NCJ Number
110067
Journal
Security Management Volume: 32 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1988) Pages: 72,74-76,78
Date Published
1988
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Computer crime incidents are recounted and analyzed for future preventive measures.
Abstract
The employees of the 'Calgary Herald' in Alberta, Canada, were plagued with obscenities on their screens, put there by a programmer in retribution for a wronged spouse. One lesson learned was the importance of good management and additional security requirements. In Detroit's income tax refund section, an employee used his high-level system access and his knowledge of the systems' shortcomings to steal $123,000. Tighter mechanical controls and careful administrative steps were taken to avoid similar crimes. Employees of the Control Data Corporation were arrested for crimes facilitated by the computerized purchasing and inventory records. As a result, the company has placed more emphasis on education and management and made improvements in security procedures. Other incidents include young members of a computer club breaking into a variety of European and U.S. corporate and government computers, a woman who destroyed five Air Force computers, and traders and programmers who skimmed profits from a Volkswagen company in West Germany. Inadequate management and computer control systems, security breaches, and system ease of use are cited as causes for these incidents.