NCJ Number
87923
Date Published
1978
Length
10 pages
Annotation
An overview of computer-related crime details characteristics of such crimes, environmental and personal influences on the computer criminal, and prevention tactics.
Abstract
The most widespread type of computer crime is financial, involving disbursement fraud, sales manipulation, payroll fraud, and funds transfer. Other types include computer-induced inventory theft, information crime, and vandalism. The computer can be the instrument of the criminal act or simply provide a unique environment for conventional crimes. Many environmental factors affect the individual contemplating computer crime, such as the trend toward centralizing all company data in one large computer system and the uniform design of most data forms. Furthermore, making data changes in computerized records is an invisible process, and the technology making computers reachable by phone has made security codes difficult to protect. Vulnerability to crime is increased by poor security in computer rooms, inadequate separation of duties among staff, and the lack of manual records to backup the computer. Computer crime frequently involves collusion. These criminals often consider all computer information as being in the public domain and feel that stealing from a large anonymous organization is justifiable. While financial need is a strong motivation, many computer crimes are detected by chance, and companies are reluctant to prosecute because of bad publicity. To prevent computer crime, organizations should recruit managers with expertise in computers, allow computer employees the flexibility to experiment with alternative solutions to problems, and reward their achievements. The deterrent of publicity must also be used, with organizations cooperating to acknowledge such crimes and their seriousness. References are included.