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The Concept of Cybercrimes - Is it right to analogize a physical crime to a cybercrime?
by Brett Burney

The Rise of the Internet

The idea of the Internet blossomed in the shadow of fear of nuclear attack in the early 1960’s.[1] Several computer engineers, government officials, and other scientists conceptualized a communications network that could operate even in the face of a devastating nuclear missile attack.[2] The prominent science fiction writer Bruce Sterling stated that the original idea for the Internet was “a post-apocalypse command grid.”[3] The idea was a communications system that could continue to operate even when a major “node” or “hub” was destroyed.[4] When a direct route of communication was not available, the system would direct the communication traffic around the network via alternate routes.[5]

It simply made sense that computers would be used to maintain this global network. At the time the Internet was being developed, computers were just beginning to open new opportunities for communication and research.[6] Besides, in order for the new communications network to operate as designed, it would need to be mostly free from human fallacies and intervention.

Before the connecting of two computers together, the only way to get data from one computer to another was to copy the information onto some type of portable medium such as a floppy disk, walk it over to the other computer, and upload the information from the disk. But if the two computers could be “networked” together, one could simply send the information to the other computer through a wire. Engineers developed a way that computers could “talk” to each other using packets of information rather than using a system such as circuit switching commonly found in telephone network at that time.[7] As each computer was added to the Internet, it would be assigned a specific number similar to a telephone number (Today this is called an IP number, which stands for Internet Protocol [8]). Information from one computer could be sent to another computer by inputting that computer’s Internet number. The information would be separated into several “packets” and each packet of information would be able to find the destination computer by that computer’s Internet number.[9] In this manner, all kinds of information could be shared among the various computers connected to the Internet, the “network of networks.” [10]

The Internet became a medium of communication that is now almost limitless in its applications. People devised ways to send messages back and forth between computers – hence the development of electronic mail.[11] People could write stories about their life in one part of the world, and send it to someone in another part of the world. The Internet allowed people to share funny stories and interesting articles. Engineers could create new software and send that software to people all over the world to use. People could connect to virtual “bulletin boards” to get information about a particular community, or play a role-playing game with another user. Corporations could provide information about their products to individual consumers. The Internet actually embodies all forms of communication: one-to-one, one-to-many, and finally many-to-many.

The last significant development of the Internet as we know it today is the graphical interface which is referred to as the “World Wide Web.”[12] For a long time, the Internet was only open to those users who could memorize several specialized commands. But the graphical interface opened up the Internet for so many “less-technical” people. Instead of typing an exact address for every Web site, a user can use an Internet browser such as Netscape Navigator,[13] to simply click on a “hyperlink” which immediately connects to a particular website.[14] People present their information in graphical form and users can navigate through the Internet using hyperlinks. Corporations soon discovered the commercial advantages of the World Wide Web and discovered that they could provide information allowing users to navigate and search huge databases.

Cyberspace – the Conception of the Internet

The Internet is simply many types of computers connected together to form a massive network. Other descriptions of the Internet include the ‘matrix,’ the ‘web,’ and the ‘net.’[15] Computers and their users can communicate in the Internet because they are either physically connected by some kind of wire, or wireless technology. But users devised a conceptual way of describing their communications over the Internet. They called this conception “Cyberspace.”[16]

The coining of the word “Cyberspace” has been attributed to science fiction writer William Gibson.[17] In 1984, Gibson published a book entitled Neuromancer.[18] Neuromancer was written about a future where the global information infrastructure prevailed and information was worth more than money.[19] It involved large corporations that replaced governments and computer cowboys who waged war against secure data and information.[20] What made this such an influential and somewhat prophetic work was that a large part of the plot unfolded in a setting that had no physical existence.[21] Gibson named this setting Cyberspace. [22]

Gibson’s Cyberspace had a profound influence on the computer and telecommunications community.[23] Cyberspace exists everywhere that there are telephone wires, coaxial cables, fiber-optic lines, or electromagnetic waves.[24] Cyberspace has become the most popular description of the networked universe in which many of us now work and play and call the Internet.[25] Author Bruce Sterling describes Cyberspace as thus:

“Cyberspace is the ‘place’ where a telephone conversation appears to occur. Not inside your actual phone, the plastic device on your desk. Not inside the other person's phone, in some other city. _The_place_between_ the phones. The indefinite place _out_there_, where the two of you, human beings, actually meet and communicate.” [26]

The Internet is thus only a small part of Cyberspace, but more and more people today are referring to both as the same thing.[27] Cyberspace is a “new universe, a parallel universe created and sustained by the world’s computers and communications lines.”[28] The term Cyberspace has become the shorthand way to describe the matrix of interconnected computers.[29] When one computer is connected to another, the two become linked in a way to create the perception that there is no physical distance between the two machines.[30] Thus when a person uses their personal computer to access the information files from a corporate computer, the information appears on the personal computer screen as if the corporate information existed on the personal computer, and not the corporate computer. It doesn’t matter where the two computers are located – a few feet, or many miles apart. Physical geography …DOES…NOT…MATTER… in Cyberspace. “Cyberspace is “accessed through any computer linked into the system; a place, one place, limitless; entered equally from a basement in Vancouver, a boat in Port-au-Prince, a cab in New York, a garage in Texas City, an apartment in Rome, an office in Hong Kong, a bar in Kyoto, a café in Kinshasa, a laboratory on the Moon.”[31] William Gibson described Cyberspace as “a consensual hallucination.”[32] In other words, Cyberspace is a “shared delusion/illusion” in which a group of people shared the same view of reality that exists only in “headspace.”[33] It is a reality that can be located “no where,” and yet it’s presence is felt “everywhere.”[34]

Cyberspace is an “agreed-upon reality” that has none of the conventional physical foundations that we are used to in the so-called real world.[35] However, transactions in Cyberspace do take place in the real world and do have real-world effects.[36] Cyberspace is connected to the physical environment by portals which allow people to see what is inside, to put in knowledge, to alter it, and to take knowledge out.[37] Some of these portals are one-way, such as television; others are two-way, such as the telephone.[38] Cyberspace is a conceptual collage where the world’s information resources come together seamlessly.[39] A world made up of pure information that takes the shape – though not the physical mass – of objects.[40] Every object that is seen in Cyberspace, whether it is a representation of a real object or not, is made up of data … of pure information.[41] Just like the “art world” or “legal world” is comprised of paintings or casebooks, Cyberspace embodies information – digital data such as words, pictures, or audio. Cyberspace is a globally networked, computer sustained, computer accessed, computer generated, multidimensional, artificial, “virtual reality.”[42] Every computer becomes a window to this “virtual reality.”[43]

Cyberspace: Its corridors form wherever electricity runs with intelligence. Its chambers bloom wherever data gathers and is stored. Its depths increase with every image or word or number, with every addition, every contribution, of fact or thought. Its horizons recede in every direction; it breathes larger, it complexifies, it embraces and involves. Billowing, glittering, humming, coursing, a Borgesian library, a city; intimate, immense, firm, liquid, recognizable and unrecognizable at once.[44]

The origins of Cyberspace start in futuristic science fiction, but it is quickly becoming a veritable constant in our society. Indeed, Cyberspace in a way can be seen as an extension of our age-old capacity and need to dwell in fiction.[45] When someone uses a computer to access Cyberspace, that user can customize the world of Cyberspace to their own preferences. Instead of traveling by walking or driving as in real space, a user in Cyberspace – on the Internet or the World Wide Web – is said to “surf” to their destination – be it a corporation’s database or an gallery of computer-generated art. Television viewers do something similar when they “surf” televisions channels. Viewers can choose which “world” they would like to view – each television channel presents a different experience. All the images on a television are of lives that are not really lived anywhere, they are simply arranged for the viewing pleasure of viewers.[46] But where television will be pumped into your house and you choose what to watch from among the choices available, the Internet will allow you to search out what other computer has the information that you desire. Once you find such a computer, you can connect to it and retrieve the information and view it on your own computer. The communication between the two computers is what has become known as “Cyberspace.”

The Geography of Cyberspace

There are several studies that concentrate on the “geography” of Cyberspace. These studies mostly concentrate on the physical server and router computers that comprise and maintain the Internet and the millions of computer Internet addresses.[47] These “maps” of Cyberspaces help us to visualize and comprehend the new digital landscapes beyond a computer screen, in the wires of the global communications networks and vast online information resources.[48] The maps at An Atlas of Cyberspaces range from conceptual maps to geographic.[49] But they all attempt to do the same thing – to create a working model of Cyberspace. Mapping the Internet is usually the easiest method to choose. Every computer is “inter-networked” together and the resulting image map looks something similar to the telephone system. (maybe use a picture here similar )

The Community of Cyberspace

People populate Cyberspace. Cyberspace is composed of information but that information would not be worth much if there were not people who valued that information. Through the Internet, people can communicate directly with other people from all over the world. People can obtain information on concerts, pets, and just about literally anything that they can imagine. The World Wide Web allows millions and millions of people to access the humongous informational resources that exist today. Web commerce is becoming increasingly popular where people can purchase anything through the Internet. People can transact their banking over the web – most people’s monetary worth is maintained by a simple account number and monetary figure anyway. People can connect to computers that run virtual cities and meeting places. Several of these virtual communities have an evolved to the point where they have discussed virtual economies.[50]

This should give the reader a general idea of Cyberspace as it currently exists. We now turn to the physical world and study the social action know as a crime.