Discussion Board
Computer crimes can be categorized into four basic categories namely: Theft. Fraud, Copyright and attacks on individuals and organizations. These groups are discussed below.
Theft
This refers to the unauthorized removal of data and information as well as unauthorized copying of information. This may happen to the computer, devices or even laptops and the prize is the loss of information such as passwords for corporate systems.
Fraud
This is a kind of crime that ranges from credit card offer usually used to capture personal information, to others known as investor postings which lure one to key in personal information, medical or other information.
This refers to a type of computer crime that involves the use of computer software or music. This use is not authorized by the owners of theses property, or the acquisition is not through authorized means.
Attacks on individuals and organizations
This crime entails either physical or logical attack using several instances of products, websites as well as individuals.
Effects of computer crimes on Individuals
Computer crimes do not only affect organizations alone. They do affect individuals. A good example is the DOS attack which can target an individual’s computer and paralyze its communication with other people. Theft of personal information from an individual’s computer affects individual’s privacy and reputation.
Amount Spent by American society on prevention of Computer-related Crimes
“Americans spend an average of between 375 and 575 billion US dollars a year in dealing with personal computer thefts, fraud, copyright issues and other computer-related crimes” (Jerry 56). Based on extrapolation of results from a survey of 2066 companies in the US, the cost is based on the 2006 investigation and therefore, this indicates that the figure is on an increasing trend.
Amount spent by American Society as a result of computer related crimes
According to a study carried out in June 2014, Americans incur an average of 1 Trillion US dollars every year in trying to combat computer-related crimes. According to the survey, this figure is meant to rise based on the fact that there is a rising trend of the cyber-crime issues and threats. This will be caused especially by the growing number of mobile devices that are in usage across the entire continent and the world at large.
Example of Real life Computer-related Crimes
An example of computer-related crime is the notorious CODE RED worm in the July-August, 2001 attack on Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services). This attack was so severe that most of the servers in America including Federal government websites, corporate and Qwest DSL servers were hit. IIS is part of Windows Server operating system that is responsible for providing Internet connectivity. During the attack, access to the websites was completely halted.
Works cited
Jerry, Allan and. Computer Privacy, Note Secret. 2nd ed. California: Augustan Reprint Society, 1984. Print.
