today and Tomorrow. Harcourt Brace College Publishers. 7. parliament.uk. (2006). Computer Crime. Retrieved November 21, 2009, from Parliament.uk: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn271.pdf 8. Sabadash, V. (2004). IT and organized crime . Retrieved November 20, 2009, from http://www.crime-research.org/pages/sabad02_2004 9. scamwatch. (2009). Internet scams. Retrieved November 20, 2009, from http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/InternetScams 10. Shelley, L. I. (2004). Organized Crime, Terrorism and Cybercrime. Retrieved November 21, 2009, from Crime-Research.org: http://www.crime-research.org/articles/Terrorism_Cybercrime/ 11. Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat. (2005). Discovering Computers 2005. Boston: Thomson Course Technology. 12. Standler, R. B. (2002). Computer Crime. Retrieved November 21, 2009, from RBS2.com: http://www.rbs2.com/ccrime.htm 13. Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E., & Wetherbe, J. (2005). Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy . New York: Wiley. 14. Turban, E., Rainer, R. K., & Potter, R. E. (2004). Introduction to Information Technology,3rd Edition. New York: Wiley. 15. Worthington, P. (2003). Introduction to Information Systems. Singapore: Thomson. Read More