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Computer crime ranges from theft to computer fraud.
Computers are used to steal not only money but even goods,
information, and computer resources.
Computer crime used to defraud computer-based systems.
Here are some examples.
In 1992 a phone hacker used a dial-in maintenance line to crack the
computerized phone system of a Detroit newspaper publisher.
The hacker cracked the system's administrator password and set
up scores of voice mailboxes for friends and associates who dialed in
on the publisher's toll-free number. Fortunately, the scam caused
the publisher only a few hundred dollars- a small sum when compared
with the $1.4 million worth of illegal long-distance, calls billed
against one national manufacturing firm in a single weekend.
( Beekman, G. (2000). Theft by Computer: Computer Confluence, pp.281.)
Clerks at an upscale department store erased the accounts of
major customers by listing those customers as bankrupt.
The customers paid the clerks 10 percent of the $ 33 million they
saved by not having to repay their debts.Since the "bankruptcies' were
listed only in the store's computers, they did not hurt
the suspicious transaction.
( Beekman, G. (2000). Theft by Computer: Computer Confluence, pp.281.)
A 17-year-old high school student tapped into an AT&T computer and
stole more than $1 million worth of software.
(Long, L. et al, ( 1998) . Computer Crime :
Introduction to Computers and Information Systems, pp. AT 115)
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