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(1)
Many crimes involving computers are no different from crimes without computers: the computer is only a tool that a criminal uses to commit a crime. For example,
- Using a computer, a scanner, graphics software, and a high-quality color laser or ink jet printer for forgery or counterfeiting is the same crime as using an old-fashioned printing press with ink.
- Stealing a laptop computer with proprietary information stored on the hard disk inside the computer is the same crime as stealing a briefcase that contains papers with proprietary information.
- Using computers can be another way to commit either larceny or fraud.
Posting messages in an Internet newsgroup or online bulletin board with a false author's name that is intended to harm the reputation of the real person of that name.
These acts might be punishable by existing criminal statutes that prohibit impersonation, forgery, deceit, or fraud. However, a judge might decide that the specific language in old statutes about writing or signature does not apply to e-mail. Rather than write new statutes for forged e-mail addresses or unauthorized sending of e-mail in someone else's name. The author of this article would prefer that legislatures broaden the existing criminal statutes for analogous crimes with paper and ink.
(2)
Unauthorized use of computers tends generally takes the following forms:
- The criminal reads (or copies) confidential or proprietary information, but data is neither deleted nor changed.
In 1999, the Melissa virus infected a [possibly confidential] document on a victim's computer, then automatically sent that document and copy of the virus via e-mail to other people. Subsequently, the SirCam and Klez malicious programs made a similar release of [possibly confidential] documents from a victim's computer. These malicious programs are a new way to release confidential information from a victim's computer, with the confidential information going not to the author of the malicious program, but to some person unknown to the author of the malicious program.
- Changing data. For example, change a grade on a school transcript, add "money" to a checking account, etc. Unauthorized changing of data is generally a fraudulent act.
- Deleting data. Deleting entire files could be an act of vandalism or sabotage.
Most unauthorized use of a computer is accomplished by a person in his home, who uses a modem to access a remote computer. In this way, the computer criminal is acting analogous to a burglar.. However, in the unauthorized use of another's computer, the criminal "enters" the computer via the telephone lines, which is not breaking into the building.
(3)
Since the Internet is not limited by geography, crimes committed in cyberspace can easily achieve global dimensions. Systems can be accessed from anywhere in the world, and locating perpetrators is difficult. Many computer fraud and embezzlement schemes target international financial networks. Organized crime groups can utilize information technology to evade identification and carry out drug trafficking and money laundering on a global scale. Questions of jurisdiction and apprehension become much more complicated in international cyberspace.
Estimates place annual business losses to cyber crime at roughly $1.5 billion. Many hackers are based in countries far from those they affect. Many authorities suspect that organized "cyber-crime gangs" frequently originate in developing countries where computer-crime laws are lax and enforcement is haphazard.
Individual countries vary widely in the legal approaches they have taken to regulating the Internet. Some strictly observant Islamic nations have tried to contain the dissemination of information online, which they view as containing messages potentially harmful to their populaces. Germany has tried to restrict Web sites containing Neo-Nazi content. China installed firewalls to prevent its citizens from accessing unauthorized sites, and Burma bans Internet access completely.
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