Cybercrime is a term used broadly to describe activity in which computers or networks are a tool, a target, or a place of criminal activity. These categories are not exclusive and many activities can be characterized as falling in one or more categories. The tower of a personal computer. ... For the scientific and engineering discipline studying computer networks, see Computer networking. ...

Overview

Although the term cybercrime is usually restricted to describing criminal activity in which the computer or network is an essential part of the crime, this term is also used to include traditional crimes in which computers or networks are used to enable the illicit activity.

Examples of cybercrime in which the computer or network is a tool of the criminal activity include spamming and criminal copyright crimes, particularly those facilitated through peer-to-peer networks.

Examples of cybercrime in which the computer or network is a target of criminal activity include unauthorized access (i.e, defeating access controls), malicious code, and denial-of-service attacks.

Examples of cybercrime in which the computer or network is a place of criminal activity include theft of service (in particular, telecom fraud) and certain financial frauds.

Finally, examples of traditional crimes facilitated through the use of computers or networks include Nigerian 419 or other gullibility or social engineering frauds (e.g.,[ hacking ] "phishing"), identity theft, child pornography, online gambling, securities fraud, etc. Cyberstalking is an example of a traditional crime -- harassment -- that has taken a new form when facilitated through computer networks.

Additionally, certain other information crimes, including trade secret theft and industrial or economic espionage, are sometimes considered cybercrimes when computers or networks are involved. A KMail folder full of spam emails collected over a few days. ... Not to be confused with copywriting. ... A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ... Access control is the ability to permit or deny the use of something by someone. ... It has been suggested that Grayware be merged into this article or section. ... A denial-of-service attack (also, DoS attack) is an attack on a computer system or network that causes a loss of service to users, typically the loss of network connectivity and services by consuming the bandwidth of the victim network or overloading the computational resources of the victim system. ... It has been suggested that Evan Doorbell be merged into this article or section. ... Social engineering has several meanings: Social engineering (political science) Social engineering (computer security) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... This phishing attempt, disguised as an official email from a (fictional) bank, attempts to trick the banks members into giving away their account information by confirming it at the phishers linked website. ... Identity theft is a term first appearing in U.S. literature in the 1990s, leading to the drafting of the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. ... Child pornography refers to pornographic material depicting children. ... Online gambling is a general term for gambling using the Internet. ... For a discussion of the legal actions for securities fraud in the United States under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and SEC Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, see the Wiki entry for the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. ... Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone. ... A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information used by a business to obtain an advantage over competitors within the same industry or profession. ... The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. §§ 1831-1839) makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. ...

Cybercrime in the context of national security may involve hacktivism (online activity intended to influence policy), traditional espionage, or information warfare and related activities. Hacktivism (from hack and activism) is often understood as the writing of code, or otherwise manipulating bits, to promote political ideology - promoting expressive politics, free speech, human rights, or information ethics. ... Spy and Secret agent redirect here. ... Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. ...

Another way to define cybercrime is simply as criminal activity involving the information technology infrastructure, including illegal access (unauthorized access), illegal interception (by technical means of non-public transmissions of computer data to, from or within a computer system), data interference (unauthorized damaging, deletion, deterioration, alteration or suppression of computer data), systems interference (interfering with the functioning of a computer system by inputting, transmitting, damaging, deleting, deteriorating, altering or suppressing computer data), misuse of devices, forgery (ID theft), and electronic fraud.

External links

Academic links

• Cybercrimes.net and Cyb3rCrim3.org Susan W. Brenner
• Cybercrime - High Tech crime JISC Legal Information Service
• Criminal Justice Resources - Cybercrime
• Cybercrime NYLS
• Cybercrime Law
• Council of Europe - Draft Convention on cyber-crime (Draft N° 27)
• Computer Crime Research Center

Government resources

• Cybercrime.gov US Department of Justice CCIPS
• US CERT United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)
• FBI Cyber Investigations Home Page
• US Secret Service Computer Fraud
• On Guard OnGuardOnline.gov
• ID Theft
• FindLaw Computer Crime
• RCMP Computer Crime Prevention Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center

Commercial resources

• Annual e-Crime Conference : International Conference for Public & Private Security Specialists
• Cybercrime.com The Definitive Domain for Cybercrime

Further reading

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Information Economy