Business Continuity Plan & Disaster Recovery Plan

Assignment 1: Digital Computer Crime

CIS 170: Information Technology in Criminal Justice

Different Types of Computer Crime

There are many types of computer crime, and each can fit into one of the four major categories. Some forms of computer crime are more common than others, and computer criminals use them to conduct their activities. There are some forms of computer crime that pose major threats to critical infrastructure and other areas. Even so, there are ways that the government and law enforcement can protect people from becoming a victim of one of these crimes.

There are various types of computer crime, some of which may be commonly known, and some that are not as popularly known. But what is computer crime? According to the Computer Hope website, computer crime can be described as an act in which a person who is knowledgeable about computers, illegally views or steals information from a company or an individual, including private information, like your social security number or credit card numbers (Computer Hope, 2015). These people are often considered hackers, and they have been known to use malicious software to destroy or corrupt files or hardware. Some of the different types of computer crimes may include cyber terrorism, fraud, child pornography, identity theft, creation and distribution of malware (viruses, spyware), and DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks. Each of these crime can be put into one of the four categories of computer crime.

The first category of computer crime is that in which the computer is the target (Tayler, Fritsch, & Liederbach, 2015). This refers to any type of damage to the computer, whether it be physically vandalizing the hardware, theft of the computer, or malicious spyware and attacks against the computer system. An example of the latter would be a DDoS attack on a computer, preventing it from accessing certain information or servers. Another example would be an instance in which the hacker alters or corrupts files on a server or computer. The second category of computer crime is that in which a computer is used as a means to carry out the crime. This refers to activities where the person committing the computer crime, uses a computer to carry out that crime. An example is where a hacker uses social media sites to gather personal information. They access these sites using a computer and a network, then hack into a site like social media or some company’s site and steal personal information. The third category of computer crime is where the computer is incidental to crime. This can be described as an instance in which the computer is not the primary instrument of the crime, but it helps get the crime done. An example would be child pornography or money laundering. In the case of child pornography, it could be considered a computer crime when there are pornographic images or videos stored on a computer hard drive or the computer is used to distribute the images. The fourth category of computer crime is where crimes are associated with the prevalence of a computer. These types of computer crimes can be described as piracy. An example would be intellectual property violations where people download music and videos among other things illegally without the permission of the copyright holder.

The most common forms of computer crimes are malware attacks. There are many forms of malware. One of the most common types of malware people experience regularly is adware. Nate Lord describes adware as a type of malware that automatically delivers advertisements, like those pop-up ads that show up when we access a website (Lord, 2012). There is adware that is harmless, as it is just supposed to deliver advertisements but sometimes there is spyware attached to it. Spyware does what its name implies. It spies on user activity, and monitors and collects their data. Spyware can be bundled with other types of malware to make it more effective and harmful. Note that most software that can be considered malware was created with good intentions, but people add different aspects to them to make them malicious. Another type of malware is called rootkit. Rootkits are designed to control or access a computer remotely without detection. A Trojan horse is usually a program that looks like a normal file, but when opened it installs malware that can give a remote user access to the computer. Viruses can copy themselves and spread to other computers, when they attach to documents and get sent in emails or other files. Worms are the most common type of malware. They can spread over networks by finding and exploiting weaknesses in operating systems.

Cyberterrorism is another common form of computer crime, and it is an important one, in that is it poses a major threat to critical infrastructure and critical infrastructure systems. Cyberterrorism can be described as attacks that are politically or ideologically motivated, against information, computer systems or programs, and data that are intended to result in violence (Taylor, Fritsch, & Liederbach). An example would be an attack on the infrastructure systems that control water or electricity. I think that cyberterrorism poses the greatest threat, because attacks like these are meant to actually physically cause harm to people. They are not geared towards just harming computers. An attack on any type of system that we rely on for food, water or electricity would be devastating. It wouldn’t just cause short term effects, but long term effects too. It can also put us in danger of being susceptible to attack from outside forces.

In order to combat computer crime, the government, the courts, and law enforcement agencies have to work together. The Department of Homeland Security works with federal agencies like the FBI, to conduct investigations and train technical experts in combatting cybercrimes. Some of the agencies have specialized divisions for cybercrime. The U.S. Secret Service I not just responsible for protecting the president. They also have a task force dedicated to combatting computer crimes, called the Electronic Crimes Task Force (Homeland Security website, 2015). This task force is responsible for detecting cyber intrusions, and locating cyber criminals. They also run the National Computer Forensic Institute, which provides training in cybercrimes and how to fight them, to law enforcement agencies as well as prosecutors and judges. Along with working alongside the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI is also a part of the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC), in which they are the lead of an investigative task force that serves the Presidential Directive on cyber security (FBI website, 2015). It is up to the prosecutors and judges of the courts to bring computer criminals up on charges and to make sure they are punished for their crimes. There are various ways that these agencies, and others are fighting to counteract computer crimes, but with it being so common and technology advances, we need new ways to fight back. I think that a major step that needs to be taken in order to help combat computer crime, is to educate people about it. The more people are aware of just how many ways they can become a victim to computer crime, the easier it will be to protect them. It takes effort from all sides to combat it, because being a victim can be partially your own fault. If you knowingly make yourself susceptible to an attack, then you can’t only blame the hacker that performed the attack. Government agencies should set up more programs for their employees to be able to get training on how to combat computer crimes, and how to prevent attacks. Another way law enforcement can fight computer crime is to monitor social media sights and try to catch cyber criminals in the act of stealing information. They could also track the activity of known or reformed hackers, and arrest them for their crimes.

Computer crime is very common, and the ways that people commit these crimes are numerous. There are so many different types of computer crimes that it is hard to keep track of them all. Some of these crimes we are aware of, because some are more common than others, but there are also some that people don’t consider. This makes it hard to combat, but there are many agencies that are trying. The Department of Homeland Security is just one agency trying to fight computer crime. The FBI also coordinates efforts with various other agencies. With advances in technology, maybe it’s time we educate more people on how to fight back, and what it is we need to fight against.

References

Computer Hope (2015). Computer Crime. Retrieved from http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/compcrim.htm

FBI Website (2015). Addressing Threats to the Nation’s Cybersecurity. Cyber Crime. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/cyber/addressing-threats-to-the-nations-cybersecurity

Homeland Security Website (2015). Combating Cyber Crime. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/topic/combating-cyber-crime

Lord, N. (2012). Common Malware Types: Cybersecurity 101. Retrieved from https://www.veracode.com/blog/2012/10/common-malware-types-cybersecurity-101

Taylor, R. W, Fritsch, E. J. & Liederbach, J. (2015). Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism, Third Edition. Pearson. Inc.