Research on Cybercrime

Overview of Research on Cybercrime in relation to cyber crime: [1]In 1985 President Ronald Reagan's Council on Integrity and Efficiency found after surveying numerous federal agencies that computer fraud and abuse existed within the U.S. government. The study discovered 172 cases with estimated losses ranging up to $177,383 and that most instances ranged from $10,000 to $100,000. The following year, in 1986, Forbes Fortune 500 companies surveyed estimated that throughout the country banks lost from $70 million to $100 million annually in financial wire transfers. In 1987, the ABA conducted another survey, this time of 300 corporations and government agencies. Twenty-four percent reported they had experienced computer crime within the previous year with losses ranging from $145 million to $730. In 1989 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement completed a survey of 382 law enforcement agencies, 20 state attorney general offices, and 898 other organizations within the public and private sectors. Findings included that 25 percent of organizations had been victimized by computer crime within the year preceding the survey, and that monetary losses exceeded $1,000,000 in some cases. This string of research studies clearly indicated that computerization, despite its advantages, was also bringing about increasing incidences and prevalence of computer-enabled crimes and potential financial losses from abuse of computer systems. Note that it was not until 1986 that the U.S. government passed the Computer Crime and Abuse Act, making hacking and certain other types of computer abuse illegal. Several states also passed computer crime laws beginning in the 1980s as research demonstrated the need for this.

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Notes and References

1. By Samuel C. McQuade, III

American Bar Association. (1984). Report on computer crime. Washington: The Task Force, 51, 12, 6 p. HV6773.A44; Carter, D.L., and Katz, A.J. (1996). Trends and experiences in computer-related crime: Findings from a national study. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Las Vegas, Nevada; Finkelhor, D.,Wolak, J., &Mitchell, K.J. (2000, June). Online victimization: A report of the nation's youth.Washington, DC: National Center forMissing and Exploited Children; McQuade, S.C. (2007). We must educate young people about cybercrime before they start college. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(14), B29; McQuade, S., and Sampat, N. (2008). Survey of at-risk behaviors. Available at (internet link) rrcsei.org/ RIT%20Cyber%20Survey%20Final%20Report.pdfParker, D.B. (1976). Crime by computer. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons; Skinner, W.F., and Fream, A.M. (1997). A social learning theory analysis of computer crime among college students. The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 34(4), 495–519; Synovate. (2003). FTC identity theft survey report. Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission.

Research on Cybercrime

Research on Cybercrime