Research and Discuss Computer Crimes in the Modern World (Essay Sample)

Computer Crime
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Computer Crime
In the modern world, computers have become an essential and ubiquitous part of everyone’s daily life. Indeed, computers are termed as the best invention that man has ever achieved. They have made work easier as well as increased productivity across different sectors. While computers are of great help in everyone’s life, they have paved way for various crimes. Computer crimes have become a significant problem across the globe. People are being manipulated over the internet on daily basis. Security measures have been initiated to prevent people from becoming victims of computer crimes, but knowledge about these crimes is the best tool for fighting them (Bocij, 2006). Consequently, this discussion, intends to explore identity theft through computers.
In the past few decades, identity theft used to be associated with loosing of a wallet of a purse. However, in the contemporary world, people are losing essential information such as bank account number, address, signature, phone number, credit card number, and Social Security number over the internet. For instance, in the United States, there are approximately nine million victims each year. In most cases, cyber-criminals send emails to people promising them some benefits, and request some identification information before the deal is sealed. Most people give out personal information without realizing that the requester does not purpose to keep his promise (Vacca, 2003). With sufficient information about the victim, the fraudster can take over the victim’s identity to conduct various crimes such as false application of credit cards or bank loans, fraudulent withdrawals from the victim’s bank account, or obtaining illegal products using the victim’s identity. If the fraudster manages to ensure that all the bank statements or bills for counterfeit credit cards are sent to a different address other than the victim’s, the criminal can inflict a substantial damage without the victim even knowing (Bocij, 2006).
In addition, some fraudsters adopt spyware to gather their victims’ information. A spyware is usually installed in a victim’s computer while he/she is downloading software from unrecognized companies, clicking on pop-ups, opening email attachments, or when he/she visits a devious website. Without the victim’s knowledge, the spyware runs in the background as it collects personal information, which can be used to carry out a wide range of crimes. The spyware can transmit information such as social security numbers, usernames and passwords, address books, and bank and credit card numbers.
Spywares used for identity theft can be difficult to remove or detect. However, one can ensure he/she does not fall a victim of spyware identity theft by downloading software from legit sites, deleting emails suspected to be spam, avoiding questionable websites, failing to open emails form unknown senders, taking caution when using public computers, and avoiding sharing of personal information over the internet or any form of unencrypted communication. Moreover, when logging into a bank account, it is necessary to ensure the connection is secure by confirming whether the address starts with ‘https’ instead of ‘http’. Moreover, it is advisable to ignore emails, which require one to update bank or credit card information, because this is a prevalent ploy used by fraudsters (Baskin & Piltzecker, 2006).
Governments across the globe have invested much in the fight against computer crimes. For instance, according to one the financial times articles, the Obama administration on February 2013, initiated new trading measures against China and other countries as a part of the government’s strategy in the fight against cyber attacks. The core goal of the strategy was to ensure American businesses would fall on hands of Identity fraudsters as well as hackers. Moreover, the U.S government pledged to enhance its efforts in combating theft of trade secrets by using mixture of trade agreements and diplomatic tools in order to put more pressure on the countries, which are believed to launch cyber attacks on American businesses. This strategy calls for a better and strong diplomatic response in case of theft of trade secrets, and requires the government to work closely with its allies to initiate new ways of pressuring countries involved in cybercrime. The new cyber strategy came after the Obama administration faced a great deal of political pressure to take stern actions on China over computer crimes. According to Mike Rogers, who is one of the United States government official, confronting countries like China, which are associated with cybercrime direct...