The Major Categories Of Computer Crimes Essay

Crimes against people come in different forms; each belongs to a category. Crimes against persons are crimes that are violent in nature. While crimes against property involves the taking of property or money. Then, we have crimes of public morality; these are usually victimless crimes, meaning there is no true victim of the crime. Many scams and frauds fall into the white-collar crime, to include schemes and tax evasion. Finally, crimes that are committed with the use of a computer and/or various forms of technology are called cyber crimes. This essay will explain the different categories of crimes and give a true meaning by type of crime.

Based on Dauphin County First Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo, “We become a very electronic-oriented society.” (Marc Goodman). With this increase usage of electronic, we see a new set of criminals and crimes. With the cellular telephone, criminals use it, not only to communicate with one another, but also to target people and as a triggering device. For example, if the criminals are searching for someone they can text each other with the description of a person and then upon verification proceed with an order, possible death. With this same cellular telephone technology, law enforcement can use someone’s cellular telephone to track their movements or identify their location to help with investigations. The new set of crimes is cybercrimes. A cybercrime is any crime that involves the use of computer or the manipulation of digital data. Zackary J. Miller, section Chief of the FBI’s Cyber Criminal Division stated, “I think there is a growing cybercrime problem that we are continuing to chase a bit behind the curve… bank robbery and fraud are all facilitated by the internet.” (Bernice Young, 2011). There are five types of computer crimes: (1). internal computer crimes, such as viruses; (2). internet and telecommunication, which is hacking; (3). criminal enterprises, databases supporting drug distribution; (4). computer manipulation, embezzlement; and (5). hardware, software, and information theft. (Schmalleger,

There are four major categories in computer crime. The first is the computer as a target. Then would come the computer as an instrument of a crime. Followed by computer as an incidental to a crime. Not to mention crimes associated with the prevalence of computers. These four major categories are what contributes to digital crimes, involving the worldwide web.

The creation go of the Internet has helped spawn new forms of criminals and crimes, and has always helped make older criminal schemes easier to execute, identity theft, child pornography, copyright violations, hacking and you could go on and on. In a 2003 survey conducted by the CSI with the participation of the San Francisco Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Computer Intrusion Squad, of the 530 respondents made up of U.S. corporations, government agencies, financial institutions, medical institutions and universities, 56% reported unauthorized use of their computer systems (2003 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey).

Cybercrime is known as any type of violation to the federal or state laws that is committed through the use of a computer or another technological device. Common types of cybercrime described by the Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) include: Internal cybercrime. These crimes are also known as Malware, and they include the creation of viruses and other malicious software with the intention to damage someone else’s computer. Second category is Internet and Telecommunication Crimes. Such crimes include making pranks over the phone, illegal internet-based gambling, dissemination of illegal material, such as child pornography, theft of telecommunications systems, among others. The third category of cybercrime stated by the FBI is known as Support

Property: These kind of crimes includes unauthorized computer tres passing via cyber space, transmission of harmful programmer or possession of comutersied information.

"Hackers", on the other hand probably view the system more abstractly, as a resource waiting to be used at the end of a telephone line, a challenge beckoning them, calling to them irresistibly, whispering to them, "There will be no damage done and no one will be the wiser."

Therefore in both cases the extent that the computer is used as a tool or instrument to commit a crime determines the proof of culpability. The actus reus of the computer crime is its content. Relating this to cybercrimes lies in the communication means through which the crime was committed that is; the internet and the connectivity of computers. Therefore the crime committed through the use of the internet connectivity, primarily qualifies the offence as if the offence concerned relates to tangible property. The definition of what constitutes a computer crime varies from country to country. There is no universally accepted definition . In practice the two similar category of crime have been treated as two separate form of crime. Some Commonwealth countries, follow the United Kingdom in legislating new laws to deal with computer crime and existing laws to deal with cybercrime and modifying the existing law to accommodate the ever evolving technological development and appropriate enforcement mechanisms. The modification of existing laws does not always occur at the same rate as the technology that facilitates the crime leading to ‘a lost in translation phenomenon’ making the new law either antiquated or inadequate for the crime for which it was initially modified to deal with.

Computer crime refers to any violation of the law in which a computer is the target or means of criminal activity (Mooney, Knox, & Schacht, 2014, p.113). Computer crime is also known as cybercrime. Cybercrime continues to have far reaching effects because it affects individuals, companies, and organizations and is increasingly a problem in the globalized world we live in. This is because we rely so much on cell-phones, computers, and us many social network sites. Cybercrime is considered a social problem because it negatively affects a large group of people in our society. In 2014, there were 1.5 million cyber attacks worldwide (“IBM Cyber Security Intelligence Index,” 2015, pg.13). One type of computer crime is identity theft. Identity theft is the use of someone else’s personal information to obtain credit or other economic rewards (Mooney, et al, 2014, pg.113). Identity theft first became a crime in 1998, when Congress passed the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act

Before talking about these cybercrimes, it would be convenient to define the crimes as they were before Internet arrived to our lives:

When discussing cybercrime, common terms that come to mind are viruses, hacking and online identity theft. All these three terms share a common characteristic: they all require software. Hackers use software to plant viruses to steal information. Crimeware “is a subclass of [malware]” (Emigh, 2006, p. 246) and is defined as a software running without the consent of a victim for nefarious purposes. Crimeware is routinely used to commit online identity theft. This is achieved typically through phishing, which (as its name

-Within this writing assignment, I will discuss the four major categories of computer crimes. I will explain the most common forms of digital crime and why cyber terrorism is the greatest threat. I will also discuss the roles of the U.S. government, court systems, and law enforcement agencies in combating computer crime. First, we will define the four major categories of computer crimes.

The last computer crime I would like to talk about is theft. This crime occurs when a person violates copyrights and downloads music, movies, games and software. There are even peer sharing websites such as bittorrent.com, bear share, and utorrent.com. These torrents and websites allows software piracy and many of these websites are now being targeted by the FBI. Today, the justice system is addressing

Because we rely more and more on computers, we also depend on those who make

Computer crimes are on the rise 1 in 10 Americans have had to experience some form of attack