Computer crime5

In the world of computers, computer fraud and computer
crime are very prevalent issues facing every computer user.
This ranges from system administrators to personal computer
users who do work in the office or at home. Computers
without any means of security are vulnerable to attacks from
viruses, worms, and illegal computer hackers. If the proper
steps are not taken, safe computing may become a thing of
the past. Many security measures are being implemented to
protect against illegalities.
Companies are becoming more aware and threatened by the
fact that their computers are prone to attack. Virus
scanners are becoming necessities on all machines.
Installing and monitoring these virus scanners takes many
man hours and a lot of money for site licenses. Many server
programs are coming equipped with a program called "netlog."
This is a program that monitors the computer use of the
employees in a company on the network. The program monitors
memory and file usage. A qualified system administrator
should be able to tell by the amounts of memory being used
and the file usage if something is going on that should not
be. If a virus is found, system administrators can pinpoint
the user who put the virus into the network and investigate
whether or not there was any malice intended.
One computer application that is becoming more widely
used and, therefore, more widely abused, is the use of
electronic mail or email. In the present day, illegal
hackers can read email going through a server fairly easily.
Email consists of not only personal transactions, but
business and financial transactions. There are not many
encryption procedures out for email yet. As Gates
describes, soon email encryption will become a regular
addition to email just as a hard disk drive has become a
regular addition to a computer (Gates p.97-98).
Encrypting email can be done with two prime numbers
used as keys. The public key will be listed on the Internet
or in an email message. The second key will be private,
which only the user will have. The sender will encrypt the
message with the public key, send it to the recipient, who
will then decipher it again with his or her private key.
This method is not foolproof, but it is not easy to unlock
either. The numbers being used will probably be over 60
digits in length (Gates p.98-99).
The Internet also poses more problems to users. This
problem faces the home user more than the business user.
When a person logs onto the Internet, he or she may download
a file corrupted with a virus. When he or she executes that
program, the virus is released into the system. When a
person uses the World Wide Web(WWW), he or she is
downloading files into his or her Internet browser without
even knowing it. Whenever a web page is visited, an image
of that page is downloaded and stored in the cache of the
browser. This image is used for faster retrieval of that
specific web page. Instead of having to constantly download
a page, the browser automatically reverts to the cache to
open the image of that page. Most people do not know about
this, but this is an example of how to get a virus in a
machine without even knowing it.
Every time a person accesses the Internet, he or she is
not only accessing the host computer, but the many computers
that connect the host and the user. When a person transmits
credit card information, it goes over many computers before
it reaches its destination. An illegal hacker can set up
one of the connecting computers to copy the credit card
information as it passes through the computer. This is how
credit card fraud is committed with the help of the
Internet. What companies such as Maxis and Sierra are doing
are making secure sites. These sites have the capabilities
to receive credit card information securely. This means the
consumer can purchase goods by credit card over the Internet
without worrying that the credit card number will be seen by
unauthorized people.
System administrators have three major weapons against
computer crime. The first defense against computer crime is
system security. This is the many layers systems have
against attacks. When data comes into a system, it is
scanned for viruses and safety. Whenever it passes one of
these security layers, it is scanned again. The second
resistance against viruses and corruption is computer law.
This defines what is illegal in the computer world. In the
early 1980's, prosecutors had problems trying suspect in
computer crimes because there was no definition of illegal
activity. The third defense is the teaching of computer
ethics. This will hopefully defer people from becoming
illegal hackers in the first place (Bitter p. 433).
There are other ways companies can protect against
computer fraud than in the computer and system itself. One
way to curtail computer fraud is in the interview process
and training procedures. If it is made clear to the new
employee that honesty is valued in the company, the employee
might think twice about committing a crime against the
company. Background checks and fingerprinting are also good
ways to protect against computer fraud.
Computer crime prevention has become a major issue in
the computer world. The lack of knowledge of these crimes
and how they are committed is a factor as to why computer
crime is so prevalent. What must be realized is that the
"weakest link in any system is the human" (Hafner and
Markoff p. 61). With the knowledge and application of the
preventative methods discussed, computer crime may actually
become an issue of the past.


Works Cited


Bitter, Gary G., ed. The MacMillian Encyclopedia of
Computers. MacMillian Publishing Company: New York,
1992.

Gates, William. The Road Ahead. New York : Penguin Books,
1995.

Hafner, Katie & John Markoff. Cyberpunk. New York : Simon
and Schuster, 1991.

Romney, Marshall. "Computer Fraud - What Can Be Done
About It?" CPA Journal Vol. 65 (May 1995): p. 30-33.