FREE ESSAY ON COMPUTER CRIME

COMPUTER CRIME

Computer Crime 
It's the weekend, you have nothing to do so you decide to play around on your computer.
You turn it on and then start up, you start calling people with your modem, connecting to
another world, with people just like you at a button press away. This is all fine but
what happens when you start getting into other peoples computer files. Then it becomes a
crime, but what is a computer crime really, obviously it involves the use of a computer
but what are these crimes. Well they are: Hacking, Phreaking, & Software Piracy. 
To begin I will start with Hacking, what is hacking. Hacking is basically using your
computer to Hack your way into another. They use programs called scanners which randomly
dials numbers any generating tones or carriers are recorded. These numbers are looked at
by hackers and then used again, when the hacker calls up the number and gets on he's
presented with a logon prompt, this is where the hacking really begins, the hacker tries
to bypass this anyway he knows how to and tries to gain access to the system. Why do they
do it, well lets go to a book and see Avid young computer hackers in their preteens and
teens are frequently involved in computer crimes that take the form of trespassing,
invasion of privacy, or vandalism. Quite often they are mearly out for a fun and games
evening, and they get entangled in the illegal use of their machines without realizing
the full import of what they are doing, I have a hard time believing that so lets see
what a hacker has to say about what he does Just as they were enthraled with their
pursuit of information, so are we. The thrill of the hack is not in breaking the law,
it's in the pursuit and capture of knowledge., as you can see the hacker doesn't go out
to do destroy things although some do. It's in the pursuit of knowledge. Of course this
is still against the law. But where did all of this start, MIT is where hacking started
the people there would learn and explore computer systems all around the world. In the
views of professional hacking is like drugs or any other addictive substance, it's an
addiction for the mind and once started it's difficult to stop. This could be true, as
hackers know what they are doing is wrong and they know odds are they will be caught. But
as I mentioned some hackers are just above average criminals, using there skills to break
in banks and other places where they can get money, or where they can destroy
information. What a hacker does at a bank is take a few cents or even a few fractions of
a cents from many different accounts this may seem like nothing but when all compiled can
be alot. A stick up robber averages about $8,000 each job, and he has to put his life and
personal freedom on the line to do it while the computer hacker in the comfort of his own
living room averages $500,000 a job. As for people destroying information, this is for
taking some one down, destruction of data could end a business which for some is very
attractive. It can cost a company thousands of dollars to restore the damage done. 
Now that you have an understanding of what a hacker is, it time to move on to someone
closely associates with a hacker. This is a Phreak, but what is that. For the answer we
turn to the what is known as the Official Phreakers Manual Phreak [fr'eek] 1. The action
of using mischievous and mostly illegal ways in order to not pay for some sort of
telecommunications bill, order, transfer, or other service. It often involves usage of
highly illegal boxes and machines in order to defeat the security that is set up to avoid
this sort of happening. [fr'eaking] v. 2. A person who uses the above methods of
destruction and chaos in order to make a better life for all. A true phreaker will not go
against his fellows or narc on people who have ragged on him or do anything termed to be
dishonourable to phreaks. [fr'eek] n. 3. A certain code or dialup useful in the action of
being a phreak. (Example: I hacked a new metro phreak last night.) The latter 2 ideas of
what a phreak is, is rather weird. A Phreak like the hacker likes to explore and
experiment, however his choice of exploring is not other computer but the phone system as
a whole. Phreaks explore the phone system finding many different ways to do things, most
often make free calls. Why do they do this,  A hacker and phreaker will have need to use
telephone systems much more than an average individual, therefore, methods which can be
used to avoid toll charges are in order. . A phreak has two basic ways of making free
calls, he can call up codes or PBXs on his phone and then enter a code and make his call
or he can use Electronic Toll Fraud Devices. Codes are rather easy to get the phreak will
scan for them, but unlike a hacker will only save the tone(s) number instead of the
carrier(s). Then he will attempt to hack the code to use it, these codes range from
numbers 0 - 9 and can be any length, although most are not more than 10. Electronic Toll
Fraud Devices are known as Boxes in the underground. Most are the size of a pack of
smokes, or than can be smaller or bigger. I will not go too deep. They are electronic
devices than do various things, such as make outgoing calls free, make incoming calls
free, simulate coins dropping in a phone, etc. People who Phreak are caught alot these
days thanks to the new technology. 
Software Piracy is the most common computer crime, it is the illegal coping of software.
People wouldn't think of shoplifting software from a retail store, but don't think twice
about going home and making several illegal copies of the same software. and this is true
because I myself am guilty of this. The major problem is not people going out and buying
the software then making copies for everyone, it's the Bulletin Boards that cater to
pirating software, that really cause the problem. On anyone one of these boards one can
find an upwards of 300 - 1000+ of pirated software open for anyone to take. This is a
problem and nothing can really be done about it. Few arrests are made in this area of
computer crime. 
I will now devote a brief section to the above mentioned BBS' , most are legal and do
nothing wrong. However there are many more that do accept pirated software, pornographic
pictures, animations , and texts. As well as a trading area for phone codes, other BBS',
Credit Card numbers, etc. This is where a majority of Hackers and Phreaks come, as well
as those who continue to pirate software come to meet and share stories. In this is a new
world, where you can do anything, there are groups that get, crack, and courier software
all over the world some of them are called: INC: International Network Of Crackers, THG:
The Humble Guys, TDT: The Dream Team. As well a number of other groups have followed suit
such as Phalcon/SKISM (Smart Kids Into Sick Methods), NuKE, and YAM (Youngsters Against
McAfee) these are virus groups who write and courier their work anywhere they can, they
just send it somewhere, where anyone can take it and use it in any manner they wish, such
as getting even with someone. All of these activities are illegal but nothing can be
done, the people running these boards know what they are doing. As it stands right now,
the BBS world is in two parts Pirating and the Underground, which consists of
Hackers/Phreaks/Anarchists/Carders(Credit Card Fraud)/Virus programmers. All have
different boards and offer a variety of information on virtually any subject. 
Well from all of this reading you just did you should have a fairly good idea of what
computer crime is. I didn't mention it in the sections but the police, phone companies
are arresting and stopping alot of things every day. With the new technology today it is
easier to catch these criminals then it was before. With the exception of the BBS' the
police have made some major blows busting a few BBS', arresting hackers and phreaks. All
of which were very looked up to for knowledge in their areas of specialty. If I had more
time I could go into these arrests but I must finish by saying that these are real crimes
and the sentences are getting harsher, with alot of the older people getting out the
newer people are getting arrested and being made examples of. This will deter alot of
would-be computer criminal away. 
The word virus can be very disheartening, especially when computers are involved. A virus
is composed of instructions hidden inside a program. These instructions copy themselves
to other programs, and the cycle continues spreading. Fortunately, help is available;
antivirus software is available to anyone. Viruses first appeared in 1985. Then, they
were largely created in university laboratories by mostly wayward geniuses keen to pit
their programming skills against each other. Since then, errant programmers began to
create newer and more destructive viruses targeted at specific user groups. (Yang, 1998)
A computer virus can be as evil as it sounds, snaking its way into personal computers,
posing an occasional annoyance or a serious threat to all data. (Miastkowski, 1998)
Symptoms can range from unpleasant to fatal. Computer viruses spread from program to
program and computer to computer, much as biological viruses spread within
individual...members of a society. (Chess, 1997) Diskettes were the primary carriers of
viruses in the 1980s. (Computer, 1997) Today, they are e-mail attachments, file transfers
and infected software downloads or uploads. Networks can even spread viruses to large
numbers of connected PCs rapidly. (Yang, 1998) No one working on a [personal computer] is
risk free; more viruses are being spread today than ever before, but more help is being
developed as well. Special software is now in stores that will help to prevent any major
disasters that viruses can cause. (Miastkowski, 1998) Antivirus software is a program
that protects against viruses. It scans all files on the hard disk, diskettes, CD ROM,
and memory to locate viruses. (Computer, 1997) The life cycle of a virus is rather
complicated; it begins when a user runs an infected program. The computer copies the
program from the disk into RAM, random access memory, where it can be performed. The
viral code begins to run, and the virus copies itself into a part of RAM that is separate
from the program. This allows the pesky virus to continue to spread while another program
is running, until it is finished and passes back into the infected program. When the user
runs a different program, the dormant virus begins to run again. It inserts a copy...into
the...uninfected software so that the cycle...can repeat. (Chess, 1997) There are also
other computer pests such as worms that effect networks, but viruses are the most common.
(Yang, 1998) Years of research have allowed scientists to find ways to detect and destroy
viruses. (Chess, 1997) Building on decades of research by mathematical epidemiologists,
[researchers] have obtained some understanding of the factors that govern how quickly
viruses spread. (Yegulalp, 1997) Many researchers feel that they owe much to
pattern-matching techniques developed by computational biologists. (Chess, 1997) This has
helped them to develop antivirus software from the defenses used by the human body to
fight off pathogens. According to an independent survey by the National Computer Security
Association, the infection rate for personal computers in North America has more than
tripled in the last year. (McDonald, 1997) In the 1990s, the virus problem has become an
epidemic. New forms, including the shape-changing polymorphic virus, elusive stealth
strains, and the very common macro viruses are making their appearance with alarming
frequency. (Yang, 1998) The macro viruses are big problems; they infect very popular
programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. This type of virus can effect daily
work much easier than any other virus. (Miastkowski, 1998) Almost any [antivirus] package
does a nice job of finding and eradicating most viruses, including macro viruses. The key
is to keep the products' library of signatures--binary code that helps identify
viruses--current. (Yegulalp, 1997) That is one area where these packages differ most.
Some of the major brands of antivirus software include Norton AntiVirus 4.0, PC-cillin
3.0, Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus 7.0, McAfee VirusScan 3.0, and IBM AntiVirus 3.0.1.
(Miastkowski, 1998) All the programs share some common attributes; for starters...each
program indeed hunts down and eradicates the bugs introduced into a system. (Cope, 1998)
By far, the best at detecting and destroying viruses is Norton AntiVirus 4.0; it offers
superior protection. This particular software uses a virus-detection technology called
Bloodhound. It sniffs out viruses that may have been mutated beyond their original forms.
(Yegulalp, 1997) TouchStone's PC-cillin 3.0 follows closely behind Norton AntiVirus 4.0;
it provides sufficient protection, and updates are available over the internet.
(Miastkowski, 1998) Each program scans or boot-sector and memory-resident viruses
automatically when [the user] turns on the computer. They also include a Windows 95
antivirus shield that blocks contamination from infected floppy disks and warns the user
when a tainted file is being run. In addition, they let users perform manual scans of any
drive from within Windows 95, and also check...files downloaded from the Internet. (Cope,
1998) Norton AntiVirus 4.0 generously incorporates its Windows NT, DOS, Windows 3.x and
Windows 95 editions into one package. PC-cillin also runs under NT, although TouchStone
ships the NT edition as a separate product. (Yegulalp, 1997) Another advantage to the
Norton AntiVirus software is the installation process; it is not difficult, and several
options are provided for the user. Norton AntiVirus can load live protection and allow
the user to create a rescue disk set. The rescue disk set backs up the system, allowing
the user to boot and recover from a virus attack. (Hackers, 1997) The PC-cillin software
is very protective also. Upon installation, PC-cillin immediately makes sure its own
files are clean, since an infected antivirus program is powerless to prevent further
infection. (Yegulalp, 1997) This program also offers a backup system and scan of the
system before Windows 95 loads. (Yang, 1998) The latest version of PC-cillin informs the
user as it is scanning an internet connection. It offers much tighter functionality than
before. Earlier PC-cillin users will definitely want to upgrade. (Yegulalp, 1997) On the
surface, it looks as if the odds are against personal computer users. Despite increased
use of antivirus software, viruses continue to spread at an unnerving rate. (McDonald,
1997) Clearly, anti-virus software is one of the smartest buys a computer owner can make.
There are nearly 10,000 known computer viruses threatening the world's personal
computers, with effects ranging from relatively harmless to ferociously destructive.
(Cope, 1998) These troublemakers can spread to personal computers easily from an infected
floppy disk, as well as from files downloaded onto the hard drive from an e- mail
attachment and the Internet. (McDonald, 1997) Despite the great reviews of these
antivirus programs, many computer researchers maintain a sense of skepticism towards
complete protection. Regardless of how sophisticated antivirus technology may become,
computer viruses will forever remain in an uneasy coexistence with us and our computers.
(Chess, 1997) Unless there are updates to virus scanners every few minutes, no one is
completely safe from a destructive virus. New viruses are popping up so fast that virus
scanner vendors cannot hope to keep up with them. Even with the best of tools and
policies, bulletproof security is probably unattainable. High costs, changing networks
and software versions, incomplete security tools, and the growing pool of ingenious and
dedicated hackers prohibit this. (Hackers, 1997) The numbers of people who can create new
viruses have also increased. (Yang, 1998) [In June 1997], a group of hackers quickly
cracked a much-vaunted...code using relatively simple brute force techniques. (Hackers,
1997) This breach of security was only five weeks after the data security invited the
attack in the hope of proving its codes resistant to such attacks. Over several years,
people have been perfecting the care of personal computers. However, over that same
amount of time, others have been hard at work to develop new ways to cause a system to
crash. Some problems with a personal computer cannot be stopped, but preventative action
can take place for viruses. Every computer user should be equipped with an antivirus
program; there is no way of predicting whether or not a simple file contains a tremendous
virus. The user must leave such a decision to the computer itself; only it can detect and
destroy the virus. By purchasing a simple antivirus package, each computer user can
hamper viruses from entering and destroying his personal computer. After taking all of
the costs into consideration, it is much more expensive to rebuild a computer after
destruction than it is to purchase an effective antivirus software package. 
Bibliography
Works Cited Chess, David, Jeffrey Kephart, Gregory Sorkin, and Steve White. Fighting
Computer Viruses: Biological Metaphors Offer Insight into Many Aspects of Computer
Viruses and Can Inspire Defenses Against Them. Scientific American Nov. 1997: 134-138.
Computer. The World Book Encyclopedia. 1997. Cope, Jim. A Buyer's Guide To Virus
Protection: Get the Lowdown on Six Win 95 Programs that Keep Digital Bugs from Invading
your PC and Destroying your Files. NetGuide Mar. 1998: 143-146 Hackers, Terrorists, and
Spies: You know they're coming at you. Can you stop them? Software Magazine Oct. 1997:
76. McDonald, Glenn. Viruses: An Anatomy of Mass Hysteria. PCWorld Sept. 1997: 123-125
Miastkowski, Stan. Virus Killers 1998: This Year, Macro Viruses are Running Rampant.
Which Antivirus Program is Your Best Defense? PC World Mar. 1998: 114-116. Yang, W.D. Be
Aware of Viruses and Use Protection. Computer Times 18 February 1998: 85-89. Yegulalp,
Serdar. Head to Head: Antivirus Software Virus Protection Superheroes. Windows Magazin