Computers and Crime: Cybercrime

Computers and Crime: Cybercrime

Carter Halamka

CS 485

Computer Science Department

Illinois Institute of Technology

Chicago, Illinois 60616

Abstract - The purpose of this research paper is to examine the history and effects of computerized crime or cybercrime. Research from a variety of sources including government based efforts to combat cybercrime is included. A broad look at the problems caused by and solutions to the issues is provided and examined.
Index Terms - Computer crime, cybercrime, fraud, extortion, identity theft
Background and History of Computer Crime
Even before their mass adoption into society, computers have brought with them in their rise to prominence a less than desired side effect; crime and criminals. Criminals regularly use computers as a tool for a massive variety of crimes and criminal activity. Crime using computers has increased continually and legislation and countermeasures are frequently out of date or inaccurate before they are introduced.
A short history of cybercrime begins with early crimes committed using computers. A well known example can be seen in the widespread exploitation of automated phone and calling systems. Routing and long distance charges were handled electronically / by systems that criminals discovered were vulnerable and in doing so were able to use the phone systems for free or for unlimited periods of time. The introduction of the personal computer and world wide web or internet, though, revolutionized life for the everyday person as well as the cyber criminal. In the early days of the internet and web, spam email flooded inboxes with junk mail and attempts to sell, scam, or steal from computer users. Not limited to individuals, though, cyber crimes expanded and denial of service attacks became a popular tool. Denial of service attacks attempt to disable web pages by flooding the host server with useless connection attempts or information. The first known denial of service attack which brought down numerous websites was committed by a teenager.
Modern day cybercrime has flourished in a world where billions of devices connect to and share information digitally by the world wide web. Popular techniques that target individuals include “phishing” in which criminals attempt to deceive a user into divulging personal information or digital account details, “scamming” which include a variety of methods that attempt to fraudulently take or steal from a user, “identity theft” which may result from the previous crimes occurs when a criminal uses another person’s identity in order to perform some
action or actions, typically related to money. Furthermore, cybercrime targets groups like companies or countries as well. Techniques like “corporate espionage” where a criminal or hacker attempts to access company information typically to share this data with a rival company as well as “cyber warfare” where a nation might attempt to gain access to another nation’s military secrets or defenses have emerged. Finally, computer viruses and malware or spyware are distributed on a massive scale in order to facilitate the previous techniques or to simply wreak havoc on unsuspecting users.
Societal Changes Resulting
from Computer Crime
It is somewhat difficult to target specific societal changes that stem purely from computer crime. The proliferation of computers and the onset of the digital age and personal computer is closely tied to computer crime. While something of a chicken and egg problem, a few important changes have occurred. Currently a encryption is a controversial topic in the media; government agencies are demanding access to digital devices and technology companies are fighting back, insisting that encryption is critical for end users. Encryption is important in combatting illicit attempts to gain access to personal devices but also allows criminals to keep their actions private. Whether the adoption of more secure protocols is a good or bad thing, cybercrime has driven the adoption of these more secure methods. Another important change resulting from cybercrime is the increased focus on password strength and security. Users are encouraged to select / passwords which cannot easily be guessed and do not contain any personal information. This upswing in security is driven in part by advances in computation that allow for “brute force” attacks which utilize a computer to make millions or even billions of guesses in extremely short periods of time.
Another important change resulting from cybercrime has occurred in governments around the world. While controversial and in many cases ineffective, governments have begun to legislate and draft laws to curb cybercrime. Cybercrime costs governments billions of dollars per year and affects millions of people which makes preventing and raising awareness an important issue. The issue of preventing crime is difficult though and has left most legislation lagging. It is difficult to predict the next attack vector or technique and harder still to create an effective stop measure. A good example of this regards “hacking” - an extremely non-specific term which can mean any number of things. How can a law be written in a way that is both general enough as to capture offenses which occur and also not lead to unintended interactions or not include other important crimes? Generally governments are forced to react to each new crime and fight from behind so to speak when it comes to cybercrime.
Effects of Changes Brought by Computer Crime
While unfortunate, many changes brought by computer crime are beneficial to society. The average computer user may not even realize the work that goes into securing their data (this is often apparent when users
freely divulge personal details to criminals) but a massive industry exists to try and secure critical information. Encryption plays a large part in keeping user data secure from outside attempts to access it. Along with this, password security is an important change that helps to secure critical data around the world.
Effects of government legislation are a bit more nebulous and difficult to grasp but in many cases the laws built to protect users from fraud have been effective in helping affected persons to recover from things like identity theft. However, many laws are met with cries from technology companies and users alike as violating many of the principles other laws may seek to protect. Mass surveillance, wiretapping, and access to user devices that hold innumerable personal details have become a contentious issue in recent years. Bills and laws are regularly proposed and criticized but generally the slow advance of policy and legislation has helped to reduce the spread of crime (though not without many hiccups along the way).
While cybercrime is in itself a negative for society that costs billions of dollars and affects millions of people in the U.S. and worldwide, society has benefitted from the adoption of prevention techniques and advances pushed out to prevent crimes.
The Future of Cybercrime: Issues and Effects
In order to theorize about the future of computer crime, it is important to examine the advance of technology and crimes that relate to that technology. Typically crime has followed with the technology very rapidly; as soon as phones were handled electronically, / criminals exploited flaws or loopholes. Again, this pattern appears as personal computers and email emerge; soon after they become popular criminals begin sending spam email.
This pattern is likely to continue with the constant increases and improvement in technology. It is impossible to accurately predict the next type of crime that may emerge but a number of possibilities exist. Mobile devices like cell phones and tablet computers or devices are wildly popular and may represent an untapped market for criminals.
The important factor when considering the future of cybercrime is to note that barring some impossible predict advance in society, crime and cybercrime will continue to exist. This is readily apparent when one considers that before computers crime existed for thousands of years (early evidence of prevention exists in recovered artifacts like Hammurabi’s Code). It is difficult to suggest that cybercrime will be eliminated but it may be fair to suggest that prevention measures, awareness, and techniques that combat computer crime will advance faster than cybercrime. If this occurs then it is likely that a reduction in the cost to society will follow.
Whether or not this does occur though the next ten years will be interesting to observe and are likely to have periods of rapid expansion in emerging technology markets which will be met with controversies and crimes.
Problems Arising from Cybercrime
Problems that are caused by cybercrime can be broken down to monetary or financial and “personal” which could mean
any of a variety of problems, especially those that are consistent with non cybercrimes. Some examples might include problems similar to those fraud that occurs in person, like that involving so called “confidence men” and the problems that arise from digital identity theft.
In the future, I predict that the “personal” problems may reduce in number. The reasons for this are twofold: Awareness of common scams and phishing techniques are becoming well known and will likely become irrelevant as the younger generation ages and we see more computer users who have always used computers. Additionally, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data are being applied to all of the world’s problems. Regarding cybercrime these tools help to produce better spam filters that use immense amounts of data as sources for a computer program that can learn and predict the next type of spam message.
This combination of technology and time will, with some success, drive down the problems affecting individuals and, in turn, reduce some costs related to cybercrime as well.
Conclusions Drawn
Cybercrime is an issue faced around the world. With somewhat humble beginnings as a way to avoid paying for long distance phone charges, cybercrime is now a billion dollar headache as well as a serious threat to safety worldwide. While the future is uncertain and many different factors will influence the growth or decline of cybercrime, it will remain an issue for future generations. / References
James, Randy (2009, June 1). A Brief History of Cybercrime. Time. Retrieved from
About CCIPS. Retrieved April 10, 2016, from
Security Tip (ST04-015). Retrieved April 10, 2016, from