The Concept of Computer Crime
Author | ?tef?nu? Radu |
Position | Assistant Associate Professor, PhD, Danubius University of Galati, Romania |
Pages | 33-43 |
ISSN: 2067 – 9211 Legal Sciences in the New Millennium
33
The Concept of Computer Crime
Ștefănuț Radu1
Abstract: The object of this scientific study is represented by the analysis of the concept of co mputer crime
also called computer-oriented crime, which is not generally acknowledged or accepted.The result of the study
consists in analysing the evolution of computer crime.The conclusion is that certain legal provisions shall lead,
sooner or later, to an Internet Law.
Keywords: computer crime; Internet Law; illegal action
Computer crime is a phenomenon of our times, frequently reflected in the media. A study even indicates
that the fear of cyber attacks far outweighs that of ordinary thefts or frauds. Criminological research on
offenses committed through computer systems are still in the exploratory process. Even those achieved
so far tend to change the classical way in which crimes are viewed in the current criminal justice systems.
(Amza, 2003, p. 14).
The specialists in the field have defined the phenomenon in many ways, not reaching a common point,
because of the complexity of this criminal act, and the different ways of regulating the computer crime
in each state have led to the impossibility of creating an international legal pattern.
The concept of computer crime has received several definitions, including: any crime in which a
computer or computer network is the subject of a crime, or in which a computer or computer network is
the instrument or means of committing a crime; any unlawful, unethical or unauthorized behaviour
regarding automatic data processing and/or data transmission.
Computer systems currently provide new opportunities, some even sophisticated, for violation of laws
and create a high potential for committing types of crimes committed other than in known, traditional
ways. Although the society, as a whole, pays for all the economic damage caused by “computer crime”,
it continues to rely on computerized systems in almost all areas of social life: air traffic, trains and
subways control, coordination of medicalservice or national security. A single breach achieved in the
operation of these systems can endanger human lives, which denotes that the society’s dependence on
information systems has taken on a much deeper dimension than initially anticipated (Dobrinoiu, 2006,
p. 59).
A definition on computer crime that seems more eloquent is “any illegal action in which a computer is
the instrument or object of the crime, that is to say, any offense whose means or purpose is to influence
the function of a computer (Dobrinoiu, 2006, p. 62)”.
1 Assistant Associate Professor, PhD, Danubius University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Blvd., 800654 Galati,
Romania, Tel.: +40372361102, Fax: +4037236129 0, Corresponding author: stefanut.radu@univ-danubius.ro.
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