COMPUTER CRIME AND ABUSE
New technologies always create new opportunities for crime. It is rather unfortunate that as one way is discovered and blocked, the criminals discover other means almost immediately and even more complicated once. Some common criminal offences of ICT include:
- Hacking,
- Theft of money
- Theft of data
- Fraud on the Internet
- Viruses
Hacking: unauthorised access to data held on a computer system. Usually, the offender uses some fraudulent means to get the access credentials.
Theft of money: This act is common with credit cards. Either the card is stolen from the owner or the criminal gets the card details from a credit card receipt. He can the use the details to order goods over the phone or through the Internet.
Theft of data: Imagine the precaution we put in place during calculation of end of term or course exams, copy work during exams and so on. Data can be stolen by illegally accessing it or by stealing the computer on which the data is stored.
Fraud on the Internet: Online trading is fast growing and gaining grounds especially in developed countries. The nature of trading is such that a company advertises its goods on the Internet and any interested buyer makes payments before the goods are delivered. It is a criminal offence for anyone to advertise goods on the Internet that he does not have and to receive payments for goods that cannot be delivered.
Viruses: these are small programs, written by programmers with a definite intention to cause damage to computer files or cause inconvenience and annoyance to computer users.
The following activities are also considered criminal offences:
- Unauthorised access to computer programs or data
- Unauthorised access with a further criminal intent
- Unauthorised modification of computer materials like programs, data etc
- Copy software
- Run pirated software
- Transmit software over a telecommunications line(indirect copying)
ETHICS AND COMPUTING
Ethics is the science of morals; i.e the study of how to make choices between right and wrong. Respecting the code of ethics profession is very imperative. The computing profession is not an exception. Codes of ethics vary from profession to profession. But one thing common is that there is often not a straight choice between right and wrong for example, it is wrong to lie but what crime does one commit if you lie to a friend that you look good?
Various professional bodies like British Computer Society (BCS) and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) have produced their own code of ethics and professional conduct, featuring:
- Respect the privacy of others
- Honour confidentiality
- Contribute to society and human well-being
- Avoid harm to others
- Be honest and trustworthy
- Be fair and take action not to discriminate
- Honour property rights including copyrights
- Give proper credit for intellectual property
