Wicked play on the Internet

(First of two parts)

The opportunities for wicked play increase as the computer wends its way into our daily lives. Crimes against property are so diverse, in fact, so many. With the addition of Internet or computer crimes, they have become multitudinous. These crimes involve a lot of plotting and brainpower in order to consummate the "perfect" crime. Beating the system is such a seductive come-on.

I had dinner with an American friend of mine, Prof. Henry Langley, in early January. He is extremely knowledgeable about these matters. He put it very well when he said that it’s simply a matter of "ROI" (return on investments). US statistics have shown, he said, that the average armed robbery in America now nets about US$30,000; the average embezzlement about three times more ($90,000). The average computer-related crime hauls in $800,000. These are not spectacular amounts, just average amounts.

Those perpetrators of "gun-and-mask" crimes that are unsuccessful may find themselves serving about 10 years in prison, while their white-collar, computer-savvy counterparts become consultants later on, or don’t get caught in the first place.

Because of the very fast pace of communications and computer technology, formal studies on the proper stance for frisking a computer always get caught up in the predicament of obsolescence. The pace is never-ending.

According to my friend, due to lack of devices, only two million Americans were in a position to be tempted by computer crimes in 1975; by 1985, that figure had skyrocketed to 50 million. He did not give me any recent statistics, but told me nevertheless that succeeding years inflated the amount to unbelievable proportions. When I accompanied him to the airport on his way back home to Washington, D.C., he said that the operatives in the airport facility alone are targets for what could be violent computer crimes. We did not go into specifics but we certainly understood each other, and everyone, of course, in this day and age, knows this.

It is such an irony that it is almost impossible to detect computer theft except through the use of computers or the frail-ties of the crime’s perpetrators. Take the case of IBM employee Jerry Dale Thompson, who embezzled, sometime in the Eighties, $210,000 from his employer, IBM. It took two and a half years for the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and the FBI to track down Thompson. His modus operandi way back in 1984 was so simple. He deposited checks from customers into his own account, then used IBM computers to alter IBM’s home-office books to cover the fraud. To uncover such a simple operation, the authorities took two and a half years. And this happened in Canada, not the Philippines.

Whether it’s the mastermind behind a $20-billion Equity Trading fraud, or the four Manhattan kids aged 11 to 13 whose electronic joyride through the data banks of a Canadian cement company eradicated 10 million bits of data, or our very own brilliant Filipino youngster whose hacking prowess is hard to forget, there is always, I guess, a "super thrill" (to use youthful lingo) in successfully beating the system.

Internet crimes that relate to a computer crime usually require breaking into a computer system and include those crimes in which knowledge of a computer system is essential to commit the crime.

Internet fraud crimes usually involve stealing e-data such as credit card numbers, or transferring funds to a numbered account in another country. The remaining Internet crimes include all other varieties such as infringement, harassment, treason, industrial espionage, and defamation, which includes libel and related offenses, bearing in mind that the Internet is fundamentally an "open system."

In its strict sense, therefore, Internet crimes are related to one of the following transactions: computer attacks using the Internet; use of the Internet to alter, damage, delete, or destroy e-data or e-programs; use of the Internet for embezzlement or fraud; use of the Internet to trespass or gain unauthorized access; use of the Internet for unauthorized copying; use of the Internet to prevent others from lawfully using the Internet or services thereon ("denial of service"); use of the Internet to contaminate e-programs, typically using "viruses" and "worms"; and use of the Internet to view confidential, personal information.

Did I say "wicked play" on the Internet? You’d better believe it and be warned… there are a lot more in the process of conception.

(To be continued)

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Thanks for your e-mails sent to jtl@pldtdsl.net.