Computer Crimes and Computer Misuse

This report discusses computer crimes and computer misuses, including types of computer crimes and misuses, laws and legislations, and the effects of computer crimes and misuses. It emphasizes the need for implementing strategies to mitigate computer crimes and misuses.

Running head: COMPUTER CRIMES AND COMPUTER MISUSE
COMPUTER CRIMES AND COMPUTER MISUSE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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COMPUTER CRIMES AND COMPUTER MISUSE
Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Computer Crime and Computer Misuse................................................................................................2
Different types of Computer Crimes......................................................................................................4
Different types of Computer Misuse......................................................................................................4
Laws and legalisation............................................................................................................................5
Effects of Computer Crimes and Computer Misuse..............................................................................6
Recommendation for protecting from Computer Crime and Misuse.....................................................8
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The aim of this report is to discuss about the computer crimes and computer misuses taking
place. This report will describe types of computer crimes and the way people misuses this resources
for harming other people. Computer crimes are referred to the act of illegally using the computer
technology for some offensive purpose. Computer crimes are divided into four major groups this are
internal computer crimes, computer manipulation crimes, telecommunication crimes and traditional
thefts to software and hardware. Apart from this, there are several people who misuses the computer
resource for effecting a group of people or an organization. Computer misuse is done for performing
attacks on information. This includes hacking, unauthorized access to computer systems and
damaging the software with the use of malware and viruses. There are several laws and legislations
developed in order to protect computer from getting affected by computer crimes and misuses.
Whenever a person gets indulged in such an activity it not only effect the organization but the data
gets disclosed in front of the world. This causes a serious threat towards the confidentiality of the
people (Moore 2014). Thus it becomes important to implement strategies that will help in mitigating
the computer crimes and misuse. Measures are needed to be implemented in proper place in order to
mitigate the computer misuse and crimes.
Computer Crime and Computer Misuse
Computer crimes are referred to the act of performing an attack by a computer user. This
crimes are performed by hackers with the intension of stealing information of a company or an
individual’s private information. The hackers are the one with maximum knowledge regarding every
work taking place within a computer (Mohamed 2017). This hackers can destroy all the data files
stored within the computer and possess the capability of corrupting this information. This crimes are
referred to as the computer crimes as it uses a network or a computer for performing their attacks.
This are mainly defined as the offences that are performed by any individual or a group individual
with the aim of harming the reputation of victim. They also aims at destroying the mental and
physical state of the victim. This has the capability of threatening an individual’s financial health and

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a large computer crime possess the capability of creating an impact on the nation (McMahon, Bressler
and Bressler 2016). The issues with computer crimes has become a major issue as this hampers the
privacy and confidentiality maintained by a group of organization or by an individual. The type of
computer crimes that have gained a great importance in the market are hacking, snooping,
unwarranted mass-surveillance, copyright infringement and many more. As per the report published
by McAfee in 2014, around $445 billion of global economy got hampered by computer crimes.
Moreover according to the recent survey made by Centre for Strategic and International Studies it is
concluded that around $600 billion was lost to computer crimes every year.
Computer misuse is referred to as the inappropriate use of the computer resources. For
prevention of the misuse of computer one act was published in the year of 1990 by UK that is divided
into three categories (Mayer 2016). The act named as Computer Misuse Act, this act was divided into
unauthorized access to computer materials, unauthorized modification programs of data on computer
and unauthorized access with intent to commit further offence. These three division helps in
distinguishing the computer misuse attacks by any individual. With the use of computer misuse act,
the computer users will be able to protect their computer from information theft and wilful attacks.
There are several offences that are marked under this act, this includes hacking, unauthorized access
to the computer systems, causing damage towards the software with the use of malware and spreading
malicious codes. Computer misuse includes tampering with the computer and altering the data and
software stored within the system, this includes changing passwords, preventing other from accessing
the system, interfering the regular operations of the system until the system gets effected. With the
launch of this act , it becomes an offense even any one tries to access someone else computer system
without their permission or without proper authorization. This law is applicable even if the hacker
tries to access the system and fails in getting the access (Marcella and Menendez 2017). Even if a
person is having an access over few part of the system and the individual tries to access the restricted
part than also it will be counted as an offence. There are several punishment defined for the misuse of
computers, this starting from fines to imprisonment till a certain period.

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Different types of Computer Crimes
 Fraud: computer fraud results in altering the details dishonestly. This leads to getting an
unauthorized access into the system and altering the details. The person with little
knowledge can perform this activities. They ensure that wrong data are filled within the
columns that will lead to huge loss of an individual or an organization ( Leukfeldt, and
Yar 2016). Detection off the problem becomes difficult as the transaction detection gets
complicated.
 Internet Child Pornography: creating a child pornography and distributing this data with
the use of internet. This leads to have a negative impact on society and on the child (Yar
2015). The child’s mental and physical status gets disturbed.
 Identity Theft: identity theft occurs when one individual hides their own identity by
pretending to someone else. These are done in order to achieve the authorization to that
part of the site where they don’t have access.
 Cyber terrorism: this is an act of terrorism that is done with the help of cyberspace .this
involves creating a terror among the people about something that is predicted to happen
(Kim, Yang and Kim 2016). For example expecting a bomb attack and spreading the
news with the help of internet. People uses cyber terrorism for destroying families, a
group of organization by creating a fear among the normal people.
Different types of Computer Misuse
 Hacking: this takes place when an unauthorized person uses a network, modem or internet in
order to gain access over the security password so that they can get into the information or
data set stored within the computer system (Kenney 2015).
 Misusing the data and transferring them to other devices: copying the information stored
within a system into an external resources is marked as an illegal act. As it becomes very
difficult to keep a track on what is being copied or carried out by the individual’s external
system.

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 Software piracy: this is referred to the act of illegally copying data and distributing them to
other person using the software. For example: whenever an individual downloads a copy of
MS Word from a file sharing website without charging for it.
 Illegal Gambling: this is the act in which an individual uses some resource on a bet on
something. It can be on a match or anything that can bring profit to them.
 Phishing: phishing is the attempt of gaining sensitive and confidential data of a particular
individual such as credit card details, username or password with the help of a trustworthy
entity within an electronic communication (Taylor et al. 2014).
 Credit Card theft: in this fraud, credit cards are used for making payment without the
knowledge of the actual owner. The motive is to get products without actually paying or to
have unauthorized funds from a particular account.
Laws and legalisation
Laws are important to protect the common people from frauds and thefts. Proper rules and
regulation can decrease the chances of crimes taking place in the surroundings. With the development
in technology the computer misuse are increasing and this are leading to computer crimes. The
problems faced with the misuse of computer increase day by day. So it became important to avoid
such problems in future. Thus in order to avoid this problem in the year 1990 Computer Misuse Act
was introduced so that the legislative can make the activity of gaining improper access to computer
without permission as illegal (Johnson 2016). The act helps in making the act accessing a computer
without the permission of unauthorized person as an offense and anyone trying to perform such
activity can be sentenced to ten years of jail or fine. This is an Act of the Parliament of United
kingdom with the aim of providing a security towards the computer material against unauthorized
access and this was introduced by Michael Colvin (Hoffer and Straub 2017). This act came in effect
in the year 1990 and the section was divided into 3 sections describing three criminal offences. The
here sections are as follows:

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1. Unauthorized access over the computer resources can lead to punishment of 12 months
and in case the level of access did not exceeded level 5 than it the individual will be
charged with a fine.
2. Unauthorized access with intent can facilitate the commission for further offences and the
offence can lead to 12 months of conviction.
3. Unauthorized modification of the materials related to computer is also counted as an
offence and it can lead to 12 months of jail and if the crime seems to be effected more
people than it has the capability.
The amendments of this acts is divided into several parts, the 5th part of Police and Justice Act
2006. The sections divided under this acts are Section 35, Section 36, and Section 37and Section 38.
According to the section 35, unauthorized access to a material stored within a computer is a
punishable act and can provide punishment up to two years in jail or heavy fine (Halder, Jaishankar
and Jaishankar 2016). Section 38 describe the transitional and saving provision.
Effects of Computer Crimes and Computer Misuse
There are huge impacts of computer crimes and computer misuse on the world. With the
growing computer crimes there are billions of loss expected in the economy. Increase in the computer
crimes is leading to creating a big loss for company at individual level and also lead to stock losses.
The increase in computer crime increases the chances of blackmailing. With the information stolen by
the hackers are used further for asking ransom money from an individual or an organization (Gross,
Canetti and Vashdi 2016). The hackers first get into the system and then uses these information to
harm the organization. The stolen information are very much crucial for every organization thus it
becomes important for the organization to save it. In order to save the information they had to pay a
huge ransom money. Thus loss of money occurs at each step and can cause a great problem on the
economy state of any organization or individual. Economy is the main need of every people, thus
without this no one is capable of doing anything. This is the main source of livelihood. With the help
of computer crimes and misusing the computer bankruptcy can also occur. Bankruptcy is the situation
where the bank balance of an individual gets zero and the person is unable to repay the debts to the

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creditors. In such a case the court has to take action on that individual. This occurs when the hacker
discloses and takes out all the cash available in the account of an individual (Fehr, LiCalzi and Oates
2016). Leaving the individual in a situation where he can’t use money or creating a cashless situation
where they can’t use money for personal reasons. Apart from all these leaking someone’s personal
data in a public can threat the integrity of an individual. Moreover it will impact the reputation of the
individual. Every individual possess some integrity and no one likes to hamper the integrity.
Computer misuse threats the integrity of an individual and also forces them to do things
which are not correct. With the use of computer crimes, child are being harassed and molested and
after these the videos are being shared online in order to gain popularity. This type of situation creates
a negative impact on the family and that child. It becomes difficult for everyone to overcome this
situation. Moreover the child goes through physical and mental trauma for a long period of time as
this type of incident takes time to recover. Computers are used for human trafficking also (Simmons
2016). The information related to the needed human are shared with the help of computer and this
gets distributed along with their gang members. Thus computer resources are misused for performing
several crimes. This crimes holds the capability of destroying the victim mentally and physically. It is
also important to connect system with the correct sites. Sometimes it is seen that clicking onto a site
leads to hacking. Every individuals needs to be careful while working with their system (Pelker et al.
2015). Thus it becomes very much important to implement ways that will eradicate the computer
crimes and will protect individual and organization from getting hacked. Child safety is also another
aspect that is needed to be implemented properly. A bad incident can destroy the mental condition of
the victim for the rest of his life. Proper measures will help in building a secured way of using
computer system. Everyone should keep in mind while connecting with a site it becomes important to
protect the system. As nowadays maximum functions are done on internet starting from shopping to
funds transferring, every bank transaction takes place online (Elhai et al. 2017). Thus it becomes very
much essential to check the sites accessed by the users are trusted one or not. Each and every system
needs to have proper protection so that it can create a guard against the other attacks. Each time an

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important transaction takes place it becomes important to save the details. Moreover the users should
secure the connection before transferring any confidential data.
Recommendation for protecting from Computer Crime and Misuse
There are serious consequences of computer crimes and with the misuse of computers. Thus it
becomes important to protect system from getting hacked or the data get breached by someone else. In
order to protect the system it is important to use a full service internet security suite that will provide
the system proper protection against the existing malware. This will also help the individual to hide
details related to financial condition when surfing the net. With the use of strong passwords one will
be able to make the system complex (Proffitt 2018). Combination of letters and symbols will make it
difficult to identify the password for the hackers. The password management application will help the
passwords to be locked down properly. Apart from this the user should keep updated software so that
the operating system can be checked time to time. In order to gain proper security from the computer
crimes it becomes important to have a proper updated server otherwise the system can be hacked
through the flaws. One needs to strengthen the home network with strong encryption password
including the virtual network. With the help of a strong VPN encrypt all the traffic will leave the
device until it arrives to the destination. Protecting the data with the help of several security measures
will ensure proper storage and easy access. Each data stored within a system needs to be taken care
properly so that it can be used for further use properly. Protection to each data will protect the system
from hackers. There are plenty of security software’s available which ensures maximum towards the
computer (Bossler and Holt 2015). Thus within the time it becomes necessary to implement those
software’s so that nothing can hamper the working of the computer system. While surfing or working
with computer through internet it becomes important to protect the identity otherwise. This will
prevent the system from getting hacked and will ensure property safety towards the system.
Proper precaution within the time period becomes very much essential in order to have a
proper computer system and to have a safe environment. In cases when the situation becomes adverse
it becomes important to contact to local police or in adverse cases the individual or the organization
can seek help from Federal Trade Commission. This is important even if the impact seems to be

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minor as the attacker’s starts with initial stage itself. With proper report against the incident the crime
branch will be able to investigate properly through the cases and will bring more advantages towards
the people (Blakemore 2016). Thus with the help of this recommendation the computer crimes can be
prevented as well as the misuse of computer can be decreased. Proper precautions against card theft,
identity theft, bankruptcy and child molestation needs to be done. Having a proper firewall for
computer network will prevent the network from giving access to unauthorized persons. The firewall
blocks data from entering the network once found malicious. With the implementation of intrusion
detection system the system adopts the capability internal attack that is taking place within the system
(Riek, Bohme and Moore 2016). Anti-virus software has the capability of protecting the system from
having major loss of data and sometimes this also helps in saving the money. Variety of anti-virus
software are available in the market that helps in preventing malicious programs entering into a
network or a single computer.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be stated that with the growing technology the attackers are also
becoming smarter. With the growing demand on technology it is observed that every organization as
well as every house has at least one computer. Nowadays every organization needs computer system
to manage their works properly. Apart from this it becomes responsibility of each parent to guide their
children about the proper way of using computers. This will help them from performing wrong
activities that are offensive. Each employee of the organization needs to be kept under proper
motorization for getting the result. The report describes the type of computer crimes and misuse takes
place in the society. Computers are the basic requirement of every organization thus it becomes
important to secure the network. With proper security the information stored in the computer network
can be maintained properly. There are various types of computer crimes that sometimes turns to be
very dangerous. Such as internet child pornography, cyber terrorism and bankruptcy. This possess the
capability of harming the lives of human and can impact the financial status. Thus proper preventive
measure can help the system from getting hacked and will reduce the ratio of computer crimes.

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