Computer Crime

The computer looms large over every aspect of modern life. Not surprisingly many regard it as a serious threat to our privacy, freedom and sanity. But more than this, the computer has already proved to be a sitting target for more advanced criminals as well as for cranks and fanatics. It presents for the first time the possibility that society could be robbed blind without even knowing it. This is the subject of Gerald McKnight's enthralling new book. Apart from credit card fraud - a major sideline of computer crime - it is believed that millions of pounds have already been milked from computerised companies; particularly alarming is the way in which such companies have veiled the crimes in secrecy. The range of computer crime is broad. We meet two Englishmen who robbed an international bank of huge sums by the use of cabled computer codes; the young American who conceived the 'perfect computer crime and stole $1 million worth of goods; and the eccentric 'electronic watchdog' Guy Parker who has 'embezzled' £3.5 million to expose the weakness of security systems. Apart from straightforward, if scientific, crime, the computer is highly vulnerable: to sabotage, by young radical students, as at New York University, or more often by individuals. It is also vulnerable to those who operate it. In one hushed-up incident a group of computer technicians forced a substantial pay-rise by threatening to ruin their company with its own computer, which they undoubtedly could have done. After examining these dramatic cases Gerald McKnight looks to the future. Despite the considerable sums being spent on computer security there is no doubt that, with almost every financial transaction computerised, much worse is to come if a less complacent attitude is not adopted by computer manufacturers and users. Computer Crime is not deliberately alarmist but it sets out the genuinely alarming threats represented by the computer and its parasitic electronic criminals.

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