Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the criminal and the victim never see each other and can be separated by more than
12,000 miles when the crime takes place.
These harmful aspects of computers and software have triggered new laws
and new subindustries that provide virus protection, hacking insurance, and other
forms of protection.
These inventions have also led to the creation of new and special cybercrime
units in all major police forces, the FBI, the CIA, the Secret Service, the De-
partment of Defense and the uniformed services, Homeland Security, and other
government organizations. The emergence of the Congressional Cyber Security
Caucus is a sign that that these new kinds of cybercrimes are attracting attention
at the highest levels of government.
Weighing the Risks
Computers and software are making profound changes to every aspect of human
existence. Many readers have thousands of “friends” on social networks. Even
more readers follow the daily lives and activities of countless celebrities and per-
sonal friends by using “tweets” or short messages. Text messages are beginning
to outnumber live telephone calls (and also cost more due to new computerized
billing algorithms).
Purchases of electronic e-books recently topped purchases of ordinary paper
topics. Banks now charge extra fees to provide paper bank statements as opposed
to online electronic statements. All of our medical and education records are now
computerized and stored in databases.
It would not be possible to topic an airline flight or a hotel without computers
and software. Indeed, after large snowstorms or hurricanes when power lines are
down, many kinds of businesses cease operations because they are no longer
equipped to handle manual transactions. Computerized games, including
massively interactive games with thousands of simultaneous players, are now the
preferred form of entertainment for millions of young people. Modern films use
special effects with lifelike realism that are generated by computers. It is even pos-
sible to create new roles for actors and actresses who are no longer living by means
of computers and software.
The impact of computers and software has been a mixture of good and bad.
Certainly, the ability to send emails and text messages and to find information on
the web are very useful additions to our daily lives. We use GPS maps on our
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