Essay, Research Paper: Computer Crimes

omputer Crime
It's the weekend, you have nothing to do so you decide to
play around on your computer. You turn it on and then start up, you
start calling people with your modem, connecting to another world,
with people just like you at a button press away. This is all fine
but what happens when you start getting into other peoples computer
files. Then it becomes a crime, but what is a computer crime really,
obviously it involves the use of a computer but what are these crimes.
Well they are: Hacking, Phreaking, & Software Piracy.
To begin I will start with Hacking, what is hacking. Hacking is
basically using your computer to "Hack" your way into another. They
use programs called scanners which randomly dials numbers any
generating tones or carriers are recorded. These numbers are looked
at by hackers and then used again, when the hacker calls up the number
and gets on he's presented with a logon prompt, this is where the
hacking really begins, the hacker tries to bypass this anyway he knows
how to and tries to gain access to the system. Why do they do it,
well lets go to a book and see "Avid young computer hackers in their
preteens and teens are frequently involved in computer crimes that
take the form of trespassing, invasion of privacy, or vandalism.
Quite often they are mearly out for a fun and games evening, and they
get entangled in the illegal use of their machines without realizing
the full import of what they are doing" , I have a hard time believing
that so lets see what a "hacker" has to say about what he does "Just
as they were enthraled with their pursuit of information, so are we.
The thrill of the hack is not in breaking the law, it's in the pursuit
and capture of knowledge." , as you can see the "hacker" doesn't go
out to do destroy things although some do. It's in the pursuit of
knowledge. Of course this is still against the law. But where did all
of this start, MIT is where hacking started the people there would
learn and explore computer systems all around the world. In the views
of professional hacking is like drugs or any other addictive
subezce, it's an addiction for the mind and once started it's
difficult to stop. This could be true, as hackers know what they are
doing is wrong and they know odds are they will be caught. But as I
mentioned some hackers are just above average criminals, using there
skills to break in banks and other places where they can get money, or
where they can destroy information. What a hacker does at a bank is
take a few cents or even a few fractions of a cents from many
different accounts this may seem like nothing but when all compiled
can be alot. A stick up robber averages about $8,000 each "job", and
he has to put his life and personal freedom on the line to do it while
the computer hacker in the comfort of his own living room averages


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