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Cyber Crime

• Sniffing: Criminals use their software to monitor the users should not use their birthday, social security num-
traffic on a Web site and steal valuable information ber, or phone number as passwords to their accounts; (3)
traveling through it. users should use different passwords for different accounts
• Spamming: The unethical sending of millions of e- and change them periodically; (4) users should not open
mail promotions to recipients who have never asked e-mail attachments or click on links from unknown
for the information. Spamming becomes illegal sources; (5) to prevent phishing and spoofing, consumers
when a person sends numerous unsolicited e-mails should check Web sites’ legitimacy and security before giv-
containing illegal or objectionable messages such as ing personal information and credit card numbers; (6)
pornography, threats, or harassments. users should monitor their credit card usage and immedi-
ately report any unfamiliar transactions; (7) organizations
• Spoofing: The practice of deceiving online shoppers
with a fake site of a legitimate company in order to should have clearly defined employee Internet policies;
get their identities and credit card numbers. and (8) users should immediately report to the police
when they experience a cyber crime.
Crimes by Employees. Organizations need to be increas- SEE ALSO Identity Theft
ingly aware of employees who exceed authorization to
access their company network and steal information for BIBLIOGRAPHY
criminal use. Awad, Elias M. (2004). Electronic commerce: From vision to ful-
fillment (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
COUNTERMEASURES McNurlin, Barbara C., and Sprague, Ralph H., Jr. (2004). Infor-
Users need to use caution before handing over personal mation systems management in practice (6th ed.). Upper Saddle
information and should think twice before “updating” River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
information when they have not initiated the transaction. U.S. Department of Justice (2005). United States code annotated:
To protect individual computers, corporate networks, and Title 18. Crimes and criminal procedure. Retrieved December
1, 2005, from http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime
Web sites, the following measures should be adopted: (1)
users (both institutions and individuals) should install
antivirus software and firewalls on their computers; (2) Jensen J. Zhao

188 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION