When we were brainstorming ideas for The Internet Course, someone mentioned crime as one of the impacts. The truecrimers among us were very pleased. Criminology has produced plenty of research on cybercrime. Another way to find out about it is to go to law enforcement sources. You can use Google’s advanced search options to look up cyber crime and limit the site or domain to .gov. Here you can find information from the Department of Justice, including their manual for prosecuting computer crimes, and the FBI, who have a 10 Most Wanted list for cybercriminals. Love those aliases – “UglyGorilla,” “WinXYHappy,” “KandyGoo” – a couple of modern day Baby Face Nelsons in there. Another thing I found was a GAO report on computer crime from all the way back in 1976. The finding, “Most of the crimes have been committed by persons who possess limited technical knowledge of computers,” is interesting. I’m not sure if it still holds true.
But the main point is that there are many ways to find good information. It’s just a matter of understanding what can be done with the tools at your disposal.
