Computer crimes

Computers, with all the benefits they offer, also unfortunately can enable cybercrime, or computer crime. Of course, the computers and their electronic components have always been the targets of thieves. But with the decreasing cost of hardware and the increasing value of software and information, criminals have begun to concentrate on the latter. Law-enforcement agencies throughout the world have had to learn ways to combat computer crime.

Computer software is often much more expensive than the computer hardware that it runs on. Software companies and their programmers can spend many years and millions of dollars developing their programs. But after the programs are completed, they are stored on relatively inexpensive media such as CD-ROMs that can be easily copied. A software pirate is a person or a company that uses a copy of a program that was not purchased legitimately. The software industry loses billions of dollars each year to piracy.

Digital piracy is also a growing problem for the music industry. Worldwide, audio CD sales had decreased by more than 10 percent at the beginning of the 21st century as a result of people illegally sharing electronic (MP3) music files over the Internet.

In an effort to sabotage other people's computers, malevolent computer programmers (sometimes called hackers) create software that can manipulate or destroy another computer's programs or data. The most common of such malicious programs are called viruses. A computer virus infects, or secretly runs on, a computer to cause some mischief or damage. It can attach itself to a legitimate program, often in the computer's operating system, and then copy itself onto other programs with which it comes in contact. Worms are self-contained programs that enter a computer and generate their own commands. Viruses and worms can spread from one computer to another by way of exchanged disks, over local area networks, or over the Internet. If undetected, they may be powerful enough to cause computer systems to crash or even shut down large portions of the Internet.

Some criminals use the Internet or other computer networks to break into a particular computer system in order to access forbidden information or to cause some damage. Such users also are called hackers. Many companies and organizations that have networked computers use various security measures, such as computers serving as firewalls, to protect their computers from illegitimate access. But many hackers are familiar with these measures and know how to get around them.

Some hackers are bent on sabotage, and others are interested in stealing information from the computers they break into. Many hackers, however, do it simply for the challenge of gaining access to otherwise inaccessible information. Computers at government and military institutions are therefore often targets.

Another motivation for criminals to break into government and corporate databases is identity theft—the unauthorized use of an individual's personal information, such as social security number and credit card account numbers. This information might be used for theft or to conceal the criminal's own identity.

Criminals can log into the Internet just like everyone else, and they can commit crimes against other people who also are logged in. They may give out false information to encourage others to send them money or personal information. They may also be predators who use the anonymity afforded by chat rooms and discussion groups to lure children into meeting them in person.

By the early 21st century, unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail, called spam, was thought to account for at least half of all e-mail messages sent each day. Spam became increasingly disruptive around the world, clogging up computer systems and often exposing users to advertisements for pornography. In many areas governments passed new laws or began enforcing existing ones that restricted the sending of unsolicited e-mail. Many computer users and organizations run filtering software to help keep unwanted messages from flooding their inboxes.

2. Выберите слова из списка и заполните таблицу, чтобы получились словосочетания. Переведите словосочетания на русский язык.

to combat, to develop, to purchase, to share, local area, identity, to log into, to commit, personal, chat, commercial, to pass.

3. Заполните таблицу и на ее основе расскажите о разных видах компьютерных преступлений.

Заголовки для таблицы: viruses, worms, illegitimate access, stealing information, identity theft, fraud, spam.