Computer Crimes

An Idaho State University student received a parking ticket. He was infuriated with the officer and so he asked for his full name. The next day, the officer received an email,

“Check next time you want to give a ticket. Have fun with your classes.”

He was baffled and so he went to his University to find out what he meant. He was shocked to find that his personal records had been manipulated; he had outstanding fees, lost his financial aids and scholarships and his classes had been dropped. After reporting it to the police, he was able to clear everything up. (Myers, Cale. 2005) What if this happens to you? It’s a very scary thing; you don’t want somebody to have that type of access to your personal profile. The computers were made to make our daily life much easier, thus having our society to rely on this particular technology. Although computers have become an important part of everyday life, with the widespread use of computers comes one more way we can be victimized by criminals.

Computer crimes are usually done by someone with a high level of technical expertise, also known as a hacker. Most people imagine a “hacker” as an anonymous cyber-intruder who spends an enormous amount of time trying to breach a security of networks, web servers and email servers. But half of the unauthorized system intrusions involve insiders who have, or had legitimate access to the system. An example of a famous computer hacker would be Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick gained unauthorized access to his first computer in 1979 and broke into Digital Equipment Corporation’s (DEC) computer network and copied the software, a crime he was charged of in1988. He was convicted of various computers- and- communication related crimes in the late 20th century such as hacking Motorola & Nokia systems, gaining full administrator privileges to win a bet and hacking into DEC to receive $160,000. Mitnick is often cited today as an example of the quintessential computer criminal.

Technology, especially...