Major Categories of Computer Crime

Computer crime consists of any criminal activity in which computer systems or networks are used as tools. Computer crime also includes crimes in which computer systems are targeted , or in which computers are the scene of the crime committed. That’s a pretty wide spectrum.

However, the real world has difficulties in dealing with computer crimes. Several reasons why computer crimes are hard to cope with include

Lack of understanding: In general, legislators, judges, attorneys , law enforcement officials, and jurors don’t understand the many different technologies and issues involved in a computer crime.
Inadequate laws: Laws are slow to change, and fail to keep pace with rapidly evolving new technology.
Multiple roles of computers in crime: These include crimes committed against a computer (such as hacking into a system and stealing information) and crimes committed by using a computer (such as using a system to launch a Distributed Denial of Service attack).

Computer crimes are often difficult to prosecute for the reasons that we just listed and also because of the following issues:

Lack of tangible assets: Traditional rules of property often don’t apply in a computer crime case. However, property rules have been extended in many countries to include electronic information. Computing resources, bandwidth, and data (in the form of magnetic particles) are often the only assets at issue. These can be very difficult to quantify and assign a value to. The asset valuation process, which we discuss in Chapter 6, can provide key information in such a case.
Rules of evidence: Often, original documents aren’t available in a computer crime case. Most evidence in such a case is considered hearsay evidence (which we discuss later in the upcoming section “Hearsay rule”) and must meet certain requirements to be admissible in court . Often, evidence is a computer itself, or data on its hard drive.
Lack of evidence: Many crimes are difficult to prosecute because law enforcement agencies lack the skills or resources to even identify the perpetrator, much less gather sufficient evidence to bring charges and successfully prosecute. Frequently, skilled computer criminals use a long trail of compromised computers through different countries in order to make it as difficult as possible for even diligent law enforcement agencies to identify them.
Definition of loss: A loss of confidentiality or integrity of data goes far beyond the normal definition of loss in a criminal or civil case.
Location of perpetrators: Often, the persons who commit computer crimes against specific organizations do so from locations outside of the victim’s country. Computer criminals do this, knowing that even if they make a mistake and create discoverable evidence that identifies them, the victim’s country law enforcement agencies will have difficulty apprehending the criminal.
Criminal profiles: Computer criminals often aren’t hardened criminals and may include the following:
- Juveniles: Juvenile laws in many countries aren’t taken seriously and are inadequate to deter crime. A busy prosecutor is unlikely to pursue a low-profile crime committed by a juvenile that results in a three-year probation sentence for the offender.
- Trusted individuals: Many computer criminals are individuals that hold a position of trust within a company and have no prior criminal record. Such an individual will likely be able to afford a dream team for legal defense, and a judge may be inclined to levy a more lenient sentence for the first-time offender. However, recent corporate scandals in the U.S. have set a strong precedent for punishment at the highest levels.

Computer crimes are often classified under one of the following six major categories:

Terrorist attacks
Military and intelligence attacks
Financial attacks
Business attacks
Grudge attacks
“Fun” attacks

Terrorist attacks

{% if main.adsdop %}{% include 'adsenceinline.tpl' %}{% endif %}

Terrorism exists at many levels on the Internet. In April 2001, during a period of tense relations between China and the U.S. (resulting from the crash landing of a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane on Hainan Island), Chinese hackers ( cyberterrorists ) launched a major effort to disrupt critical U.S. infrastructure, which included U.S. government and military systems.

Following the terrorist attacks against the U.S. on September 11, 2001, the general public became painfully aware of the extent of terrorism on the Internet. Terrorist organizations and cells are using online capabilities to coordinate attacks, transfer funds, harm international commerce, disrupt critical systems, disseminate propaganda, and gain useful information about developing techniques and instruments of terror, including nuclear , biological, and chemical weapons.

Military and intelligence attacks

Military and intelligence attacks are perpetrated by criminals, traitors, or foreign intelligence agents seeking classified law enforcement or military information. Such attacks may also be carried out by governments during times of war and conflict.

Financial attacks

Banks, large corporations, and e-commerce sites are the targets of financial attacks, all of which are motivated by greed. Financial attacks may seek to steal or embezzle funds, gain access to online financial information, extort individuals or businesses, or obtain the personal credit card numbers of customers.

Business attacks

Businesses are becoming the targets of more and more computer and Internet attacks. These attacks include competitive intelligence gathering, denial of service, and other computer- related attacks. Businesses are often targeted for several reasons including

Lack of expertise: Despite heightened security awareness, a shortage of qualified security professionals still exists, particularly in private enterprise.
Lack of resources: Businesses often lack the resources to prevent, or even detect, attacks against their systems.
Lack of reporting or prosecution : Because of public relations concerns and the inability to prosecute computer criminals due to either a lack of evidence or a lack of properly handled evidence, the majority of business attacks still go unreported.

The cost to businesses can be significant, including loss of trade secrets or proprietary information, loss of revenue, and loss of reputation.

Grudge attacks

Grudge attacks are targeted at individuals or businesses and are motivated by a desire to take revenge against a person or organization. A disgruntled employee, for example, may steal trade secrets, delete valuable data, or plant a logic bomb in a critical system or application.

Fortunately, these attacks (at least in the case of a disgruntled employee) can be easier to prevent or prosecute than many other types of attacks because:

The attacker is often known to the victim.
The attack has a visible impact that produces a viable evidence trail.
Most businesses (already sensitive to the possibility of wrongful termination suits ) have well-established termination procedures.
Specific laws (such as the U.S. Economic Espionage Act of 1996, which we discuss later in this chapter) provide very severe penalties for such crimes.

“Fun” attacks

“Fun” attacks are perpetrated by thrill seekers and script kiddies who are motivated by curiosity or excitement. Although these attackers may not intend to do any harm or use any of the information that they access, they’re still dangerous and their activities are still illegal.

These attacks can also be relatively easy to detect and prosecute. Because the perpetrators are often script kiddies or otherwise inexperienced hackers, they may not know how to cover their tracks effectively.

Also, because no real harm is normally done nor intended against the system, it may be tempting (although ill advised) for a business to prosecute the individual and put a positive public relations spin on the incident. You’ve seen the film at 11: “We quickly detected the attack, prevented any harm to our network, and prosecuted the responsible individual; our security is unbreakable !” Such action, however, will likely motivate others to launch a more serious and concerted grudge attack against the business.

Many computer criminals in this category only seek notoriety. Although it’s one thing to brag to a small circle of friends about defacing a public Web site, the wily hacker who appears on CNN reaches the next level of hacker celebrity-dom. These twisted individuals want to be caught to revel in their 15 minutes of fame.

Cross-Reference As we discuss in Chapter 7, script kiddies are novice hackers or less experienced (not too salty) crackers. Typically, script kiddies are new to the dark side and perhaps don’t realize just how dark (and illegal) the dark side really is. Script kiddies lack true hacking or programming skills, so they must rely on freely available tools that others have created and distributed on the Internet, often without knowing or understanding how much damage they may actually do to a system or network.