Cybercrime is defined as, "A criminal offense that has been created or made possible by the advent of computer technology, or a traditional crime which has been so transformed by the use of a computer that law enforcement investigators need a basic understanding of computers in order to investigate the crime." Within that broad definition lie two distinct sub-categories: Computer Crime and Computer-related Crime.Computer Crime involves the use of a computer as the primary instrument to facilitate the crime and the target thereof . While state laws vary somewhat, these crimes usually include the unauthorized:

• use, access or damage to a computer system;
• taking, copying, altering, deleting, or destroying computer data, software or programs;
• disrupting computer services or denying computer services to an authorized user;
• introducing a computer contaminant (viruses) into any computer or system; or,
• misuse of someone else's Internet domain name.

Computer-related Crime involves the use of a computer to commit a crime and/or as a repository of evidence related to the crime. Generally, this includes traditional crimes that have been transformed by computer technology such as:

• computer-generated counterfeit documents;
• computer generated threats;
• possession of computer-based child pornography images; or,
• any crime in which documents or evidence is stored in a computer such as records of narcotic distribution, gambling or embezzlement.

Computer-related crime can involve use of the Internet to facilitate crimes such as:

• Internet auction fraud (primarily thefts);
• criminal threats;
• stalking (cyberstalking);
• threatening or annoying electronic mail;
• distribution of child pornography;
• online gambling;
• fraudulent credit card transactions;
• fraudulent application for goods or services; or,
• identity theft.

The importance of recognizing these two distinct categories is critical in that they require varying levels of investigative skill. Specifically, computer crimes require a much higher degree of technical knowledge than computer-related crimes. Throughout this paper, we will make specific observations regarding these two categories of cyber crimes.

Investigation of Cybercrime

Many investigators define cybercrime very narrowly and think of it only in terms of complex, computer-specific issues like hacking or crimes that require a forensic computer examination. This is a fatal flaw in two respects. First, it oversimplifies what are in fact very complex crimes, and secondly it inflates the investigative difficulty of relatively simply crimes. On a national level, law enforcement must recognize that many forms of simple theft and fraud are in fact cyber crimes if a computer is used to commit the crime. What may appear to be a simple theft of small proportions--and may even go unreported in many cases--may actually be a major crime with a huge loss. In fact, computer thieves have recognized the almost infinite number of victims available to them on an international scale and the MO of "taking a little bit from a lot of places" to avoid the normal detection systems has become all too common.

Appin combines the traditional and modern-day computer forensic approach to combat cybercrime. Please fill the form to receive free consultation.