Crime and Crime Prevention

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Crime and crime prevention These days, although we have better protection for our computers and we may feel that our computer is fully guarded but as these new defenses are being made so are new ways to hack into computers. Personal & social Biometric ID systems are being used more and more every day. Some people believe it will make everyone safer, but others think it is a waste of time and money. The most persuasive argument in favour of biometric systems is that they can work, and help identify suspects who have already been identified as criminals or members of criminal or terrorist networks. Scientific data can reduce inevitably biased human observation, arguably, fingerprinting everyone who comes through U.S. borders, or otherwise applying the same biometric standards to everyone, is fairer than relying on people, who use profiles that encourage racial and ethnic stereotyping. Also Biometric identification may enhance privacy, because it helps safeguard our personal information. At least one researcher, Jennifer Carlisle, has made the case that impersonation and identity theft will be protected if we have a database system we can trust: "our privacy can be better protected though the creation of a universal biometric identification database and that our privacy is far more likely to be compromised by the current plethora of poorly managed, decentralized identity databases." However some people believe that biometric ID systems should not be brought in because Biometric devices violate privacy. The argument can be made that the government does not have the right to the information that our bodies reveal about us, and that their databases are permeable. Moreover, once in government hands, the information can be used for a wide variety of purposes and even be used by the private sector. Biometric identification is not 100% foolproof, Tools malfunction as eye patterns can change. And the implications matters. According to one analysis of biometric ID at airports: “A false negative rate of even 1 percent could allow at least one bad guy to board virtually any full commercial jet flight, and four or more on a jumbo jet ….Conversely, an equally tiny 1 percent false positive rate could result in at least one innocent person on every flight being falsely matched to someone in a database of suspicious people.” Also biometric Id systems work by physiological such as fingerprint, face recognition, DNA, hand and palm geometry, iris, which

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Crime in the Information Age

Transcript of Crime and Crime Prevention

Page 1: Crime and Crime Prevention

Crime and crime prevention

These days, although we have better

protection for our computers and we may

feel that our computer is fully guarded but

as these new defenses are being made so

are new ways to hack into computers.

Personal & social

Biometric ID systems are being used more and more every day. Some people

believe it will make everyone safer, but others think it is a waste of time and

money.

The most persuasive argument in favour of

biometric systems is that they can work, and help

identify suspects who have already been identified

as criminals or members of criminal or terrorist

networks. Scientific data can reduce inevitably

biased human observation, arguably, fingerprinting

everyone who comes through U.S. borders, or

otherwise applying the same biometric standards to

everyone, is fairer than relying on people, who use

profiles that encourage racial and ethnic

stereotyping. Also Biometric identification may

enhance privacy, because it helps safeguard our

personal information. At least one researcher,

Jennifer Carlisle, has made the case that

impersonation and identity theft will be protected if

we have a database system we can trust: "our privacy can be better protected

though the creation of a universal biometric identification database and that our

privacy is far more likely to be compromised by the current plethora of poorly

managed, decentralized identity databases." However some people believe that

biometric ID systems should not be brought in because Biometric devices violate

privacy. The argument can be made that the government does not have the right

to the information that our bodies reveal about us, and that their databases are

permeable. Moreover, once in government hands, the information can be used

for a wide variety of purposes and even be used by the private sector. Biometric

identification is not 100% foolproof, Tools malfunction as eye patterns can

change. And the implications matters. According to one analysis of biometric ID

at airports: “A false negative rate of even 1 percent could allow at least one bad

guy to board virtually any full commercial jet flight, and four or more on a jumbo

jet ….Conversely, an equally tiny 1 percent false positive rate could result in at

least one innocent person on every flight being falsely matched to someone in a

database of suspicious people.” Also biometric Id systems work by physiological

such as fingerprint, face recognition, DNA, hand and palm geometry, iris, which

Page 2: Crime and Crime Prevention

has largely replaced retina, and odour/scent and behavioural such as typing

rhythm, gait, and voice.

All of these Biometric characteristics can change, especially for children. As

children grown up changes take place to both their bodies and the voices.

Fingerprints do not change however unless you are a manual worker where

fingerprints can be rubbed off, but this does not make this more safe for us.

When thieves cannot get access to secure properties, there is a chance that the

thieves will stalk and assault the property owner to gain access. If the item is

secured with a biometric device, the damage to the owner could be irreversible,

and potentially cost more than the secured property. For example, in 2005,

Malaysian car thieves cut off the finger of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class owner when

attempting to steal the car. This proves we are not making it safer for us, we are

only making it more difficult for criminals and making them take more serious

chances and more drastic measures to get what they want/need.

There was only little opposition to this idea, from few People, that said, that the

ID cards have been everywhere else, but in the UK and that the ID cards were an

“excellent Idea”. The users are scared, that the ID card takes away their freedom

and they have the ‘Big Brother effect’.

In 2008 the ‘Computer Active’ brought out an article in their Magazine, of ‘Peter

Salter’ who is still opposing to the idea that the ID card in England is a good idea.

He says in the article, that around 700 people have been falsely accused of

having a criminal record, whilst it was actually only a mistake of the database of

the Government. In his opinion every movement of the keepers of ID cards will

be recorded, like ‘starting a campaign against a mobile mast close to a school

and you will find your movements tracked and recorded’.

As can be seen in this article, the opinion in England has not changed very much

on this Subject. To make sure, that this is not a unique result I carried out

Research on this, by asking teachers from my school, that used to live in

England and do have an opinion on this, as they still go there recently. People

have very different views on Biometric ID systems. Some of our teachers from

school were asked their opinions. We asked our Chemistry teacher Maureen

Williams and her husband John Williams who also works in our school as a

maintenance worker for their opinions on the biometric ID systems. John said “I

have had one for some time and I feel that they are usual in some aspect for

identification. However, I also feel pressured into not doing anything suspicious

as the government agencies are constantly looking over us. Also we can never

be sure that our information hasn’t gone missing or that the information is being

used ethically.”

His wife, Maureen said “I am not afraid to have one, I have nothing to hide about

my life and with the amount of credit and debit cards people have already, what

is the matter with having one extra card to carry?”

We can see that they both have very different opinions about the systems, and

they both have a very strong point of view.

Another concern with Biometric systems is that it is all computerised. All

computers have glitches

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Professional Lives

On the 6th November, 2001 BBC had written an article showing how much

security is lacking on wireless networks used in London's financial centre. BBC

drove from the eastern end of The Strand and continued along towards Cannon

Street with two ethical hackers and within the space of one kilometre they found

the existence of 12 networks and only four of these had turned on the encryption

system built into the wifi protocol. The other eight were wide open and could

easily be hacked. Any maliciously minded hacker could easily join the networks

and steal documents without anybody being aware that they were being hacked.

On top of that, none of the wireless networks they had found, used anything but

in-built security systems to protect against hack attacks. When you hear the word

hacker, you vision someone sitting in a dark room,

underground, with computers surrounding them, but

hacking has become so simple that people can do it while

walking or driving down a street. The two hackers that the

BBC witnessed being able to hack while driving and

picking up signals said "From an attackers point of view

you want back roads because there is less road traffic,"

said Codex, "and you might be able to park when you find

a network." Although this article talks about advanced

hacking, there are still ways for even teenagers to hack. I

have seen on YouTube, videos made about hacking. It is

so simple anybody can follow. My friend’s brother, who

has just turned 14, is able to hack onto people’s accounts

on a computer game he plays. This can show how easy it is to learn to hack and

how much security we really have over the internet. Shane Kelly, is the world’s

youngest ethical hacker at the age of 16 years. Shane started hacking at the age

of 11, and has been hacking for about five years BCS say. Although the course

says the hackers should be at least 21 years old, Shane was able to his

problems at school by turning to the computer. Shane hacks into business firms

and lets them know it to see where their weak spots are. This is the upside to

hacking as businesses can use hackers to make their security tighter.