Computer crime - Research Paper Example

Computer crime Computer crime A computer crime is any criminal act that is committed through the use of a computer of a network system. In this context, the computer might have been used to commit a crime or else be the target in the crime committed. Criminal commissions over the internet are referred to as net crimes whereas cyber-crimes are the crimes which are intended to individuals or the society to harm the reputation or cause physical harm to the victim, directly or indirectly. These crimes are committed using communication networks, which mostly are threats circulated in the social media networks (Casey, 2004).

These criminals are traced through the computer system, and they are got through computer IP addresses and Mac addresses which are unique with the log files they generate. These are among the various and popular problems of lack of confidentiality and privacy in the computer users. Below is a discussion of various examples of computer crimes. HarassmentSome of the contents circulated in computers in various non-specific ways. These may include obscenities, inflammatory and derogatory contents of speech form people focusing on a specific target group in the society e.g. gander, race or religion among other social groups.

This can also be used to propel hate speech in political volatile regions and political arrest situation where ethnicity prevails among the leaders.FraudFraud is a criminal act that involves false acquisition of money through the use of computer and network system. This includes hacking of bank accounts, vandalism of ATM and the use of fishers to hack password for false transfer of online money. This is an illegal practice and harms the unsuspecting victims.Cyber terrorismIt is evident that information and technology and government officials have well documented numerous incidents on the breakdown of servers and network infrastructures due to sabotage (Parker, 1983).

These criminals pulls down the servers, and stop the normal operation causing loss of data, and siphoning information from the servers and hence causing many institution suffer from computer terrorism attacks.ReferencesCasey, E. (2004). Digital evidence and computer crime: forensic science, computers and the Internet (2nd ed.). London: Academic Press. Parker, D. B. (1983). Fighting computer crime. New York: Scribner.