Computer crime is often referred?

1. Theft of personal data for use in illegal activity

- stealing your Credir card numbers, going to an on line store and ordering products, then having them delivered to a drop point or a rented mailbox.

2. Corporate data theft

- stealing data from a company that would give a competetor an advantage or indiser information on corporate operations / status.

3. Illegal sales of stolen/pirate material

- Pirating software and selling it via the net by using various distribution points. No need for a store front, just take a credit card number and purchase what you want and download it / have it shipped. Good for moving stolen goods as you can ship them anonymously.

4. Alteration of data

- break into the computer system of a bank, or other company and alter their records to the benefit of someone. Put an extra 0 in your checking account ( $150.00 becomes $1500.00 ) , cancel an invoice, mark a record as paid when it is not, corrupt or erase data making things diffucult or making it possible for a scam / ripoff to take place.

Diffuculties Law faces :

Law enforcement people are about 10 years behind in tech. They lack the training, funds, and knowhow to trace on line / computer criminals. They are doing better now in 2006 than they were in the 80's - but they are still playing a game of catch up. Also it has taken a long time to get laws in palce to protect / properly bring to bear the law against computer criminals - again the judicial system was not ready for this. A judge on a bench does not know an IP address from a phone number, and would not knwo what a FTP server is from the waitress at the country club. Computer crime is diffucult to track, and to trap someone in the act while easier now, still is a tricky business. A computer criminal can use open cyber cafe computers, move from server to server / provider to provider ,use false infomation to register for a service, or steal serivce from an unsecured wireless access point.

It's a big evil world out there :)

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Example 5: Intellectual property theft, like stealing th previous answer and handing it in as your own for the homework assignment. :)