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To build a successful business and career, you must always keep up with changes in the IT Marketplace. AWS, Office 365, LinkedIn, Sales Force, SEO, Social Media are just a few examples of where knowledge is a huge factor for success.

Training with HSG addresses your knowledge gaps and provides you with the requisite tools to outpace the competition.

What is computer crime? Computer crime, often called “cyber crime” is any type of illegal activity that takes place on a computer with a network. Oftentimes, when you think of computer crime, you might picture a home user downloading a virus that wipes out his hard drive or spyware that hijacks her system for the purposes of spying. 

Computer crimes can also affect businesses too and they do, sometimes with devastating results. For example, in 2012, the IRS paid a whopping 5.2 billion dollars in tax refunds to identity thieves!

Protect your business and improve your bottom line by staying one step ahead of the cybercriminals.

5 Common Computer Crimes

1.  Criminal Espionage

Computer espionage is a common computer crime that can destroy your business. Oftentimes, hackers employ the “hack, pump, and dump” method to obtain insider trading secrets, financial and stock information, passwords, and business trends.

This information is invaluable to the competition and some cutthroat criminals will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. This type of espionage can take place from within the office by a long-term or temporary employee or the threat may come from outside the office in the form of a malicious email or outside tech support.

2.  File Corruption

File corruption is another common computer crime you must protect your business from. This type of destruction happens when a computer virus transmitter creates a Trojan horse designed to infect your computer system. Once inside, this virus can completely wipe out your hard drive or use malware to gain access to all of your sensitive information.

And unless the computer criminal you’re dealing with did intend to wipe out your entire computer system, you might not even notice anything is going wrong until it’s too late.

Even if your company employs a sophisticated IT team, viruses, spyware, and software is always changing and evolving. If they don’t have the training they need, the latest piece of malware could slip right by and silently suck millions from your corporation.

3.  Software Piracy

Software piracy is dangerous for your company’s bottom line. Programs not secured with encryption keys always run the risk of being stolen and those thousand-dollar software programs are much easier to copy than you think. The last thing your business needs is an off-shore company pirating your unique software, copying it, and selling or using it to their advantage.

4.  Email Fraud

Email fraud is another computer crime that can become a serious threat to your business. Think about it. How many people do you employ? Do you have younger workers, temporary workers or older workers who may not be completely familiar with business email regulations?

Cybercriminals are very clever. When committing email fraud on a business, they usually hijack a few familiar accounts first before casting their ‘phishing’ lines, so to speak. When johnsmith@yourcorporation.com comes up in an inbox, that employee may think nothing of clicking on and downloading the attached information.

Of all of the computer crimes out there, this is one of the most virulent and dangerous. It takes just one mistaken click for a piece of malware to slip silently into one computer and start spreading around.

Before you know it, your systems are freezing, your network is fried, and your employees’ personal information has now become the property of an identity theft. Not only will this mean you’ll have the potential to lose precious man hours, it can also leave you open for a lawsuit if disgruntled employees lose their valuable personal information.

5.  Bullying and Harassment

This type of computer crime is more common than you think and can destroy your business if you let it. Oftentimes, employees simply aren’t aware of how serious this type of cyber crime can be. A heated argument over email can quickly turn into threats, name-calling, and even sexual harassment.

It can also become a threat to your business if the personal life of one of your employees suddenly spills over into the workweek. Disgruntled employees, ex-husbands, ex-wives, stalkers, and former friends with access to a corporate email address can spell serious trouble. This is why it’s so important to continue to educate your team about the importance of email privacy and Internet security.

Computer crime can be a silent and deadly business killer if you don’t know what to watch out for. You can protect your business and prevent millions of dollars from flying out the door with a little bit of knowledge and training.

Keywords: computer crime, computer crimes, cyber crime, Internet crime