Growth of cybercrime and how_society can deal with it

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Jessica White

The Growth of Cyber Crime and How Society Can Deal With It

In this essay, I will be looking at the Computer Misuse Act 1990, the effects of cybercrime, how cybercrime can be prevented and I will be discussing some real life stories that have been caused by cybercrime.

ICT has developed dramatically over the last few years.  Computers and the internet have now become a personal essential with almost 800 million computers in the UK. Internet facilities have also being developing over the recent years. At large the development of ICT has mainly had a positive effect on society; however, the development of ICT also has a negative side. As ICT has been developing, so has Cyber Crime.

In 1990, the government enforced the Computer Misuse Act 1990. This meant that any one who:

  • Planted or transferred viruses onto computers systems with malicious intent (e.g. causing serious damage to software/ programs/ data…)
  • Carry’s out unauthorised work or hacks into another ICT system in order to view or alter the information on an organisations computers
  • Commits various frauds using a computer

Can face a hefty sentence or fine. There are three different sections to the computer misuse act, Section 1:

  • A person uses a computer with intent to get access to any data or programs held on the computer
  • The area the person intends to access is unauthorised and they are fully aware of this

Section 2:

A person will be found guilty if they do anything within section 1 with intent to commit a further offence such as blackmail, theft of any other offence. These offences have a minimum penalty of at least 5 years. The person will also be guilty if they have an accomplice/get someone else to commit the offences for them.

Section 3:

The maximum sentence is 5 years. A person will be guilty if they:

  • Disrupt the operation of a computer system
  • Disrupt or prevent access to any programs or data
  • Disrupt the functionality of any program or the reliability of any data

Although the Computer Misuse Act 1990 is in place, there is a vast amount of cyber criminals out there who don’t take any notice and are prepared to take the risk of being found guilty and sentenced. The above information was obtained from (Doyle, 2008) Cybercrime has recently become one of the top UK threats. (News, Cyber Attacks and Terrorism head threats facing UK, 2010)

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The most common form of cyber crime is theft (Prazmilanisty, 2010). More and more people are purchasing on-line and entering their card details. Hackers can then gain access to these details through a number of methods. The most common method is spyware. A person will receive an e-mail with an attachment. This e-mail will usually look quite genuine. In most cases, the attachment will contain spyware which will be disguised as a word document… Once this spyware has been installed on the computer, the hacker who sent the e-mail will be able to see all the keystrokes that have ...

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