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Growing Threat of Computer Crimes

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Running head: THE GROWING THREAT OF COMPUTER CRIME The Growing Threat of Computer Crime Diana Ritter Baker College of Cadillac May 9, 2001 Abstract Computers have been used for most kinds of crime, including fraud, theft, larceny, embezzlement, burglary, sabotage, espionage, murder, and forgery, since the first cases were reported in 1958. One study of 1,500 computer crimes established that most of them were committed by trusted computer users within businesses; persons with the requisite skills, knowledge, access, and resources. With the arrival of personal computers to manipulate information and access computers by telephone, increasing numbers of crimes--electronic trespassing, copyrighted-information piracy, vandalism--have been …show more content…

Convicted computer hacker, John Lee, a founder of the infamous “Master’s of Deception” hacker group stated that he could change credit card records and bank balances, get free limousines, airplane tickets, and hotel rooms (without anyone being billed), change utility and rent rates, distribute computer software programs free to all over the internet, and easily obtain insider trading information. Imagine………this is just one person. Think of all the hundreds of “hackers” that are out there. Computer stalking. One type of computer criminal rapidly emerging is the “cyber stalker”. One such stalker, the pedophile, surfs the net looking to build relationships with young boys or girls and then sets out to meet them in person to pursue his/her sexual intensions. This type of activity also leads to sellers of child pornography over the internet. Virtual crimes. Stock and bond fraud is already appearing on the internet. Stocks and bonds that appear on the market are actively traded (for a short period of time) and then disappear. These stocks and bonds are nonexistent-only the electronic impulses are read. One must note, however, no matter how clever the hacker, the most serious security threat in most enterprises is password theft. Password stealing is the “holy grail” of hacking. Once a username/password combination has been found, the hacker has free rein to exploit that user account. Firewalls, intrusion detection

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