Computer Crime Essay, Research Paper
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.
S