2. Concealment
Because of the openness, uncertainty, virtuality and transcendence of time and space of the network, computer crimes are extremely concealed, which increases the difficulty of detecting computer crimes. According to the survey, computer crimes or computer crimes only account for 5%-1% of the total, and often many criminal acts are discovered by accident, such as accomplices reporting crimes or computer failures, and occasionally discovering processing business for manual operations. Most computer crimes are intellectual crimes committed by actors through cunning and careful arrangements and using computer professional knowledge. When criminals commit such crimes, they only need to input wrong instructions into the computer and tamper with the software program. The time of committing crimes is short, which will not cause any damage to computer hardware and information carriers, and will not leave traces of committing crimes. It is difficult for ordinary people to perceive the changes in computer internal software.
3. Complexity
The complexity of computer crime is mainly manifested as follows: First, the complexity of the criminal subject. Any criminal can obtain, download and publish all kinds of information through networked computers to commit crimes. In addition, due to the transnational nature of the network, criminals may come from different nationalities, countries and regions. The "time-space compression" characteristics of the network provide great convenience for criminal groups or associates. Second, the complexity of the criminal object. Computer crime is the behavior that the perpetrator uses the network to invade the computer information system and other behaviors with serious social harm. Its criminal targets are becoming more and more complex and diverse. Having the crime of embezzling or forging a customer's online payment account; E-commerce fraud and infringement of intellectual property rights; The crime of illegally invading the computer information system of e-commerce certification institutions and financial institutions, the crime of destroying the computer information system of e-commerce, and the crime of maliciously attacking the computer information system of e-commerce; Crime of false authentication; Internet pornography, online gambling, money laundering, bank theft, stock market manipulation, etc.
4. Transnational nature
The network has broken through the geographical restrictions, and computer crimes are in an international trend. Internet has the characteristics of "time-space compression". When all kinds of information are transmitted through the Internet, the temporary disappearance of national boundaries and geographical distances is the concrete manifestation of space compression. This makes it possible for crimes to cross regions and borders. As long as criminals have networked terminals, they can go to any site on the network to carry out criminal activities through the Internet. Moreover, A can commit crimes, and other outlets will also suffer through intermediate nodes. Because this kind of cross-border and cross-regional crime is hidden, it is difficult to detect and more harmful.
5. Anonymous
Criminals do not need any registration in the process of receiving text or image information on the Internet, and they are completely anonymous, so it is difficult to control their criminal behavior. Criminals can go straight to the criminal target through repeated anonymous login, and finally go straight to the criminal target. With the investigation of computer crimes, they have to investigate and collect evidence step by step. When they approached the criminal target, the criminal had escaped.
6. Great losses, wide targets, rapid development and wide coverage.
computer crime started in the 196s, grew rapidly in the 197s and became a threat in the 198s. The losses caused by computer crime in the United States have reached hundreds of billions of dollars, and the annual losses have reached billions of dollars, and the losses in Britain and Germany have also reached billions of dollars. With the networking of society, the objects of computer crimes range from financial crimes to personal privacy, national security, credit card passwords and military secrets. Crime is developing rapidly. Since 1986, there have been at least several or dozens of computer crimes in China every year, and hundreds of computer crimes occurred in 1993. In recent years, the number of computer crimes has increased at an annual rate of 3%, of which the financial industry accounts for 61%, with an average amount of several hundred thousand yuan per period, and the highest amount of a single criminal case is as high as 65438. Computer crime involves a wide range. According to statistics, the annual losses caused by computers and computer crimes in the United States are close to tens of billions of dollars. Computer crime has developed from the initial financial crime to almost all computer network fields such as production, scientific research, health, posts and telecommunications.
7. Most of them are driven by profit and exploration.
There are various motives for committing computer crimes, but in recent years, more and more computer crimes focus on obtaining high profits and exploring various secrets. According to statistics, computer crimes in the financial system account for more than 6% of the total computer crimes. Every year, global computer crimes directly steal 2 billion dollars. In that year, more than 1 economic crimes committed by computers were discovered in China, involving a total amount of 17, yuan, accounting for a considerable proportion of the whole computer crimes.
8. Young and more internal staff
The younger the subject, the younger the perpetrators of computer crimes, and the younger the people, the higher the proportion of crimes. Judging from the computer crimes found at present, the criminals are mostly young people with a certain education, a wide range of knowledge, a certain understanding of a certain computer system and relatively skilled business. According to the investigation of financial crimes in a certain place in China, the proportion of criminals under the age of 35 to the total number of criminals was 69.9% in 1989, 73.2% in 199 and 75.8% in 1991. The youngest is only 18.
In addition, a considerable proportion of computer crimes are committed by insiders. According to relevant statistics, the criminal subjects of computer crimes are mainly "white-collar workers" in the financial and securities industries, 78% of them commit crimes as employees of banks or securities companies, and the vast majority of them are computer operation managers within the unit; In terms of age and education, young people with certain professional and technical knowledge and the ability to work independently account for 83%. The oldest person at the time of the crime was 34 years old. Most people who use computers to sabotage are dissatisfied with the insiders of the enterprise and usually know the inside story of the enterprise computer system.
9. Great social harm
The higher the popularity of the Internet, the greater the harm of computer crime, and the harm of computer crime is far from ordinary traditional crimes, which will not only cause property losses, but also endanger public safety and national security. According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the average loss of a criminal case is only $2,, while the average loss of a computer crime case is as high as $5,. According to the estimation of computer security experts, in recent years, the losses caused by computer crimes to companies headquartered in the United States have reached $25 billion.
With the rapid development of science and technology, countries all over the world will use and rely more and more on the network, so the maintenance of network security becomes more and more important, and therefore it is attacked by more and more people from all over the world. The economic loss caused by information and network security in the United States is as high as $7.5 billion every year, and the proportion of corporate computer security violations is 5%. In 1998, the Ministry of Public Security of China cracked nearly 1 cases of hackers, 7% of which were computer crimes for economic purposes. Computer crime can lead to the closure of enterprises, reveal personal privacy, or paralyze a country's economy. These are by no means alarmist.