Take the cyber crime that is used for assignment #2. Using information from assignment #5 (methods to stop cyber crime) , list methods the cyber criminals used to commit their crime and list methods that could have been used to either stop them or to catch them sooner. Complete a 5 to 7 page paper using APA style formatting, original content
#2 assignment: Software piracy schemes when conducted involve large amounts of money. One of these was uncovered in the US, Kansas, when six people pleaded guilty to charges that stemmed from investigations into illegitimate software worth $100 million (Oberholtz, 2016). The justice department termed this one of the largest software piracy schemes to involve stolen and/or counterfeit software products that ranged from Microsoft access codes to products for Adobe Systems. Software piracy is considered a noteworthy crime that renders software manufacturers and developers as well as unsuspecting consumers’ victims.
Software piracy if conducted on a massive scale poses considerable damage to the American economy and the private businesses. Microsoft and software developers sued defendants and the entities they owned civilly for willful trademark activities and the infringement on copyrights. The scheme, which was a multi-million dollar undertaking, was characterized by co-conspirators who held operations overseas in Germany, China and Singapore and across states in the US and illegally selling Microsoft Corporation software products and Adobe Systems key codes using a charitable organization as well as online business (Oberholtz, 2016). Key codes are important in that they allow a user to acquire unlocked as well as licensed versions of programs that are copyrighted by corporations. The conspirators in the software piracy scheme sold precuts numbering to 170,000, key codes which were used and activated severally.
One of the defendants managed and maintained an online presence of a PayPal/eBay charity (Project Contact Africa) which was used as a platform for selling illicit and unauthorized software and its components and the payments were facilitated using the charity’s PayPal account (Oberholtz, 2016). Customers paying to the charity believed that the proceeds from the sale of the software were for charity while in reality, they were used to purchase inventory and only a meager portion went to charity. The investigation into the software piracy scheme uncovered that the inexplicably cheap copies of the software like Microsoft Office and Photoshop were sold even over reputable sites like Amazon and Oversctock.com.
Investigators discovered that the ring that consisted of half a dozen men bought real,
|stolen access codes that were listen in Word documents and Excel spreadsheets as well as counterfeit packaging cards that looked genuinely official where the access codes were faked and printed, and stolen authenticity certificates that were used to make the software packages appear genuine. The six individuals took plea deals in the fraud scheme selling copies of Creative Suite, Windows and Office. Investigators from the Homeland Security tracked these men and discovered pirated software copies through sites like Craigslist, eBay and even personal websites(Oberholtz, 2016). The Department of Justice has meted punishments and penalties ranging from between three and five years in federal prisons to restitution fees of up to a quarter million dollars.
#5 assignment: Cyber-crimes have become rampant recently. They can, however, be stopped by application of some methods. Firstly, people should use strong passwords for their accounts. In this way, it becomes difficult for the cybercriminals to hack one`s account. Secondly, people should use different passwords for their different sites. This will help stop people from easily getting access to all your accounts. Thirdly, people should secure their computers. This will also stop cyber criminals from easily acquiring information from one`s computers. Also, people should secure their wireless networks. This will, in turn, stop people from hacking into the wireless networks and accessing one`s information. In addition to that, securing mobile phones can also stop cyber-crimes (Das, 2015). This is in the sense that once mobile phones are secured it becomes difficult for cyber criminals to hack and get information from one`s mobile phone.
Catching cyber criminals can also help stop cyber-crimes. Cyber criminals can be caught in several ways. To begin with law enforcement in coordination with government agencies should be applied. It will be easy for law enforcement bodies to catch cyber criminals as compared to common man since once the bodies get to corporate with the government, then they can get all the necessary resources to enable them to catch these criminals. Also, employing of investigators who are technically trained can also help catch cyber criminals. This is because most cyber criminals use methods of high standards such that their paths remain untraceable (Guitton, 2012). However, once the well-trained investigators are employed, they can use the knowledge and skills that they have to be able to catch the cyber criminals. With the application of the above methods of stopping and catching cyber criminals, then cyber-crimes shall be eradicated.
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