With the development of the magnificent World Wide Web (WWW) and the migration from mainframe to client-server, the need for increased awareness and security measures has become imperative. Computer crimes account for losses of more than one billion dollars annually. Computer criminals manifest themselves in many forms including co-workers, competitors, and "crackers". What really is a computer crime, why do they occur, how do they occur, and most importantly how does one prevent them? With less than 15% of the 10 million personal computers networked in 1990 and more than 50% of the 100 million personal computers networked today, preventing infiltration into computer systems ranks as the number one challenge to computer security and corporate intellectual property.
             Computer crimes account for losses of more than one billion dollars annually. A survey by the Computer Security Institute (CSI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Computer Crime Division found that nearly half of the five thousand (5,000) companies, federal institutions, and universities polled experienced computer security breaches within the last twelve months. These attacks ranged from unauthorized access by employees to break-ins by unknown intruders. The CSI of San Francisco also surveyed 242 separate Fortune 500 companies concerning Internet security and found that in 1995 only twelve (12) percent of the companies reported losses as a result of system penetration. Those losses totaled $50 million. In terms of dollar value, the average theft costs a company $450,000. for each incident. Information Week magazine conducted its third annual survey in conjunction with Ernst and Young. The survey queried 1,290 respondents almost one-half of which said they suffered a financial loss related to information security in the last two years. At least twenty of the 1,290 respondents stated their information security losses came to more than $1 million each. Additio...