TEXT D New and bizarre crimes
have come into being with the advent of computer technology. Organized crime to
has been directly involved; the new technology offers it unlimited
opportunities, such as data crimes, theft of services, property-related crimes,
industrial sabotage, politically related sabotage, vandalism, crimes against the
individual and financially related crimes... Theft of data, or
data crime, has attracted the interest of organized criminal syndicates. This is
usually the theft or copying of valuable computer grogram. An international
market already exists for computerized data, and specialized fences are said to
be playing a key role in this rapidly expanding criminal market. Buyers for
stolen programs may range from a firm’s competitors to foreign
nations. A competitor sabotages a company’s computer system to
destroy or cripple the firm’s operational ability, thus neutralizing its
competitive capability either in the private or the government sector. This
computer sabotage may also be tied to an attempt by affluent investors to
acquire the victim firm. With the growing reliance by firms on computers
for their recordkeeping and daily operations, sabotage of their computers can
result in internal havoc, after which the group interested in acquiring the firm
can easily buy it at a substantially lower price. Criminal groups could also
resort to sabotage if the company is a competitor of a business owned or
controlled by organized crime. Politically motivated sabotage is
on the increase; political extremist groups have sprouted on every continent.
Sophisticated computer technology arms these groups with awesome powers and
opens technologically advanced nations to their attack. Several attempts have
already been made to destroy computer facility at an air force base. A
university computer facility involved in national defence work suffered more
than $ 2 million in damages as a result of a bombing. Computer
vulnerability has been amply documented. One congressional study concluded that
neither government nor private computer systems are adequately protected against
sabotage. Organized criminal syndicates have shown their willingness to work
with politically motivated groups. Investigators have uncovered evidence of
cooperation between criminal groups and foreign governments in narcotics.
Criminal groups have taken attempts in assassinating political leaders...
Computers are used in hospital life-support system, in laboratories, and in
major surgery. Criminals could easily turn these computers into tools of
devastation. By sabotaging the computer of a life-support system, criminals
could kill an individual as easily as they had used a gun. By manipulating a
computer, they could guide awesome, tools of terror against large urban centers.
Cities and nations could become hostages. Homicide could take a new form. The
computer may become the hit man of the twentieth century. The
computer opens vast areas of crime to organized criminal groups, both national
and international. It calls on them to pool their resources and increase their
cooperative efforts, because many of these crimes are too complex for one group
to handle, especially those requiting a vast network of fences. Although
criminals have adapted to computer technology, law enforcement has not. Many
still think in terms of traditional criminology. Which of the following can be labeled as a politically motivated sabotage of a computer system
A．Sabotage of a university computer. B．Sabotage of a hospital computer. C．Sabotage of computer at a secret training base. D．Sabotage of a factory computer.