Computer Crime: A Increasing Problem

Computer Crime: A Increasing Problem


ABSTRACT


Computer crimes seem to be an increasing problem in today's society.  The main

aspect concerning these offenses is information gained or lost.  As our

government tries to take control of the information that travels through the

digital world, and across networks such as the InterNet, they also seem to be

taking away certain rights and privileges that come with these technological

advancements.


These services open a whole new doorway to communications as we know it.  They

offer freedom of expression, and at the same time, freedom of privacy in the

highest possible form.  Can the government reduce computer crimes, and still

allow people the right to freedom of expression and privacy?


INFORMATION CONTROL IN THE DIGITIZED WORLD


In the past decade, computer technology has expanded at an incredibly fast rate,

and the information stored on these computers has been increasing even faster.

The amount of money, military intelligence, and personal information stored on

computers has increased far beyond expectations.  Governments, the military, and

the economy could not operate without the use of computers.  Banks transfer

trillions of dollars every day over inter-linking networks, and more than one

billion pieces of electronic mail are passed through the world's networks daily.

It is the age of the computer network, the largest of which is known as the

InterNet.  A complex web of communications inter-linking millions of computers

together -- and this number is at least doubling every year. The computer was

originally designed as a scientific and mathematical tool,  to aid in performing

intense and precise calculations.  However, from the large, sixty square foot

ENIAC (Electronical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) of 1946, to the three

square foot IBM PC of today, their uses have mutated and expanded far beyond

this boundary.  Their almost infinite capacity and lightning speed, which is

increasing annually, and their low cost, which is decreasing annually, has

allowed computers to stabilize at a more personal level, yet retain their

position in mathematical and scientific research1 . They are now being used in

almost every aspect of life, as we know it, today.  The greatest effect of

computers on life at this present time seems to be the InterNet.    What we know

now as the InterNet began in 1969 as a network then named ArpaNet.  ArpaNet,

under control by the pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was

first introduced as an answer to a problem concerning the government question of

how they would communicate during war.  They needed a network with no central

authority, unlike those subsequent to this project.  A main computer controlling

the network would definitely be an immediate target for enemies.  The first test

node of ArpaNet was installed at UCLA in the Fall of 1969.  By December of the

same year, three more nodes were added, and within two years, there was a total

of fifteen nodes within the system.  However, by this time, something seemed to

be changing concerning the information traveling across the nodes.  By 1971,

government employees began to obtain their own personal mail addresses, and the

main traffic over the net shifted from scientific information to personal mail

and gossip.  Mailing lists were used to send mass quantities of mail to hundreds

of people, and the first newsgroup was created for discussing views and opinions

in the science fiction world.  The networks decentralized structure made the

addition of more machines, and the use of different types of machines very

simple.  As computer technology increased, interest in ArpaNet seemed only to

expand.


In 1977, a new method of transmission was put into effect, called TCP/IP.  The

transmission control protocol (TCP) would convert messages into smaller packets

of information at their source, then reassemble them at their destination, while

the InterNet protocol (IP) would control the addressing of these packets to

assure the
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