Historical background

In the early decades of modern information technology (IT), computer crimes were largely
committed by individual disgruntled and dishonest employees. Physical damage to computer
systems was a prominent threat until the 1980s. Criminals often used authorized access to subvert
security systems as they modified data for financial gain or destroyed data for revenge. Early attacks
on telecommunications systems in the 1960s led to subversion of the long-distance phone systems
for amusement and for theft of services. As telecommunications technology spread throughout the
IT world, hobbyists with criminal tendencies learned to penetrate systems and networks.
Programmers in the 1980s began writing malicious software, including self-replicating programs, to
interfere with personal computers. As the Internet increased access to increasing numbers of
systems worldwide, criminals used unauthorized access to poorly protected systems for vandalism,
political action and financial gain. As the 1990s progressed, financial crime using penetration and
subversion of computer systems increased. The types of malware shifted during the 1990s, taking
advantage of new vulnerabilities and dying out as operating systems were strengthened, only to
succumb to new attack vectors. Illegitimate applications of e-mail grew rapidly from the mid-1990s
onward, generating torrents of unsolicited commercial and fraudulent e-mail. In 1960-1970 Early
computer crimes often involved physical damage to computer systems and subversion of the long-
distance telephone networks. In February 1969, the largest student riot in Canada was set off when
police were called in to put an end to a student occupation of several floors of the Hall Building. The
students had been protesting against a professor accused of racism, and when the police came in, a
fire broke out and computer data and university property were destroyed. The damages totalled $2
million, and 97 people were arrested. Thomas Whiteside catalogued a litany of early physical attacks
on computer systems in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1968, Olympia, WA: an IBM 1401 in the state is shot
twice by a pistol toting intruder. In 1970, University of Wisconsin: bomb kills one and injures three
people and destroys $16 million of computer data stored on site. In 1970, Fresno State College:
Molotov cocktail causes $1 million damage to computer system. In 1970, New York University:
radical students place fire-bombs on top of Atomic Energy Commission computer in attempt to free
a jailed Black Panther. In 1972, Johannesburg, South Africa: municipal computer dented by four
bullets fired through a window in 1972, New York: magnetic core in. Honeywell computer attacked
by someone with a sharp instrument, causing $589,000 of damage. In 1973, Melbourne, Australia:
anti-war protesters shoot American firm ‘s computer with double-barrelled shotgun. In 1974,
Charlotte, NC: Charlotte Liberty Mutual Life Insurance Company computer shot by a frustrated
operator.

The incidents of physical abuse of computer systems did not stop as other forms of computer crime
increased. For example, in 2001, News Scan editors5 summarized a report from Wired Magazine as
follows:

A survey by British PC maker Nova tech, intended to take a light-hearted look at techno-glitches,
instead revealed the darker side of computing. One in every four computers has been physically
assaulted by its owner, according to the 4,200 respondents.6 In April 2003, the National Information
Protection Centre and Department of Homeland Security reported:

Nothing brings a network to a halt more easily and quickly than physical damage. Yet as data
transmission becomes the lifeblood of Corporate America, most big companies haven ‘t performed
due diligence to determine how damage-proof their data lifelines really are. Only 20% of midsize and
large companies have seriously sussed out what happens to their data connections after they go
beyond the company firewall, says Peter Salus of Matrix Net Systems, a network-optimization
company based in Austin.

Definitions of Cyber Crime and Social Security

Social Security
The comprehensive federal program of benefits providing workers and their dependents with
retirement income, disability income, and other payments. The Social security tax is used to
pay for the program.

Cyber Crime

1) Cybercrime is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. This includes
anything from downloading illegal music files to stealing millions of dollars from online
bank accounts. Cybercrime also includes non-monetary offenses, such as creating and
distributing viruses on other computers or posting confidential business information on the
Internet.

2) Cybercrime encompasses any criminal act dealing with computers and networks (called
hacking). Additionally, cybercrime also includes traditional crimes conducted through the
Internet. For example; hate crimes, telemarketing and Internet fraud, identity theft, and credit
card account thefts are considered to be cybercrimes when the illegal activities are committed
through the use of a computer and the Internet.