Tales of Digital Crime from the Shadows of Cyberspace provides a peek at digital crime, albeit not always is the crime committed on the Internet as we know it. Digital crime, according to Power, includes crime perpetrated within the tangled wires of our nationwide, and in some cases international, telephone network. Filled with tales of the criminal acts committed against public and private networks, Tangled Web has us hopping through computers, servers, routers and switches as organizations ponder what has hit them and investigators investigate the fallen networks. The programmers who created well-known network worms and viruses are detailed. Notorious cases are noted, as are the not so well-known acts of stealth.
Several acts involving computer intrusion can constitute computer crimes.
Unauthorized access by insiders, such as employees, intrusion by outsiders who hack or crack the network, theft of proprietary information, financial fraud using computers, and network sabotage are just some examples of the activities that could be determined to be acts of a criminal nature. Incidents that are determined to be criminal in nature, in many cases, might fall under Title 18 United States Code Section 1030, the Computer Fraud and Misuse Act, or Title 18 United States Code Chapter 90 of the Economic Espionage Act. Violations of these codes are federal offenses that might be charged by the United States Attorney's Offices in the several states and prosecuted in federal court. Tangled Web walks us through the above statutes and identifies other activities that might be determined to be criminal in nature. Cyber attacks and sabotage can be accomplished by criminals well-versed in computers and networks.