COMPUTER CRIME Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

COMPUTER CRIME - Coursework Example The latest statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI (2014) indicates that the complaints received in 2012 were 289,874 amounting to losses of $525,441,110, this representing 8.3% increase in losses reported to the agency in a span of one year. The trend is similar to what has been recorded from 2008. In spite of the adjustments by the FBI in tackling current wave of crimes, the threat continues to present most dynamic transformations, making them increasingly sophisticated, dangerous and common. The widespread interconnectivity leveraging on the Internet is to blame for this trend. The Internet provides a shared and integrated platform that fosters anonymity and inability to be traced thus propagating computer crimes (Stephenson & Gilbert, 2013). Furthermore, there is a rapid increase in computer knowledge in the modern world which propagates formulation of complex attacks. There is an increasing list of the types of computer crimes. Among the common types are hacking, phishing and virus distribution. Hacking refers to the beating of computer system security capabilities so as to gain illegal access to information stored therein. This also includes the hacking of IP addresses so as to transact under a false identity, hence anonymity in carrying out crime. Secondly, phishing entails the acquisition of sensitive information such as passwords, usernames and credit card details in the disguise of a trustworthy source. It could be executed through emails or luring users to key in personal information in criminal websites. Criminals would often use websites having familiar looks so as to gain the users’ confidence. Finally, the crime of computer viruses involves use of computer programs with the capability of self replication that harms computer systems in a network. This occurs without the user’s knowledge and spreads from a computer to anothe r through