NCJ Number
84205
Date Published
1978
Length
98 pages
Annotation
These papers from an Australian seminar on computer abuse discuss the risks of computer abuse; prevention, control, and audit; the total computer security concept; and current legislation related to computer crime.
Abstract
The paper on the risks of computer abuse reports on computer abuse by industry in Australia, the type of loss from computer crime, the average loss, and the job positions of perpetrators. Further, the four major types of computer crimes -- adding fraudulent input data, stealing master file information, sabotaging the computer facility, and unauthorized computer use -- are analyzed, followed by discussions of factors leading to a low published crime rate for computer abuse, functional vulnerabilities to abuse in 362 cases, and concern over loss exposure. The second paper (1) examines the background of computer crime, (2) describes an auditing approach that overcomes some of the system weaknesses that encourage computer crime, and (3) gives an example of how this auditing approach has been used in the review of a banking system. The paper that outlines the total computer security concept considers security policy, organization, systems security, application security, physical and fire security, standards, personnel practices, insurance, and the role of audit. The concluding paper gives a nontechnical overview of Victoria's law relevant to computer abuse. The central theme running throughout the papers is the need to combine the disciplines of auditing and electronic data processing to develop a proficiency designed to counter computer abuse.