Hilleman English 10R December 7, 1999 Computer Crime Computer crime is defined as a criminal act that has been committed With a computer as the principle tool(Judson, 30). These computer criminals are people with advanced knowledge of operating systems, phone systems, and other computer related devices. Some computer criminals break into other people's computers, and steal data, these criminals are known as hackers. Yet others might make a phone call without even paying for it, or receive phone services that they did not pay for, these people are known as phreakers. And yet there are other computer criminals that illegally copy software, these criminals are known as Software Pirates. Although authorities try to combat the doings of these criminals, Computer Crime is still a huge market for criminals of all kinds. The first part of this paper is going to be dedicated to hackers. Hackers are the robbers of cyberspace. They are able to gain access to Sforza-II peoples computers using special tools, methods and programs. Some of these are backdoors, viruses, and port scanners. The most popular form of virus, is known as the Trojan horse, named after the Greek Trojan Horse. This virus is implanted in a computer, then it lets someone from another computer have access to all the computers information, including passwords and any other personal data that might be present. Hackers do not just invade personal computers, they also invade corporate and government computers. The Pentagon has recently come under a fire from hackers. After these hackers penetrate the Pentagons defenses, they begin to raid unclassified documents. Some of these hackers have stolen data pertaining to the Energy Department Nuclear Weapons and Research Facility. They have also gathered information that was used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Although the FBI has used all resources available to them, they still have been unable to identify these hackers.
