of free speech and civil liberties, but also with how to educate the public and the media to the difference between on-line computer experimenters. They also point out that, while the computer networks and the results are a new kind of crime, they are protected by the same laws and freedom of any real world domain. "A 14-year old boy connects his home computer to a television line, and taps into the computer at his neighborhood bank and regularly transfers money into his personnel account." (2600:Spring 93,p.19) On paper and on screens a popular new mythology is growing quickly in which computer criminals are the 'Butch Cassidys' of the electronic age. "These true tales of computer capers are far from being futuristic fantasies." (2600:Spring 93:p.19) They are inspired by scores of real life cases. Computer crimes are not just crimes against the computer, but it is also against the theft of money, information, software, benefits and welfare and many more. "With the average damage from a computer crime amounting to about $.5 million, sophisticated computer crimes can rock the industry." (Phrack 25,p.6) Computer crimes can take on many forms. Swindling or stealing of money is one of the most common computer crime. An example of this kind of crime is the Well Fargo Bank that discovered an employee was using the banks computer to embezzle $21.3 million, it is the largest U.S. electronic bank fraud on record. (Phrack 23,p.46) Credit Card scams are also a type of computer crime. This is one that fears many people and for good reasons. A fellow computer hacker that goes by the handle of Raven is someone who uses his computer to access credit data bases. In a talk that I had with him he tried to explain what he did and how he did it. He is a very intelligent person because he gained illegal access to a credit data base and obtained the credit history of local residents. He then allegedly uses the residents names and credit i...
