Running head: DIGITAL COMPUTER CRIMES 1
Digital Computer Crimes
CIS 170
Prof. Charles Dyer
January 23, 2016
Digital Computer Crimes
This study source was downloaded by 100000831988016 from CourseHero.com on 03-25-2
...
Running head: DIGITAL COMPUTER CRIMES 1
Digital Computer Crimes
CIS 170
Prof. Charles Dyer
January 23, 2016
Digital Computer Crimes
This study source was downloaded by 100000831988016 from CourseHero.com on 03-25-2022 14:06:15 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/14327914/Assignment-1-Week-3/
Digital Computer Crimes 2
In the age of information, there has been a major upswing in computer crimes. We use
words like hackers, and cybercrime, but what does that mean? Needless to say, there are large
amounts of computer crime, but they can be put into four general categories. These categories are
the computer as a target, computer as an instrument of crime, computer as incidental to crime,
and crimes associated with the prevalence of computers (Taylor, Fritsch, & Liederbach, 2015).
Law enforcement agencies work around the clock to stop crimes from cyber bullying to child
pornography.
The first most common form of digital crime is the computer as a target. This digital
crime is when an “attack seeks to deny the legitimate user or owner of the system access to his or
her data or computer” and in the same way to a server on a network. An example of this would
be network intruder may target a server in your network and alter or corrupt data that may affect
business decisions or operations. A real life example was in 2000; Yahoo went down because it
was hit by a denial of service attack that took it offline for several hours (Taylor, Fritsch, &
Liederbach, 2015).
The next common form of digital crime is the computer as an instrument of crime. In this
form, the computer is used to commit the crime, “such as theft, theft of service, fraud,
exploitation, and threats or harassment” (Taylor, Fritsch, & Liederbach, 2015). An example of
this form of digital crime is the salami technique, where a computer is used to round transactions
down to the nearest cent and diverting the remaining fraction of a cent to an account that the
criminal has access. A real life example is a case of cyberbullying; Jessica Logan was an
eighteen-year-old high school senior, after breaking up with her boyfriend he sent out a nude
picture to hundreds of teens in the Cincinnati area. They cyber bullied her through social media
until she hung herself (NoBullying.com, 2015).
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https://www.coursehero.com/file/14327914/Assignment-1-Week-3/
Digital Computer Crimes 3
The computer as incidental to a crime is the next form of digital crime. In this form, the
computer is not the target of the crime but the facilitator. Included in this form of digital crime is
“money laundering, criminal enterprise, child pornography, and luring victims into
compromising situations” (Taylor, Fritsch, & Liederbach, 2015). An example of this is when
criminals have to “clean” their money that was obtained by illegal means, they will break the
money into smaller amounts, so it is harder to track, and transfer them to other off-shore
accounts where they are put back together.
The final form of digital crime is crimes associated with the prevalence of computers.
The target of this form is “intellectual property violations, component theft, counterfeiting,
identity theft, and a variety of corporate offenses” (Taylor, Fritsch, & Liederbach, 2015). A recent
example of this is Napster (music piracy), which was “sharing” music for free, costing the music
industry to lose money. In 2013, Microsoft filed suit against Changhong accusing them of using
stolen product key that activates Microsoft software (Tu, 2013).
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