The legal aspects of computer crimes

ABSTRACTBackground: In today’s world, technology has progressed to the point that the computer has become the single most important tool for individuals, whether at work or at home. Everyone’s daily activities are affected in form, content and time by computers. On the other hand, the rapid advance in computer technologies has a negative side; it has opened the door to antisocial and criminal behavior in ways that would have not previously been possible. Computer crime or electronic crime is defined as a crime in which perpetrators use a computer as a tool to commit their criminal acts. The economic loss due to computer crimes is huge and the actual values may be larger than expected one because the losses are difficult to be calculated and victims usually not report these crimes to authority. The perpetrators came from every socio-economic classes. Their weapon is a computer and communication technology. The research on cyber crime relied on interviews and questionnaires with criminals to determine their motive and psychological background. Some researchers said that their criminal activities due to greed, other suggested that they are employees angry from their companies because of low salary payment and the last suggestion that criminals specifically hackers act under organized and well planned organization for a terrorist purpose. Psychological analysis of perpetrators is very important to narrow down the number of potential suspects and deal with criminals in a court room. Computer forensic is a new branch based on forensic science and computer security technology. This field focuses on the investigation of computer crimes. There are subsequent procedures and processes have to be followed for a successful investigation. An investigator should follow these guidelines for protecting a crime scene and preserving any collected electronic evidence to be admitted in a court. From the whole previously mentioned studies, we found that computer crime and abuse represent one of the undesirable but inevitable consequence of ICT. It also showed that we face a number of immediate and long-term threat that need to be recognized for protective action to be taken. The long lasting solution is the creation and enforcement of international laws, coupled with complimentary country laws and an international court with exclusive jurisdiction over the Internet to reduce the rate of Internet and computer crimes. This requires that country laws would have to be updated to deal with such crimes for effectiveness.Objectives: The aim of this essay is to represent the different types of computer crimes, discuss the legal aspects of such crimes regarding how to detect, investigate and link a crime to a certain individual. Also, it explains how to protect your computer and finally enumerates some ethical problems surrounding the use of computer and technology.