Great technological advances in our time have put a lot more pressure on contemporary law enforcement. Unlike the past decades, criminals and lawbreakers are no longer restricted to town robberies, local gang wars, interstate drug trafficking, and other geographically based crimes. Due to many open opportunities being presented by modern technology, crime has now expanded to an international and virtual scale, and the difficulty of tracing culprits has consequently increased dramatically. Fingerprints, blood samples, and dental records seem hard to acquire (and even irrelevant to the investigation) from technologically based crime scenes, such as hacked networks and virus infected websites. Because of the reasons mentioned above, crime investigation, detection and prosecution has been harder than ever. The only way to lessen and suppress technology based crime is to respond with technology based investigative methods as well.
The difficulty of resolving technology based crime arises from its broad scope. For example, it is very hard to define a crime committed online. Lots of new violations are being made everyday, ranging from invasion of privacy to terrorism. It is not easy to set standard measures to prevent these crimes, much more solve cases and prosecute the perpetrators. Thus, technology based crime is one of the hardest challenges being faced by the crime commission in these modern times.
Internet Hacking
This is one area of technology based crime that needs to be given much concern. In majority of cases, successful hacking (breaking through secure computer networks) cost an awful amount of money and property damage to the victims. Rast reports that in one (specific) case, 26,000 credit card numbers were stolen and in another case damage was estimated at $3 million. Clearly, hacking should not be taken lightly but dealt with through concentrated means and to the fullest extent of the law. There are many ways and means by which hackers perform their crimes. Some do it on a small scale by opening other peoples emails or breaking through secure office networks, while some hack on a wide scale by stealing passwords of commercial sites and attacking government institutions such as the Pentagon and the FBI itself.
Many hackers have been prosecuted and convicted to the maximum degree possible, and surprisingly, lots of these hackers were relatively younger than other criminals. For example, Fragomeni documents the prosecution of a 15 year old computer whiz who tried to fraudulently (use) a computer system with intent to gain unlawful access to password files, route access, and Internet access from the U.S. military. The young boy, whose name was hidden because of juvenile age, pleaded guilty and later suffered the consequence of his crime. Online Fraud and Scamming
This is another area that modern law enforcers need to focus on. Under this category of technology based crime, the perpetrators usually assume fictitious names, send mass email to hundreds or thousands of innocent recipients, and by means of manipulative wording backed up by fraudulent documents, successfully convince the victims to pay money or reveal vital personal information. Here's an example of a Nigerian 419 scam letter: Frequently, online frauds and scams are performed by people who work offshore, making it hard for law enforcers to trace them and deal with them according to American laws.
One example of this type of crime is the popular Nigerian 419 scam. According to Financial & Tax Fraud Associates, Inc. (2002), the Nigerian scam operates as follows: The scam starts with a bulk mailing or bulk faxing of a bunch of identical letters to businessmen, professionals, and other persons who tend to be of greater-than-average wealth. The email or fax always contains a fake story that promises a huge sum of money to the email recipient, in exchange for a small processing fee. Due to the growing number of this kind of fraud happening over the internet, the U.S. government has passed a law called the SPAM Act of 2003. Under this law, email senders are not allowed to send repetitive, unsolicited commercial emails to total strangers. Wiretapping
Wiretapping is another alarming area of technology based crime. Unlike the two crime aspects mentioned above, wiretapping can be done either online and offline. It involves the tampering of secure lines of telecommunication to eavesdrop on private conversations. This can be very damaging, especially in the higher echelons of government, as wiretapping is being used to frame and incriminate respected officials. Some people argue that wiretapping is necessary to expose anomalies in government. However, it is still considered a crime to this day because it violates the privacy of citizens and compromises secret conversations aimed at implementing national security. Piracy
Piracy meanwhile, seems like a petty or minor crime aspect compared to the ones we have already discussed. However, it should be taken into serious consideration as well. Piracy is the illegal reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material. By means of piracy, copyrighted pieces of art, music, and literary materials are being virtually smuggled in great quantities everyday. Some countries have begun to act against piracy, but still it remains a growing problem for content producers all over the world and consequently, for law enforcers as well. Technology-Based Terrorism
This presents the most dangerous threat to our citizens and the biggest challenge to modern law enforcers. By using advanced technology, it is possible for terrorists to spy on highly classified government information, assemble weapons of mass destruction, detonate bombs from great distances, and break into vital, secure and encrypted government networks. Highly funded and intelligent terrorists can do all these with almost the impossibility of being traced. For this reason, law enforcers in the crime commission should also use modern technology and employ trained specialists in order to battle the growing threat of terrorism.
