CHAPTER TWO

COMPUTER CRIME
•

• What is Computer Crime?

Computers have created opportunities for crime that
never existed before.
History shows that the growth of crime is strongly
related to opportunity and that changes in technology
generate both new types of crime and new techniques
of crime detection.
•

The arrival of IT and rapid spread of PCs has made

possible entirely new kinds of crime such as:
 ATM fraud
credit card fraud
mobile phone fraud
cable TV fraud
telemarketing fraud
desktop forgery so on.
… cont`d
Computer crime generally has been defined as:
criminal act that has been committed using a computer
as the principal tool.

Some have talked in terms of a distinction between

computer related frauds (in which the computer is
purely coincidental) and computer assisted fraud (in
which the computer is used to commit the fraud).
Some have also distinguished input fraud from
output fraud.
…cont`d

•Computer crime can take the form of:-

 The theft of money.
transfer of payments to the wrong accounts
The theft of information
files or databases
The theft of goods
diversion to the wrong destination
…cont`d
Computer crime can also take the form of
unauthorized access or unauthorized use of systems.
• penetrating a computer by unlocking the master key to its
program and then destroying it by activating its own
emergency program
• worm programs that delete portions of a computer’s
memory
Generally, new technology brings new opportunities
for crime in many way, Computers and computer
networks have left many open doors for criminals to
enter.
Targets of the Computer Criminal
• Banks and financial companies are major targets for
computer criminals
• The main targets of computer crime are:-
Damage to or modifications of computer data or programs
gain access to Web sites and computer networks
Remote access to targeted machines to gain information
and copy programs
illegally accessing stored information
 steal financial information such as credit card details
Unauthorized access to computer systems and service
Unauthorized reproduction of legally protected computer
programs
 Categories of Computer Crime
Theft: involves stealing or taking another’s property
Eg. Software theft, hardware theft
Piracy: involves stealing potential revenue and is a
criminal offence often involving copyright or patent
violation.
Espionage: It is the stealing of secrets, the acquisition
of confidential information.
Fraud: is dishonestly gaining an advantage of others,
whether it is financial or otherwise.
Sabotage: is deliberately damaging a system to reduce
the effectiveness of the system.
Spoofing: stealing passwords through a false login page
 Who Are The Computer Criminals And Why Do They
Do It?
Computer criminals are people who
are convicted of computer
crimes such as breaking into
computers or computer networks.
• Can be Hackers, Crackers, Attackers, Who commits computer crime?
Terrorist, and Trusted computer
users.
Types of Computer Crime
• Business attacks
• Financial attacks
• Terrorist attacks
• Grudge(compliant) attacks
• Fun attacks
Computer Crimes Are Hard to
Prosecute(accuse)
• Lack of understanding
• Lack of physical evidence
• Lack of recognition of assets
• Lack of political impact
• Complexity of case
• Juvenile(immature)
Computer Criminals Are Hard to
Catch
• Multinational activity
• No international laws for computer
crimes
• Complexity
• Networked attacks hard to trace
 The Fight Against Computer Crimes
Computers are also being used increasingly in the fight
against crime; both conventional crime and computer
based crime.
Police forces all over the world are now using laptop
computers, automatic vehicle location (AVL) systems
computer aided dispatch (CAD) systems helps to emergency
calls
preventing cyber attacks before they occur or limiting their scope
by disseminating warnings and advisories about threats so that
potential victims can protect themselves.
responding to attacks that do occur by investigating and
identifying the perpetrator/criminal
 Security Method
User awareness:- create a big brother
approaches to monitor illegal activity
Physical security:- Limit access to physical space
to prevent asset theft and unauthorized entry
Technological Security (Application Security)
includes:-
• Web Server & Browser. Eg. Configure server correctly
• Operating System & Network Security. Eg. Firewalls &
Intrusion Detection Systems
• Firewalls, Software solutions, authentication
Policies & Procedures
 Software Theft
• Software theft costs the software industry an estimated
$12 billion a year
• act of stealing or illegally coping software or
intentionally erasing programs.
• software theft is illegal duplication, transmission,
and multiple uses of copyrighted software.

How to protect software theft?

License agreement
Product key
Respecting copyright law
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 Intellectual Rights and the Law

•Intellectual property is the area of law that deals

with protecting the rights of those who create
original works.

•When individuals know that their creative work

will be protected, they are more likely to
continue to produce things that create jobs,
develop new technology, make processes more
efficient, and create beauty in the world around
us.
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…..Cont’d

• There are three main mechanisms for protecting

intellectual property.
Copyrights: Copyrights protect the expressive arts. They give
owners exclusive rights to reproduce their work
• Trademarks: Trademarks protect the names and identifying
marks of products and companies.
• Patents: Patents protect an invention from being made, sold or
used by others for a certain period of time.
• E.g. Utility Patents, design patent, plant patents…

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