The Internet and crime

New technology brings with it new crimes and as a result some governments are setting up special units to deal with Internet crime.

A major concern is Internet fraud. For example, phishing [phishing: an attempt to gain personal information about someone by way of deception, eg sending an email pretending to from their bank asking them for their bank account no. ] scams, identity theft [identity theft: when the identity of an individual is assumed by someone else in order to profit, financially or otherwise ] and denial of service attacks are common techniques used by criminals today.

Other concerns surround:

• the interception of credit card details and transactions online
• hacking [hacking: to gain unauthorised access to a computer ] into personal, private files with criminal intent
• fraudulent websites [website: a web page or group of web pages hosted on one web server and viewed in a web browser ] taking credit card details from customers
• the spreading of viruses [virus: a small program written to cause harm to a computer ] via the Internet

Internet security

There are a number of ways the public are made to feel safer when using the Internet:

• encryption [encryption: information that is encrypted is unreadable unless it is decrypted using the encryption key ] of sensitive data [data: information without context, eg a list of students with numbers beside their names is data, when it's made clear that those numbers represent their placing in a 100 metre race, the data becomes information ], making it unreadable until it reaches its destination and is decrypted
• passwords and access level restrictions
• firewalls (protection from hackers)
• anti-virus [anti-virus: anti-virus software scans all forms of storage devices for viruses and, if found, attempts to remove them ] software [software: a general term used to describe an application or a program ]
• tough penalties for offenders under the Computer Misuse Act [Computer Misuse Act 1990: defines and criminalises a number of offenses involving the use of a computer, eg unauthorised access to computer systems ]