Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Cyber crime encompasses any criminal act dealing with computers and networks (called
hacking). Additionally, cyber crime also includes traditional crimes conducted
through the Internet. For example: hate crimes, telemarketing and Internet
fraud, identity theft, and credit card account thefts are considered to be cyber crimes when the illegal activities are
committed through the use of a computer and the Internet.
Cyber crime is also called computer crime, the use of a computer as an instrument to
further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child
pornography and intellectual property, stealing identities, or violating
privacy. Cyber crime, especially through the Internet, has grown in importance
as the computer has become central to commerce, entertainment, and government.
New
technologies create new criminal opportunities but few new types of crime.
Cybercrime ranges across a spectrum of activities. At one end are crimes that
involve fundamental breaches of personal or corporate privacy, such as assaults
on the integrity of information held in digital depositories and the use of
illegally obtained digital information to blackmail a firm or individual. Also
at this end of the spectrum is the growing crime of identity theft.
At
the other end of the spectrum are those crimes that involve attempts to disrupt
the actual workings of the Internet. These range from spam, hacking, and denial
of service attacks against specific sites.
