all criminal activity, whether it be embezzlement, computer viruses, bookkeeping of any matter related to drugs, or any other illegal activity, they have rights under these laws. Officers must establish probable causes on the existence of records there are electronically stored, and that they must specifically describe to the magistrate, these records in their search warrants. Due to records now being electronically stored, when executing an warrant, law officials may need expert advice and guidance in order to successfully search all visible and hidden areas, and then sort through personal and criminal records in question. When considering a search warrant, the Privacy Act of 1980 plays an important part in what a law official may do. The question that they must ask themselves are, is the information that was prepared for public dissemination and are they in the possession of an innocent third party. When seeking a search warrant, they must try to explain to the magistrate, in laymen's terms so that there is no confusion, how a novel criminal act has been committed by means of a computer. As Saul states, "Magistrates are familiar with the mechanics of how a murder might be committed with a gun, but they may have difficulty understanding haw an embezzlement might be accomplished by means of a computer."According to Coutorie (1995), there is a difference between hackers and crackers. Hackers are those that try and take out code in a computer program, attempting to improve them, without changing the outcome of that program. A cracker, is the opposite, whereas the intention of this hacker was to damage the program. Coutorie states that Gregson, which is in his bibliography, states that "armed robbers will virtually disappear by 2001 because of a cashless society and the prevalence of electronic fund transfers." Gregson also predicts that because of the high technology in use today, counterfeiting will increase. Any property that...
