Computer Crimes

Categories of Computer Crime
Name
Institution Affiliation
The computer crime categories include:
The computer as a target: this mainly deals with the computer as the main aim of the crime. It means that the computer is being targeted by the criminal act (Clough, 2015). The computer usually becomes the target when the criminal aims at stealing data from the computer, alter information in the computer or in case the criminal wants to vandalize that particular computer (Taylor, Caeti, Loper, Fritsch & Liederbach, 2007). An example of such crime includes the intellectual property theft like the marketing information of a given business.
The other category is where the computer is being used as an instrument of crime. Here the computer is being used to do the crime itself such as theft, harassment, threats or any form of fraud (“Computer Crime: Computer as an Instrument of Crime”, 2009). An example of this form of crime is when an individual uses his cell phone to electronically give threats to someone else.
When a computer is used as an incident of crime, it means that the computer has acted as a facilitating factor of the crime that has occurred even though it was not used primarily as an instrument that causes that particular crime (Taylor, Caeti, Loper, Fritsch & Liederbach, 2007). The computer is only used to catalyze the crime. For example, the computer can be used to lure someone or a group of people to get involved in great crimes that they did not intend to do. And also children can use a computer to watch pornography.

The other category is where crimes are associated with computers’ prevalence. This means that the whole crime process is aiming at the industry (Taylor, Caeti, Loper, Fritsch & Liederbach, 2007). The crime has several ways in which it can be accomplished. The crime can target any level in the organization such as the customers who might be trying to avoid the use of the system. Examples of such crime include the intellectual property, counterfeiting money, and any other offenses.
References
Clough, J. (2015). Computer as target. Principles Of Cybercrime, 31-55. doi: 10.1017/cbo9781139540803.003
Computer Crime: Computer as an Instrument of Crime. (2009). Retrieved from https://www.nw3c.org/docs/research/computer-crime-computer-as-an-instrument-of-crime.pdf?sfvrsn=6?Taylor, R., Caeti, T., Loper, D., Fritsch, E., & Liederbach, J. (2007). Digital Crime and Digital Terrorism, 3(1), 1-400.