NCJ Number
183760
Date Published
2000
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This report examines trends in Information Technology (IT) related crime in Sweden.
Abstract
Among enterprises, administrations, municipalities, and county councils with more than 50 employees, the amount of IT-related crime has doubled since 1995-1996. This means that every fourth organization has been victimized. The most prominent offenses and incidents concerned computer viruses, external and internal computer intrusion, data manipulation, information theft and fraud. More than half of the IT incidents reported to the police (329 of 608) during 1997 and 1998 concerned fraud via the Internet, most commonly using another person’s Internet subscription for free surfing and buying through the Internet using another person’s credit card. Other offenses included threats and harassment, inflicting damage and violations of the law on computerized data and protection of personal integrity. One in a hundred Internet subscribers had been threatened or harassed in their e-mail and five of every hundred had come across child pornography on the Net. The report discusses perpetrators, security and damage and the role of the criminal justice system.