Introduction

Over the last half century, computer systems have changed out of all recognition. In 1943, Thomas Watson (Chairman of IBM) said "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

Today's computers are more powerful, smaller, cheaper, and more user-friendly. As they have improved, computers have proliferated in our society, our businesses, and our personal lives. Most modern businesses and governments depend on their computer systems to support their operations, from personnel files to financial management and everything in between.

Initially, computers that were used to support business and government processes were backed up with hard copies. If the computer was unavailable, the hard copies were used and everyone went back to manual forms and processes. This would happen with a degree of frequent regularity

In today's environment, most businesses and government processes could not survive without the computer - especially email or totally web based businesses.

Computers have become the mainstay of business and government processes. Business has been using them for years and in most major countries (i.e. G8 and similar) there are drives towards electronic or joined up government. This is to allow the people to access government services from their desktop in their own home.

Without computers, entire businesses and government operations would almost cease to function.

This proliferation of cheap, powerful, user-friendly computers has enabled more and more people to use them and, more importantly, rely on them as part of their normal way of life. As businesses, government agencies, and individuals continue to rely on them more and more, so do the criminals.

They use computers to support their illegal operations. Computer crimes and frauds are increasing.They will no doubt continue to increase as more computers are networked internationally, thus giving global access to computer criminals.

The 2006 Computer Crime and Security Survey, conducted by the Computer Security Institute in conjunction with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's International Computer Crime Squad [CSI/FBI 2006][i], showed an alarmingly high number of businesses reporting difficulties with computer and Internet fraud. Among the findings:

Of the organisations who acknowledged financial losses due to computer breaches, many could not quantify the losses.

·         65% detected computer viri;

·         48% reported between one and five security incidents if the year

·         42% reported incidents that originated from sources within the organisation;

·         32% of the respondents experienced incidents of unauthorized use of their computer systems during the last year;

·         47% reported theft of laptop computers and mobile devices;

In the area of e-commerce:

All of the respondents experienced some sort of website incidents:

·         9% said they had experienced theft of proprietary information;

·         6% reported website defacement;

·         9% were victims of financial fraud.

·         3% were victims of sabotage

Losses due to computer security breaches totalled over US$ 52 million in 2006, a figure that is down 30% from the over US$ 141 million reported in 2004.. It must be noted, however that these figures relate just to the 313 respondents that advised the CSI / FBI survey of their results, and not all companies in the US. It was distributed to 5,000 companies in January 2006 for response, showing a return rate of 6%.

Unlike traditional fraud cases, computer fraud can be difficult for the fraud examiner because they:

·         Lack a traditional paper audit trail;

·         Require an understanding of the technology used to commit the crime;

·         Usually require an understanding of the technology of the victim computer;

·         Very often require the use of one or more specialists to assist the fraud examiner, even when the fraud examiner is computer literate.

Computer crime is most often thought of as a crime that is committed with the aid of a computer. Yet the computer has various roles in high tech crime, both as a tool and a target. According to Donn Parker [Parker 2000][ii] the function of the computer in crime is fourfold, it serves as:

·         an object;

·         a subject;

·         a tool;

·         a symbol.

Computer as an Object - Computers and network systems are themselves often objects or targets of crime, subject to physical sabotage, theft, or destruction of information.

Computer as a Subject - Computers are the direct subjects of crime "when they are the environment in which technologists commit crimes." This category includes virus attacks.

Computer as a Tool - Obviously, computers are used as the means to commit crime, whether embezzlement, theft of proprietary information, or hacking.

Computer as a Symbol - Computers lend fraudsters an air of credibility and are often used to deceive victims into investment and pyramid schemes.

In these four capacities, common computer crimes include:

·         Cellular telephone fraud;

·         Data alteration;

·         Data destruction and sabotage;

·         Data extortion;

·         Data theft;

·         Desktop counterfeiting;

·         Disclosure of confidential data;

·         Electronic letter bombing;

·         Identity theft;

·         Internet consumer fraud;

·         PBX fraud;

·         Reading another person's e-mail without permission;

·         Sale of proprietary data;

·         Software piracy;

·         Stolen long-distance calling cards;

·         Unauthorised access and entry to systems and information;

·         Voice mail fraud.