§ 1.08 Computer Crime

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2020

§ 1.08 Computer Crime

The use of computers to commit crimes began as far back as the 1960s, but because of the limited numbers of computers and the lack of interconnectivity, computers were generally a tool used by criminals to commit a traditional offense such as fraud. Use of computers in this manner was similar to other technological advances that benefited society but could also be used for criminal purposes, such as automobiles that could be used to escape from a bank robbery or telephones that could be used by scam artists to contact potential victims. In response to such technological advancements, the federal government and states amended their existing substantive criminal law or enacted new laws to cover such activity.¹⁷³ While the changes in technology prior to computers did provide individuals with opportunities to commit new crimes or made it easier to commit traditional crimes, the threats posed to society by the use of technology remained acceptable and could generally be managed by local or state law enforcement.

However, with the proliferation of the personal computer and the worldwide interconnection of such computers through the Internet, modern computer crime presents risks to society and unique challenges to law enforcement than in the past. The criminal threats posed by the Internet is based on a vastly more complex technology than the automobile, for example, computers allow criminals to commit more crimes in less time than ever before, giving law enforcement less time to react to any potential criminal threat. In addition, because of the anonymity provided by the Internet, a criminal can engage in criminal activity with very little risk of apprehension.

Moreover, the worldwide reach of the Internet allows a cybercriminal to cause harm to thousands, if not millions, of victims that may not even be located in the same geographic area. In the case of computer crime, national borders lose all significance. To make matters worse, such acts may not even be a crime in the originating jurisdiction. For example, the individual who created and distributed the "Love Bug" virus that caused an estimated $15 billion in damages worldwide, could not be prosecuted in the Philippines where he lived because such conduct was not a crime in that country at that time.¹⁷⁴

In response to how computers can be used to facilitate traditional crimes and to the rise of cybercrimes for which there is no analogous traditional crime, Congress has pursued a dual approach. First, Congress has updated existing laws to ensure that such statutes could be used to prosecute those types of crimes committed with the aid of a computer, although, not all of these attempts have been successful.¹⁷⁵ Second, in 1984 Congress enacted the first statute, the predecessor to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act...