Cyber Crime Is Real!
Dr. Karon Murff was our guest speaker this week. She is a CPA and a specialist in the area of data theft and cyber crime.
Computer crime or cybercrime is a form of crime where the Internet or computers are used as a medium to commit crime. Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement, child pornography, and child grooming. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise.
Computer crime encompass a broad range of potentially illegal activities. Generally, however, it may be divided into one of two types of categories: (1) crimes that target computer networks or devices directly; (2) crimes facilitated by computer networks or devices, the primary target of which is independent of the computer network or device.
Examples of crimes that primarily target computer networks or devices would include:
Malware (malicious code)
Denial-of-service attacks
Computer viruses
Examples of crimes that merely use computer networks or devices would include:
Cyber stalking
Fraud and identity theft
Phishing scams
Information warfare
Very interesting...and a little frightening to realize that so many of the things we think of as everyday conveniences can be exploited for criminal purposes: computers, ATM cards, credit cards. |
