Crimes committed using a digital device essentially employ a
hi-tech method to carry out what is usually a traditional crime. Thus, crimes
such as blackmail which traditionally evoke images of newspaper cuttings
collaged together to create the archetypal ransom note nowadays employ
computers to produce the ransom note, be it a printed document or an email.
Examples of other traditional crimes where a digital device
has been applied include instant messaging, which can used to commit
harassment; email, which is applied to commit fraud though 'phishing' scams;
mobile phones to record assaults in what has come to be known as 'happy
slapping' and then there are the peer to peer file sharing programs which have been used extensively to download and distribute
pictures portraying pedophilia.
The list, it seems, is endless and so is the workload on any
hi-tech crime unit to deal with such cases.
Not all crimes committed using a digital device use it as a
means to an end. Hacking a computer system without authority is a crime
targeted at the computer system itself. So to is a denial of service (DOS)
attack on a websites or the intentionally distribution of a virus.