Running head: COMPUTER CRIME AND ITS IMPACT 1

Computer Crime and its Impact

Name

Institution
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Computer crime and its impact

According to Gordon & Ford, 2006, computer crime or cybercrime is a criminal activity

where a computer connected to a network is used to commit an offense. Cybercriminals utilize

smart devices to gain unauthorized access to personal information, private enterprise data, or

secret government information. The aim of the perpetrator of this type of offense is to use the

acquired information for criminal activities or to damage the device storing the information.

Computer crimes fall into three categories: property, individual, and government (Gordon &

Ford, 2006).

Property crime is a type of computer crime where a criminal element breaches the

security of a computer and steals sensitive details such as credit card information. The computer

hacker in this case uses the stolen bank details to gain an illegal access to the victim's funds

(Gordon & Ford, 2006). Also, the perpetrator of this criminality may use the obtained data to

make unauthorized online purchases. Moreover, this type of cybercriminal can utilize the details

to execute pushing scams to trick unsuspecting people to give away their private information

(Anderson et al. 2013).

Individual cybercrime is the form of computer crime where a person distributes malicious

information through the internet (Anderson et al. 2013). This illegal information may be in the

form of cyberstalking, distribution of pornography, or internet trafficking. Such inappropriate

online acts are highly harmful to children as the content involved is unsuitable for their age

(Gordon & Ford, 2006).

Governments are also targeted by cybercriminals. Cyberespionage is a form of computer

crime where governments get their data stolen, modified, or destroyed. Although this is the least
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common type of computer crime, it is the most serious one (Gordon & Ford, 2006). The

perpetrator in this case may hack a government website or a military website. Also, the criminal

here may distribute malicious propaganda. The culprits in this form of crime are enemies of the

targeted governments (Anderson et al. 2013). For instance, in 2013-2016, Yahoo had a breach

where up to 3 billion user accounts were stolen (Confente, Siciliano, Gaudenzi & Eickhoff,

2019).

The cost of computer crime is quantified through estimating the costs in anticipation of

the cybercrime, costs as an eventuality of cybercrime, and cost incurred in efforts to respond to

the cybercrime (Anderson et al. 2013).

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References

Anderson, R., Barton, C., Böhme, R., Clayton, R., Van Eeten, M. J., Levi, M., ... & Savage, S.

(2013). Measuring the cost of cybercrime. In The economics of information security and

privacy (pp. 265-300). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Confente, I., Siciliano, G. G., Gaudenzi, B., & Eickhoff, M. (2019). Effects of data breaches

from user-generated content: A corporate reputation analysis. European Management

Journal, 37(4), 492-504.

Gordon, S., & Ford, R. (2006). On the definition and classification of cybercrime. Journal in

Computer Virology, 2(1), 13-20.