COMPUTER CRIMES AND MISUSE OF DATA

Computer crimes include

Piracy, Hacking, Computer Fraud, Industrial Espionage, Electronic Eavesdropping, Illegal
Surveillance and Credit Card Fraud including identity theft.

Piracy –The copying and sale or distribution of computer programs and other intellectual property
(music, movies, plays etc.) without the owner’s permission. This is stealing. The owner spent money
and lots of time creating his program or material and gets no money while other people gain from selling
his program. If you buy a copy you can only make 1 back up copy. Licenses bought for a certain
number of computers is illegal if used on more.
One way of reducing piracy is the use of registration keys for the program to work and copyrighting the
software so offenders can easily be prosecuted. Also more officials could visit and inspect programs in
use at business places. Music rights societies could inspect and collect music licenses from places
playing music for their customers.

Hacking – Illegally accessing someone’s computer network by logging in from a remote computer.
Some hackers use programs to enter thousands of passwords. Hackers can then view, copy, damage or
delete files, add malware or lock out the owners.

Compute Fraud - The use of a computer to illegally alter or get information (including online info) for
personal gain or that of another, or to maliciously deprive or frame someone. E.g. to change someone’s
university grades, or to increase an amount to be paid to a contractor.

Electronic Eavesdropping – the use of electronic devices, to illegally tap into an organization or
someone’s communication channels, to get information such as emails, fax, voice etc. and passwords or
credit card information you type at websites.

Industrial Espionage – accessing or hacking a competitor’s business network and copying or stealing
its plans, designs or research, to modify somewhat then soon after, sell or use as their own.
This prevents the real owner from getting much of the money they would have gotten if they came out
first.

Internet Fraud - a type of fraud committed using the internet. This includes credit card fraud and
Identity theft.

Credit Card Fraud. Using

Fake online stores - created to try to get people to buy goods with a credit card. They then take the
money and send nothing or something inferior, or they steal someone's credit card information.
Get rich quick schemes - they using phony emails about winning or inheriting large sums of money
and asking you to send them money to pay taxes to get the money to you or for your bank or card
information to deposit it for you.

Fake bank emails. – You get a letter looking like it came from a real bank, asking you to update your
account information, including your name and credit card information. They send this to lots of
people even to some people who are not members of the bank. Banks do not ask you to update your
account online so beware.

Identity Theft - the online theft of someone's personal and credit card or social security information
and using it as theirs, buying extravagant things while the real owner gets all the bills to pay. This
usually happens through credit card fraud.

Computer Surveillance - The secret collecting of information by monitoring a person or his activities
on the computer. This could include his email messages, on screen activities and keyboard activities
(keylogging).

NEWER CRIMES
Online Stalking and Bullying, Sale of Child Pornography. Solicit of Minors, Cyber terrorism

Online Stalking, Bullying are designed to cause emotional trauma to the victim. Offenders use social
media websites to publish hurtful or embarrassing material about an individual as a way of inflicting
harm to him. Once photographs or other items are posted and circulated online, they can be impossible
for the victim to remove. This could lead to depression and sometimes suicide in young people.

Sale of child pornography online is a crime against children who are forced to do things against their
will or things they are too young for.
Online soliciting of minors for sex crimes. Criminals often frequent internet chat rooms, where they
pose as young people in order to lure young victims into romantic encounters. Some are kidnapped and
sold into pornography.

Cyber terrorism. Includes politically-motivated attacks targeting government websites or commercial

networks. Such attacks are designed to be large in scale, and to produce fear and panic among the victim
population.

Cyber Attacks
Cyber-attack’ can refer to many different scenarios, but essentially it is an attempt by an individual or
group to take control of a computer system, network or device with the intention of causing harm or
making money from ransoms.. These attacks can be against governments, networks, businesses or
individuals, even mobile phone users

A cyber-attack can cripple a computer system, meaning a business loses money because its website
cannot be reached or it can stop a government body from offering an essential service. Like electricity,
phone service and hospital services. It could also lead to large amounts of sensitive data being stolen or
exposed, which can then affect individuals on a personal or financial level including identity theft

MISUSE OF DATA

Misuse of Data is the use of data for purposes other than that for which it was collected.
This includes propaganda, the selling of customer emails to other companies and the releasing of
someone’s account details to another person or company without the owner’s consent.

E.g. your emails given to an online store could be sold to another computer who will use it to send you
offers and other junk mail. Your medical history could be given to an unauthorized person.

Propaganda – the use of a computer to send out negative information (true or not) about a competitor.
(E.g. via email or flyers). Often it is to get customers to switch over to another competitor. E.g. it may be
said that the business ill treats its staff or the place is dirty or has roaches or the owner is involved in
drugs.

ACTION BY AUTHORITIES TO REDUCE COMPUTER CRIMES

Authorities need to enact more computer crime laws and have stiffer penalties for computer crimes.
Also they should ensure that the laws are adhered to and carry out more inspections where necessary.
Many places do not yet have laws pertaining to internet crime.

More on Cyber Attacks

It can also be a (DDoS) Distributed Denial of Service (, where vast amounts of internet traffic are sent
to a system in order to crash it. Once this happens, genuine users can no longer access the service,
meaning lost revenue for the organization. Some hackers may have you pay money to get back access
to your computer, network or website.

Cyber-attacks cost UK businesses £34 billion a year,

Cyber-attacks are much more likely to occur through ordinary errors like a user choosing an easy-to-
guess password or not changing the default password on something like a router or not installing a
software patch update or Phishing.

‘Phishing’  involves extracting personal information under false pretences. You may receive a very
official looking email that asks you to change your password, which has actually been sent by hackers
attempting to trick you. This is exactly what happened to a top official in the Democratic Party in the
run-up to the 2016 US election, leading to the release of 60,000 private emails.

Cyber-attacks are usually either criminally or politically motivated, although some hackers enjoy
bringing down computer systems f for a thrill or sense of achievement. It can be to leak sensitive
intelligence, private communications or a government or system’s embarrassing data. Others is for
financial gain.