Computer Crime In The

1990's
We're being ushered into the digital frontier. It's a cyberland with inc
redible promise and untold dangers. Are we prepared ? It's a battle between mod
ern day computer cops and digital hackers. Essentially just think what is contr
olled by computer systems, virtually everything.
By programming a telephone voice mail to repeat the word yes over and ov
er again a hacker has beaten the system. The hacker of the 1990's is increasingl
y becoming more organized very clear in what they're looking for and very, very
sophisticated in their methods of attack.. As hackers have become more sophistic
ated and more destructive, governments, phone companies and businesses are strug
gling to defend themselves.
Phone Fraud
In North America the telecommunications industry estimates long distance
fraud costs five hundred million perhaps up to a billion every year, the exact
the exact figures are hard to be sure of but in North America alone phone fraud
committed by computer hackers costs three, four maybe even up to five billion do
llars every year. Making an unwitting company pay for long distance calls is the
most popular form of phone fraud today. The first step is to gain access to a p
rivate automated branch exchange known as a "PABX" or "PBX". One of these can be
found in any company with twenty or more employees. A "PABX" is a computer that
manages the phone system including it's voice mail. Once inside a "PABX" a hack
er looks for a phone whose voice mail has not yet been programmed, then the hack
er cracks it's access code and programs it's voice mail account to accept charge
s for long distance calls, until the authorities catch on, not for a few days, h
ackers can use voice mail accounts to make free and untraceable calls to all ove
r the world. The hackers that commit this type of crime are becoming increasingl
y organized. Known as "call cell operators" they setup flyby night storefronts w
ere people off the street can come in and make long distance calls at a large di
scount, for the call cell operators of course the calls cost nothing, by hackin
g into a PABX system they can put all the charges on the victimized companies t
ab. With a set of stolen voice mail access codes known as "good numbers" hackers
can crack into any phone whenever a company disables the phone they're using. I
n some cases call cell operators have run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in
long distance charges, driving businesses and companies straight into bankruptc
y. Hacking into a PABX is not as complicated as some people seem to think. The t
ypical scenario that we find is an individual who has a "demon dialer" hooked up
to their personal home computer at home that doesn't necessarily need to be a h
igh powered machine at all but simply through the connection of a modem into a t
elephone line system. Then this "demon dialer" is programmed to subsequently dia
l with the express purpose of looking for and recording dialtone. A demon dialer
is a software program that automatically calls thousands of phone numbers to fi
nd ones that are connected to computers. A basic hacker tool that can be downloa
ded from the internet. They are extremely easy programs to use. The intention is
to acquire dialtone, that enables the hacker to move freely through the telepho
ne network. It's generally getting more sinister. We are now seeing a criminal e
lement now involved in term of the crimes they commit, the drugs, money launderi
ng etc. These people are very careful they want to hide their call patterns so t
hey'll hire these people to get codes for them so they can dial from several dif
ferent calling locations so they cannot be detected.
The worlds telephone network is a vast maze, there are many places to hi
de but once a hacker is located the phone company and police can track their eve
ry move. The way they keep track is by means of a device called a "DNR" or a dia
l number recorder. This device monitors the dialing patterns of any suspected ha
cker. It lists all the numbers that have been dialed from their location, the du
ration of the telephone call and the time of disconnection. The process of catch
ing a hacker begins at the phone company's central office were thousands of line
s converge to a main frame computer, the technicians can locate the exact line t
hat leads to a suspected hackers phone line by the touch of a button. With the "
DNR" device the "computer police" retrieve the number and also why the call was
made and if it was made for illegal intention they will take action and this per
son can be put in prison for up to five years and be fined for up to $ 7500.00.
The telephone network is a massive electronic network that depends on th
ousands of computer run software programs and all this software in theory can be
reprogrammed for criminal use. The telephone system is in other words a potenti
ally vulnerable system, by cracking the right codes and inputting the correct pa
sswords a hacker can sabotage a switching system for millions of phones, paralyz
ing a city with a few keystrokes.
Security experts say telephone terrorism poses a threat, society hasn't
even begun to fathom ! You have people hacking into systems all the time. There
were groups in the U.S.A in 1993 that shutdown three of the four telephone switc
h stations on the east coast, if they had shutdown the final switch station as w
ell the whole east coast would have been without phones. Things of this nature c
an happen and have happened in the past. Back in the old days you had mechanical
switches doing crossbars, things of that nature. Today all telephone switches a
re all computerized, they're everywhere. With a computer switch if you take the
first word "computer" that's exactly what it is, a switch
being operated by a computer. The computer is connected to a modem, so are you
and all the hackers therefore you too can run the switches.
Our generation is the first to travel within cyberspace, a virtual world
that exists with all the computers that form the global net. For most people to
day cyberspace is still a bewildering and alien place. How computers work and ho
w they affect our lives is still a mystery to all but the experts, but expertise
doesn't necessarily guarantee morality. Originally the word hacker meant a comp
uter enthusiasts but now that the internet has revealed it's potential for destr
uction and profit the hacker has become the outlaw of cyberspace. Not only do ha
ckers commit crimes that cost millions of dollars, they also publicize their ill
egal techniques on the net where they innocent minds can find them and be seduce
d by the allure of power and money. This vast electronic neighborhood of bits an
d bytes has stretched the concepts of law and order. Like handbills stapled to t
elephone polls the internet appears to defy regulation. The subtleties and nuanc
es of this relatively new form to the words "a gray area" and "right and wrong".
Most self described hackers say they have been given a bad name and that they d
eserve more respect. For the most part they say hackers abide by the law, but wh
en they do steal a password or break into a network they are motivated by a help
ing desire for knowledge, not for malicious intent. Teenagers are especially att
racted by the idea of getting something for nothing.
When system managers try to explain to hackers that it is wrong to break
into computer systems there is no point because hackers with the aid of a compu
ter possess tremendous power. They cannot be controlled and they have the abilit
y to break into any computer system they feel like. But suppose one day a hacker
decides to break into a system owned by a hospital and this computer is in char
ge of programming the therapy for a patient there if a hacker inputs the incorre
ct code the therapy can be interfered with and the patient may be seriously hurt
. Even though this wasn't done deliberately. These are the type of circumstance
s that give hackers a bad reputation. Today anyone with a computer and a modem c
an enter millions of computer systems around the world. On the net they say bits
have no boundaries this means a hacker half way around the world can steal pass
words and credit card numbers, break into computer systems and plant crippling v
iruses as easily as if they were just around the corner. The global network allo
ws hackers to reach out and rob distant people with lightning speed.
If cyberspace is a type of community, a giant neighborhood made up of ne
tworked computer users around the world, then it seems natural that many element
s of traditional society can be found taking shape as bits and bytes. With elect
ronic commerce comes electronic merchants, plugged-in educators provide networke
d education, and doctors meet with patients in offices on-line. IT should come a
s no surprise that there are also cybercriminals committing cybercrimes.
 As an unregulated hodgepodge of corporations, individuals, governments,
educational institutions, and other organizations that have agreed in principle
to use a standard set of communication protocols, the internet is wide open to e
xploitation. There are no sheriffs on the information highway waiting to zap pot
ential offenders with a radar gun or search for weapons if someone looks suspici
ous. By almost all accounts, this lack of "law enforcement" leaves net users to
regulate each other according to the reigningnorms of the moment. Community sta
ndards in cyberspace appear to be vastly different from the standards found at t
he corner of Markham and Lawrence. Unfortunately, cyberspace is also a virtual t
ourist trap where faceless, nameless con artists can work the crowds.
Mimicking real life, crimes and criminals come in all varieties on the i
nternet. The FBI's National Computer Squad is dedicated to detecting and prevent
ing all types of computer -related crimes. Some issues being carefully studied b
y everyone from the net veterans and law enforcement agencies to radical crimes
include:
Computer Network Break-Ins
Using software tools installed on a computer in a remote location, hacke
rs can break into any computer systems to steal data, plant viruses or trojan ho
rses, or work mischief of a less serious sort by changing user names or password
s. Network intrusions have been made illegal by the U.S. federal government, but
detection and enforcement are difficult.
Industrial Espionage
Corporations, like governments, love to spy on the enemy. Networked syst
ems provide new opportunities for this , as hackers-for-hire retrieve informatio
n about product development and marketing strategies, rarely leaving behind any
evidence of the theft. Not only is tracing the criminal labor-intensive, convict
ions are hard to obtain when laws are not written with electronic theft in mind.
Software Piracy
According to estimates by U.S. Software Publisher's Association, as much
as $7.5 billion of American software may be illegally copied and distributed wo
rldwide. These copies work as well as the originals, and sell for significantly
less money. Piracy is relatively easy, and only the largest rings of distributor
s are usually to serve hard jail time when prisons are overcrowded with people c
onvicted of more serious crimes.
Child Pornography
This is one crime that is clearly illegal, both on and off the internet.
Crackdowns may catch some offenders, but there are still ways to acquire images
of children in varying stages of dress and performing a variety of sexual acts.
Legally speaking, people who provide access to child porn face the same charges
whether the images are digital or on a piece of paper. Trials of network users
arrested in a recent FBI bust may challenge the validity of those laws as they a
pply to online services.
Mail Bombings
Software can be written that will instruct a computer to do almost anyth
ing, and terrorism has hit the internet in the form of mail bombings. By instruc
ting a computer to repeatedly send mail (email) to a specified person's email ad
dress, the cybercriminal can overwhelm the recipient's personal account and pote
ntially shut down entire systems. This may not be illegal , but it is certainly
disruptive.
Password Sniffers
Password sniffers are programs that monitor and record the name and pass
word of network users as they log in, jeopardizing security at a site. Whoever i
nstalls the sniffer can then impersonate an authorized user and log in to access
restricted documents. Laws are not yet up to adequately prosecute a person for
impersonating another person on-line, but laws designed to prevent unauthorized
access to information may be effective in apprehending hackers using sniffer pro
grams. The Wall Street Journal suggest in recent reports that hackers may have s
niffed out passwords used by members of America On-line, a service with more tha
n 3.5 million subscribers. If the reports are accurate, even the president of th
e service found his account security jeopardized.
Spoofing
Spoofing is the act of disguising one computer to electronically "look" like ano
ther computer in order to gain access to a system that would normally be restric
ted. Legally, this can be handles in the same manner as password sniffers, but t
he law will have to change if spoofing is going to be addressed with more than a
quick fix solution. Spoofing was used to access valuable documents stored on a
computer belonging to security expert Tsutomu Shimomura (security expert of Nint
endo U.S.A)
Credit Card Fraud
The U.S secret service believes that half a billion dollars may be lost
annually by customers who have credit card and calling card numbers stolen from
on-line databases. Security measures are improving and traditional methods of la
w enforcement seem to be sufficient for prosecuting the thieves of such informat
ion. Bulletin boards and other on-line services are frequent targets for hackers
who want to access large databases or credit card information. Such attacks usu
ally result in the implementation of stronger security systems.
Since there is no single widely-used definition of computer-related crim
e, computer network users and law enforcement officials most distinguish between
illegal or deliberate network abuse versus behavior that is merely annoying. Le
gal systems everywhere are busily studying ways of dealing with crimes and crimi
nals on the internet.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PHONE FRAUD..........................................Pg1
NETWORK BREAK-INS...........................Pg6
INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE......................Pg7
SOFTWARE PIRACY................................Pg7
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY..........................Pg7
MAIL BOMBING.......................................Pg8
PASSWORD SNIFFING............................Pg8
SPOOFING.................................................Pg9
CREDIT CARD FRAUD...........................Pg9