Computer Crime (815 words) Essay

Computer CrimeSforza-1
John Sforza
Miss. Hilleman
English 10R
December 7, 1999
Computer Crime
Computer crime is defined as a criminal act that has been committed
With a computer as the principle tool(Judson, 30). These computer
criminals are people with advanced knowledge of operating systems, phone
systems, and other computer related devices. Some computer
criminals break into other people’s computers, and steal data, these criminals
are known as hackers. Yet others might make a phone call without even
paying for it, or receive phone services that they did not pay for, these
people are known as phreakers. And yet there are other computer criminals
that illegally copy software, these criminals are known as Software Pirates.
Although authorities try to combat the doings of these criminals, Computer
Crime is still a huge market for criminals of all kinds.
The first part of this paper is going to be dedicated to hackers.
Hackers are the robbers of cyberspace. They are able to gain access to
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peoples computers using special tools, methods and programs. Some of
these are backdoors, viruses, and port scanners. The most popular
form of virus, is known as the Trojan horse, named after the Greek Trojan
Horse. This virus is implanted in a computer, then it lets someone from
another computer have access to all the computers information, including
passwords and any other personal data that might be present. Hackers do not
just invade personal computers, they also invade corporate and government
computers. The Pentagon has recently come under a fire from hackers. After
these hackers penetrate the Pentagons defenses, they begin to raid
unclassified documents. Some of these hackers have stolen data pertaining to
the Energy Department Nuclear Weapons and Research Facility. They have
also gathered information that was used by the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration. Although the FBI has used all resources available to them,
they still have been unable to identify these hackers. The only thing that they
know is these hackers are based in a place 20 miles outside of Moscow.
Since these attacks happen during the day, 5am-8pm Moscow time, the FBI
believes these individuals are working out of an office. Many believe that
these hackers are working for the Russian Government, and are using
espionage to gain access to sensitive information.

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Although these hackers motives were to sabotage and destroy, not all
hackers are like this. Most are just after information, they might make a
mistake now and then but most do not cause damage. Enclosed in this paper
is Mentor’s Last Words. Something that Mentor wrote because he felt
people should hear it. He was tired of people mislabeling and mis-judging his
kind. He wanted to show the world that the newspapers, magazines, and
radio stations were not right. Hacker was a term originally given to those
who went in search of knowledge inside other peoples computers. They did
not cause any damage, they just wished to learn more.(
A Phreaker is a person that has extensive knowledge of the phone
system. These people spend hours reading text documents and browsing
around phone company’s computers. Most phreakers will say that what
they do is for the pursuit of knowledge, which is true, but there are always
those people that take advantage of things. Some things that phreakers can
do are, make free calls from payphones, enable call waiting, caller id, call
conferencing, and receive no phone bills. They also know how to make
phone calls using other peoples telephone lines, charging them instead of
themselves.
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The last group of computer criminals, and probably the easiest to
identify are the Software Pirates. These are the people that make copies of
software, and either register the program illegally, or sell the software to
another party. Any pirated software is known as warez. Warez is divided
into sub categories, these are the following; Applications of any sort are
known as Appz, Computer games are changed into image files
known as ISOs, and full-length movies are known as VCDs. Software
pirates usually have a high-speed connection, such as T1, T3, Cable
Modem, DSL, ADSL, HDSL, or VDSL. Almost all software pirates have
CD recordable drives, to make copies of their material. Many attempts have
been made to stop software piracy, the most popular is a registration key. A
registration key is the code you are given when you purchase or
legally register a piece of software. The only problem is, these Software
Pirates have learned how to bypass the registration key. Another attempt
was made by Microsoft to make it harder to copy the cds, but that also
failed.
Although authorities try to combat the doings of these criminals,
Computer Crime is still a huge market for criminals of all kinds. Although
authorities try to combat the doings of these criminals, Computer Crime is
still a huge market for criminals of all kinds.
Computers Essays

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