Computer Crime

• A computer's ability to process millions of pieces of data in less than a second can help a thief steal data worth thousands or millions of dollars.
• An example is the theft people's money through fake Internet Banking website.
• In general, intruders need two capabilities to commit most computer crimes:
1. The ability to gain access to the system this is usually via a password
2. The ability to manipulate the system
• There are three common practices for gaining a person's password
1. Social engineering: the practice of talking a critical password out of an individual
2. Dumpster diving: searching through garbage for important pieces of information that help crack an organization's computers.
3. Identity theft: is a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of personal identification information, such as social security or drivers license numbers in order to impersonate someone else.
• A computer can also be the object of crime, rather than a tool for committing it.
• Tens of millions of dollars of computing time and resources are stolen every year.
• Computer crimes fall into the following categories:
1. Illegal access and use
• Crimes involving illegal system use of computer services are a concern to both government and business
• A hacker is a person who enjoys computer technology and routinely with the permission of business attempts to break into systems to access their vulnerabilities.
• Script kiddies are wannabe crackers with little technical skills who download programs such as scripts that automate the job of breaking into computers.
• Insiders are disgruntled employees wishing to compromise computer systems to outsiders.
2. Data alteration and destruction
• Malicious programs include
1. Worms
• A worm is an independent program that replicates its own program files and sends itself to another host, An example includes the blaster worm. 
• A worm tunnel through the computer's memory and hard drive and it's a type of virus that replicates itself but unlike virus it does not alter any files on the machine. A worm can still cause chaos by multiplying so many times that take up all the computer's available memory or hard disk space. If a worm consumes the memory of a computer, the computer will take a long time to access files and the computer will not be able to save or create files until the worm has been destroyed. Worm can be activated by themselves.
• Most worms consist of the following parts
• Attack:Gain control over a new host
• Infect: Install a copy of the virus
• Hide: Cover traces, avoid detection
• Scan: Find more victims, repeat
• Some worms also have a specific payload
• Collect data about the infected host
• Install a backdoor for later use
• Launch DOS attack on another host.
2. Viruses
• A virus is a program that attaches itself to other programs, An example includes the CIH virus. 
• A virus is a small programs or script that can negatively affect the health of computer. This little programs can create files, move files, erase files consume the memory of the computer and cause the computer not to function correctly. Some virus can duplicate themselves attach themselves to programs and travel across networks. It becomes active when people are using the computer.
3. Logic bombs
• A logic bomb is a virus designed to "explode" or execute at specified time and date.
4. Trojan 
• A trojan horse is a program that appears useful but actually masks a destructive program.
3. Information and equipment theft
• One of the most common methods of stealing information and equipment is through password sniffer.
• A password sniffer is a small hidden program in a network or computer system that records identification numbers and passwords.
4. Software and Internet piracy
• Software piracy is copying or selling software without the vendors permission. Examples include making illegal backups of computer games.
• Internet piracy: Internet piracy is the unlawful reproduction and/or distribution of any copyrighted digital file. Examples: music files, video and movies, e-books.
5. Computer related scams.
• People have lost millions of dollars on real estate, travel, stock and other business scams.
• Today, many of these types of scams are being performed by computers, An example includes a famous Nigerian scandal in which a man claims that you can make million dollars if you send him US$10. In six months the crime ring managed to steal over US $4 million.