Threat Of Computer Crime On Government And Business

10 Pages 2572 Words

chnological advancements like the Internet clearly threaten to leave the law behind.
Efforts to Stop Computer Crime
Since the Internet's strength and purpose is facilitation of communications, traditional crimes such as conspiracy, solicitation, securities fraud, and even espionage can be committed via the Internet. Since so many different types of crimes can be committed with computers—especially on the Internet—it is difficult to develop laws against computer crime. Law enforcement agencies typically fit computer crime prosecutions into existing laws that were drafted without computers in mind.
Laws Used To Fight Computer Crime
The first federal computer crime statute was the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984. The law effectively states that it is a crime to knowingly access a computer without authorization, and use unauthorized access to obtain defense, foreign relations, financial information, or atomic secrets.13 It is also a criminal offense to use a computer to commit fraud, trespass, transmit programs, information, calls or commands that intentionally cause damage to a protected computer. . Punishments for the foregoing acts include substantial fines and long jail sentences.
In 1986, Congress also passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA). This updated the Federal Wiretap Act to apply to the illegal interception of electronic (i.e., computer) communications or the intentional, unauthorized access of electronically stored data. In the eight years since the enactment of ECPA, society's patterns of using electronic communications technology have changed dramatically. Millions of people now have electronic-mail addresses. Business, nonprofit organizations and political groups conduct their work over the Internet.22
In addition, on October 11, 1996, the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 was signed into law.39 The intent of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 is to crack down on trade secret misapp...