Knowledge, accumulation of past experiences, is one of the crucial elements of human life. As knowledge has been valuable from ancient ages to our century, humans have done researches on the methods of transforming, developing, saving and using knowledge quickly and securely. In last two centuries there have been lots of considerable improvements on the area of information technologies. Computer is one of the significant inventions on the field of information technologies. In spite of advantages of computers, such as being fast, reliable, able to hold a great amount of data, they are usually insecure. Because of insecurity of computer systems, some malevolent persons use computers on their bad purposes. Usually, misuses of computers are called computer crimes. There are two main categories of computer crimes: sabotage and data theft.
Firstly, one of the main and well-known types of computer crimes is sabotage. Usually, sabotages are performed against computer systems of popular companies and organizations of government. Almost whole of criminals who perform sabotage intend to damage computer system of organizations they attack. Criminals generally use two main methods during their attacks: hardware attacks and software attacks. Hardware attacks are performed by using hardware faults of a computer system. Moreover, criminals harm computer systems by using brute force. According to Bequai, “It [sabotage] may involve the use of explosives, fire, or even destruction by water” (1978, p.13). Unlike hardware attacks, software attacks are carried out by using software defects of computers. Most common and dangerous way of software attacks is attacking by viruses. Virus is a special kind of computer program, which starts itself automatically and damage computer’s operating system.
Another important type of computer crime is data theft. Data theft is one of the popular crimes of last five decades. Data theft can be considered as stealing other’s documents by using special techniques on computers. Generally there are two kinds of datas those are stolen: secret datas and datas those are sold. In the first case secret datas are projects of companies, account passwords of banks, military informations, etc. Usually criminals steal these datas to misuse them according to their aims. In addition, a country may perform a computer fraud by stealing military informations of its enemy country. Another kind of data theft is stealing datas those are sold. In this case criminals enter transmission lines or databases without paying money (Davies, online, 2002). Using internet without paying cost, downloading audio and video datas from webpages without subscribing, etc. can be given as examples to theft of datas those are sold.
Finally, computer crimes can be categorized as attacking computer systems to damage them and misusing computers to steal other’s datas. As numbers of computer crimes increases day by day, responsible organizations should consider reasons of these illegal and unethical actions, and give importance to the education of computer usage. It is reasonable to expect that misuses of computers can be prevented with a proper education on computer usage.
References:
* Bequai, A. (1978). Computer Crime. Toronto: D. C. Heath and Company.
* Davies, J. (2002, September 18). Computer Crime. Retrieved April 8, 2004, from
http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~in7504/computer_crime.htm
Zeynal Zeynalov
19. 04. 2004
Firstly, one of the main and well-known types of computer crimes is sabotage. Usually, sabotages are performed against computer systems of popular companies and organizations of government. Almost whole of criminals who perform sabotage intend to damage computer system of organizations they attack. Criminals generally use two main methods during their attacks: hardware attacks and software attacks. Hardware attacks are performed by using hardware faults of a computer system. Moreover, criminals harm computer systems by using brute force. According to Bequai, “It [sabotage] may involve the use of explosives, fire, or even destruction by water” (1978, p.13). Unlike hardware attacks, software attacks are carried out by using software defects of computers. Most common and dangerous way of software attacks is attacking by viruses. Virus is a special kind of computer program, which starts itself automatically and damage computer’s operating system.Another important type of computer crime is data theft. Data theft is one of the popular crimes of last five decades. Data theft can be considered as stealing other’s documents by using special techniques on computers. Generally there are two kinds of datas those are stolen: secret datas and datas those are sold. In the first case secret datas are projects of companies, account passwords of banks, military informations, etc. Usually criminals steal these datas to misuse them according to their aims. In addition, a country may perform a computer fraud by stealing military informations of its enemy country. Another kind of data theft is stealing datas those are sold. In this case criminals enter transmission lines or databases without paying money (Davies, online, 2002). Using internet without paying cost, downloading audio and video datas from webpages without subscribing, etc. can be given as examples to theft of datas those are sold.
Finally, computer crimes can be categorized as attacking computer systems to damage them and misusing computers to steal other’s datas. As numbers of computer crimes increases day by day, responsible organizations should consider reasons of these illegal and unethical actions, and give importance to the education of computer usage. It is reasonable to expect that misuses of computers can be prevented with a proper education on computer usage.
References:
* Bequai, A. (1978). Computer Crime. Toronto: D. C. Heath and Company.
* Davies, J. (2002, September 18). Computer Crime. Retrieved April 8, 2004, from
http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~in7504/computer_crime.htm
Zeynal Zeynalov
19. 04. 2004
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