Computer crime or cybercrime refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network, where the computers may or may not have played an instrumental part in the commission of the crime (Moore 2000). Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking In common usage, a hacker is a person who breaks into computers, but does no harm, usually for fun or just the challenge. The subculture that has evolved around hackers is often referred to as the computer underground but is now an open community. Hackers are people who are motivated by curiosity and adventurer's spirit, copyright infringement Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works covered by copyright law, in a way that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works, child porn, and child grooming Child grooming, in the context of this article, refers to actions deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, in order to lower the child's inhibitions in preparation for child sexual abuse. Child grooming is also used to lure children into sexual exploitation such as child. There are also problems of privacy Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or when confidential Confidentiality is an ethical principle associated with several professions . In ethics, and (in some places) in law and alternative forms of legal dispute resolution such as mediation, some types of communication between a person and one of these professionals are "privileged" and may not be discussed or divulged to third parties. In information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise.

On the global level, both governments and non-state actors continue to grow in importance, with the ability to engage in such activities as espionage Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it is known that the information is in unauthorized, financial theft, and other cross-border crimes sometimes referred to as cyber warfare Cyberwarfare has been defined by government security expert Richard A. Clarke, in his book Cyber War , as "actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.":6 The Economist describes cyber warfare as "the fifth domain of warfare, after land, sea, air and. The international legal system is attempting to hold actors accountable for their actions, with the International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression (although it cannot currently exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression) among the few addressing this threat.^[1]

Typology

Computer crime encompasses a broad range of potentially illegal activities. Generally, however, it may be divided into one of two types of categories: (1) crimes that target computer networks or devices directly; (2) crimes facilitated by computer networks or devices, the primary target of which is independent of the computer network or device.^{[citation needed]}

Examples of crimes that primarily target computer networks or devices would include:

• Malware Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code. The term "computer virus" is sometimes used as a catch- (malicious code)
• Denial-of-service attacks A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or people to prevent an Internet site or service
• Computer viruses A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware, and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability. A true virus can only spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the

Examples of crimes that merely use computer networks or devices would include:

• Cyber stalking Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization. It may include false accusations, monitoring, making threats, identity theft, damage to data or equipment, the solicitation of minors for sex, or gathering information in order to harass. The definition
• Fraud The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain and identity theft Identity theft is a form of fraud in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name. The victim of identity theft can suffer adverse consequences if he or she is held accountable for the perpetrator's actions
• Phishing scams In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment
• Information warfare Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. Information warfare may involve collection of tactical information, assurance that one's own information is valid, spreading of propaganda or disinformation to demoralize the enemy and the public, undermining the quality of opposing

A computer can be a source of evidence Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or (b) were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth. Evidence is the currency by which one fulfills. Even though the computer is not directly used for criminal purposes, it is an excellent device for record keeping, particularly given the power to encrypt the data. If this evidence can be obtained and decrypted, it can be of great value to criminal investigators.

Spam

Spam E-mail spam, also known as junk e-mail, is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by e-mail. A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail . Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. "UCE" refers specifically to unsolicited commercial e-, or the unsolicited sending of bulk email Electronic mail, commonly called email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages across the Internet or other computer networks. Originally, email was transmitted directly from one user to another computer. This required both computers to be online at the same time, a la instant messenger. Today's email systems are based on a store-and- for commercial purposes, is unlawful to varying degrees Categories: Computer law | Spamming | E-mail | Statutory law . As applied to email, specific anti-spam laws are relatively new, however limits on unsolicited electronic communications have existed in some forms for some time.^[2]

Fraud

Computer fraud is any dishonest misrepresentation of fact intended to let another to do or refrain from doing something which causes loss.^{[citation needed]} In this context, the fraud will result in obtaining a benefit by:

• altering computer input in an unauthorized way. This requires little technical expertise and is not an uncommon form of theft by employees altering the data before entry or entering false data, or by entering unauthorized instructions or using unauthorized processes;
• altering, destroying, suppressing, or stealing output, usually to conceal unauthorized transactions: this is difficult to detect;
• altering or deleting stored data;
• altering or misusing existing system tools or software packages, or altering or writing code for fraudulent purposes. This requires real programming skills and is not common.

Other forms of fraud may be facilitated using computer systems, including bank fraud Bank fraud is the use of fraudulent means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution. In many instances, bank fraud is a criminal offense. While the specific elements of a particular banking fraud law vary between jurisdictions, the term bank fraud applies to actions that employ a scheme or artifice, as, identity theft Identity theft is a form of fraud in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name. The victim of identity theft can suffer adverse consequences if he or she is held accountable for the perpetrator's actions, extortion Extortion, outwresting, and/or exaction is a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual, and theft of classified information Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular classes of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation. There are typically several levels of.

A variety of Internet scams Internet fraud refers to the use of Internet services to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme target consumers direct.

Obscene or offensive content

The content of websites and other electronic communications may be distasteful, obscene or offensive for a variety of reasons. In some instances these communications may be illegal.

Many^[quantify] jurisdictions place limits on certain speech Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship and/or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in and ban racist CDE · CEDAW · CERD · ILO C100 · ILO C111 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR, blasphemous Blasphemy is irreverence toward holy personages, religious artifacts, customs, and beliefs. The Abrahamic religions condemn blasphemy vehemently. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy. Those laws may discourage blasphemy as a matter of blasphemous libel,, politically subversive, libelous Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, slander , and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually a requirement or slanderous Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, slander , and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually a requirement, seditious Sedition is a term of law which refers to overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority as tending toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at, or inflammatory material that tends to incite hate crimes Crime of apartheid · CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR.

The extent to which these communications are unlawful varies greatly between countries, and even within nations. It is a sensitive area in which the courts can become involved in arbitrating between groups with entrenched beliefs.

One area of Internet pornography that has been the target of the strongest efforts at curtailment is child pornography.

Harassment

Whereas content may be offensive in a non-specific way, harassment directs obscenities and derogatory comments at specific individuals focusing for example on gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation. This often occurs in chat rooms, through newsgroups, and by sending hate e-mail to interested parties (see cyber bullying Cyberbullying "involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others. -Bill Belsey" [clarification needed], cyber stalking Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization. It may include false accusations, monitoring, making threats, identity theft, damage to data or equipment, the solicitation of minors for sex, or gathering information in order to harass. The definition, harassment by computer Harassment by computer is a crime in several U.S. states . It is distinct from stalking in that stalking typically requires two or more contacts, whereas harassment by computer may be a single incident. It is also different from regular harassment, because the offense typically encompasses a range of crimes that would not be considered harassment, hate crime CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR, Online predator An online predator is an adult Internet user who exploits vulnerable children or teens, usually for sexual or other abusive purposes, and stalking Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted, obsessive attention by individuals to others. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation. The word "stalking" is used, with some differing meanings, in psychology and psychiatry and also in some legal jurisdictions as a term for a criminal offense. It may also be). Any comment that may be found derogatory or offensive is considered harassment.

Drug trafficking

Drug traffickers are increasingly taking advantage of the Internet to sell their illegal substances through encrypted e-mail Electronic mail, commonly called email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages across the Internet or other computer networks. Originally, email was transmitted directly from one user to another computer. This required both computers to be online at the same time, a la instant messenger. Today's email systems are based on a store-and- and other Internet Technology. Some drug traffickers arrange deals at internet cafes An Internet café or cybercafé is a place which provides internet access to the public, usually for a fee. These businesses usually provide snacks and drinks, hence the café in the name. The fee for using a computer is usually charged as a time-based rate, use courier Web sites to track illegal packages of pills, and swap recipes for amphetamines in restricted-access chat rooms.

The rise in Internet drug trades could also be attributed to the lack of face-to-face communication. These virtual exchanges allow more intimidated individuals to more comfortably purchase illegal drugs. The sketchy effects that are often associated with drug trades are severely minimized and the filtering process that comes with physical interaction fades away. Furthermore, traditional drug recipes were carefully kept secrets. But with modern computer technology, this information is now being made available to anyone with computer access.

Cyberterrorism

Government officials and Information Technology Information technology is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware", according to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to security specialists have documented a significant increase in Internet problems and server scans since early 2001. But there is a growing concern among federal officials^[who?] that such intrusions are part of an organized effort by cyberterrorists, foreign intelligence services, or other groups to map potential security holes in critical systems. A cyberterrorist is someone who intimidates or coerces a government or organization to advance his or her political or social objectives by launching computer-based attack against computers, network, and the information stored on them.

Cyberterrorism in general, can be defined as an act of terrorism committed through the use of cyberspace or computer resources (Parker 1983). As such, a simple propaganda in the Internet, that there will be bomb attacks during the holidays can be considered cyberterrorism. At worst, cyberterrorists may use the Internet or computer resources to carry out an actual attack. As well there are also hacking activities directed towards individuals, families, organised by groups within networks, tending to cause fear among people, demonstrate power, collecting information relevant for ruining peoples' lives, robberies, blackmailing etc.

Cyber warfare

The U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense is the U.S. federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the United States armed forces. The organization and functions of the DOD are set forth in Title 10 of the United States Code (DoD) notes that cyberspace has emerged as a national-level concern through several recent events of geo-strategic significance. Among those are included the attack on Estonia Estonia [esˈtəʊnɪə] / (AmE) [esˈtoʊnɪə] (help·info) (Estonian: Eesti), officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Vabariik), is a state in the Baltic Region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by the Russian's infrastructure in 2007, allegedly by Russian hackers. "In August 2008, Russia again allegedly conducted cyber attacks, this time in a coordinated and synchronized kinetic and non-kinetic campaign against the country of Georgia Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო, IPA: [sɑkʰɑrtʰvɛlɔ] ; English pronunciation: /ˈdʒɔrdʒə/ ( listen)) is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia,. Fearing that such attacks may become the norm in future warfare among nation-states, the concept of cyberspace operations impacts and will be adapted by warfighting military commanders in the future.^[3]

Documented cases

• On December 27, 2007, Lee James Garvin pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Chief Judge Richard J. Arcara, to a felony charge of computer hacking. Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin J. Littlefield, who handled the case, stated that the defendant had a former business association with Uniform NameMakers of Buffalo, New York up until the fall of 2006. Mr. Garvin had been responsible for much of the computer hardware and software utilized by Uniform NameMakers in their business operations. (Uniform NameMakers is an embroidery company in the business of providing logos and other insignias on clothing and other materials.) After the failure of the business deal, Mr. Garvin illegally obtained remote access to the Uniform NameMakers office computers and then deleted all of the electronic records regarding the company's clients.
• The Yahoo! website was attacked at 10:30 PST on Monday, 7 February 2000. The attack, started by MafiaBoy MafiaBoy was the Internet alias of Michael Calce, a high school student from the middle-class suburban area of the West Island in Montreal, Canada who launched a series of highly publicized denial-of-service attacks in February 2000 against large commercial websites including Yahoo!, Amazon.com, Dell, Inc., E*TRADE, eBay, and CNN, lasted for three hours. Yahoo was pinged at the rate of one gigabyte/second.
• On 3 August 2000, Canadian federal prosecutors charged MafiaBoy MafiaBoy was the Internet alias of Michael Calce, a high school student from the middle-class suburban area of the West Island in Montreal, Canada who launched a series of highly publicized denial-of-service attacks in February 2000 against large commercial websites including Yahoo!, Amazon.com, Dell, Inc., E*TRADE, eBay, and CNN with 54 counts of illegal access to computers, plus a total of ten counts of mischief to data for his attacks on Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. is an American-based multinational electronic commerce company. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, it is America's largest online retailer, with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples, Inc., as of January 2010, eBay eBay Inc. is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the notable success stories of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized, Dell Computer Dell Inc. is a multinational information technology corporation that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services, as a merchant. Based in Round Rock, Texas, United States, Dell employed more than 76,500 people worldwide as of 2009[update], Outlaw.net, and Yahoo. MafiaBoy had also attacked other websites, but prosecutors decided that a total of 66 counts was enough. MafiaBoy pleaded not guilty.
• About fifty computers at Stanford University, and also computers at the University of California at Santa Barbara, were amongst the zombie computers sending pings in DDoS attacks.
• On 2 March 2010, Spanish investigators busted 3 in infection of over 13 million computers around the world. The "botnet" of infected computers included PCs inside more than half of the Fortune 1,000 companies and more than 40 major banks, according to investigators.
• In 26 March 1999, the Melissa worm infected a document on a victim's computer, then automatically sent that document and copy of the virus via e-mail to other people.
• Russian Business Network (RBN) was registered as an internet site in 2006. Initially, much of its activity was legitimate. But apparently the founders soon discovered that it was more profitable to host illegitimate activities and started hiring its services to criminals. The RBN has been described by VeriSign as "the baddest of the bad". It offers web hosting services and internet access to all kinds of criminal and objectionable activities, with individual activities earning up to $150 million in one year. It specialized in and in some cases monopolized personal identity theft for resale. It is the originator of MPack and an alleged operator of the Storm botnet.

External links

• Buffalo Law Journal [1]
• Indiana University Knowledge Base,http://www.kb.iu.edu/data/afvn.html
• Johanna Granville “Dot.Con: The Dangers of Cyber Crime and a Call for Proactive Solutions,” Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 49, no. 1. (Winter 2003), pp. 102–109.
• Cyber Crime
• Ciberdelincuencia.Org Cybercrime legislation and policy in Latin-America (in Spanish)
• High Technology Crime Investigation Association
• Cybercrime - High Tech crime JISC Legal Information Service
• A Guide to Computer Crime Practitioner.Com
• Criminal Justice Resources - Cybercrime
• Cybercrime NYLS
• Cybertelecom :: Crime
• European Convention on Cybercrime
• Computer Crime Research Center - Daily news about computer crime, Internet fraud and cyber terrorism
• CyberCrime Asia Research Center - Information about computer crime, Internet fraud and cyberterrorism in Asia
• Cyber Crime Law - News and commentary on preventing, detecting, and prosecuting computer crimes
• Annual e-Crime Conference Serving Europe & International corporations
• E-crime and computer evidence conference (first held in 2005 - now an annual event)
• - The Legal Framework - Unauthorized Access to Computer Systems
• - Cybercrime Law
• - Computer Crimes, Ronald B. Standler
• INHOPE International Association of Internet Hotlines. (Focusses on transnational responding to criminally illegal content and activity.)

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