Electronic Crime

Summer 2006 - WEC Thursdays 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
June 17, 29; July 6, 20, 27; August 10, 17.

Session 1         Computers In Society, articles 1, 2, 3
                         Atom & Electronics, presented in class - First half - (on website)
                         Research paper assigned, due last class session.
                         History of Telecommunications Fraud, presented in class (on website).
                         Film documentary: MCI The Invisible Criminal
                         Groups assigned for sessions 5 and 6

Session 2         Basic Electricity Lecture: Atoms, magnetic fields, conductors,
                                   Amps, Volts, Ohms, Watts, AC, DC, Ohms Law
                         Atom & Electronics, presented in class - Second half - (on website)
                         Computers In Society, articles 9, 12
                         Who Moved My Cheese?   Read the entire book for this session.

Session 3         Who was Kevin Mitnik? Read stories linked on this website.
                        Computers In Society, articles 13, 15
                        Quiz –1-hour – 20% of grade
                         The Movie Hackers will be shown in class.
                        Pizza party at 6:30 pm (pizza supplied - bring drinks).

Session 4         Fraud, Ethics, and Empowerment (article distributed in class)
                         Computers In Society articles 16, 17, 20
                         The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley will be shown in class
                          Taco party begins at 6:30 pm (bring covered dish)

Session 5         Class exercise: Your Computer at Work and at Home - protect it, using it for investigating.
                               using various search engines, investigative websites, Cleveland Public Library.
                         Class exercise: Investigative assignments on the computer
                         Group Presentations: 10 minutes - Electronic Crime in the News
                        Computers In Society, articles 28, 30
                        Quiz –1-hour – 20% of grade

Session 6         Basic Electricity Lecture, transformers (inductance) & capacitance, oscillator circuits.
                         Computers In Society, articles 31, 32
                         Class group exercises: Group Dynamics: Solving personnel issues in the workplace.
                         Group Presentations: 10 minutes - Electronic Crime in the News
                         Take Home Final Exam issued – 30% of grade.
                          Hors d'oeuvre party begins at 6:30 pm (bring covered dish)

Session 7 Field Trip – 10% of grade. Your research papers are due – 20% of
your grade. Your take-home final exam is due.

Our filed trip is usually a dinner presentation held at a nice restaurant where we will here a program presented by a hacker, a security consultant, a member of a hacking attack penetration team, or a consultant for corporate espionage risk assessment. These are fun!

The research paper is to be at least five pages but no more than 10 pages, typed (if possible), double-spaced. The final exam is a take-home final, mostly essay, and will be issued during class session 6. The field trip is mandatory and attendance is worth 10% of your grade. Those unable to attend the field trip will have an additional question to answer on the final worth 10% of their grade.

Electronic Crime in Modern Business Cultures
INDT 327-51
Roger Cram
Office - 330-569-5104 Home – 330-569-7962

Almost all of you have been exposed to the problems associated with electronics in the workplace. This course deals with how electronics (computers, software, pagers, cell phones, laptops, e-mail) improperly implemented into the workplace causes stress, turnover, poor moral, loss of efficiency and effectiveness, undermined corporate structure, and encourages internal crime. Your research paper should involve your personal experiences with this problem. By understanding how and why these things occur, you will hopefully become better managers.

If you are a housewife or househusband and have never experienced the negative aspects of electronics in the workplace, perhaps your social contacts have unfavorably changed for the same reason. Many persons have lost friends because of excessive participation with American on Line (AOL). Chatting on AOL, being addicted to their garage sales, or just surfing the Internet have so involved some families that their friends and other former social contacts have all but been replaced with these new electronic acquaintances. Children spending hours on the Web have altered family social activities. Perhaps your children have had unpleasant experiences associated with the total proliferation of adult material. Possibly you have become the victim of computer fraud over the Internet.

If you are a traditional student and have not yet been employed in any of today’s busy electronic industries, perhaps electronics in your high school classes or in your social circles have had a negative impact on your morale, self-esteem, or social circles. Perhaps an electronic dating service has exposed you to a less than desirable experience. Possibly the need to use computers in college and keep up with all the modern changes in software are causing you problems. If none of the above events have occurred in your life, you may do research into the negative aspects of computers in society and write a paper on your findings.

The research paper is to be at least five pages but no more than 10 pages, typed (if possible), double-spaced, 1” margins, 12-point font. Actually, it is not a research paper, but rather a report of your personal experiences as they relate to the core-concepts of this course. The research paper may be started at any time and handed in any time, but will be due no later than Session 7, the night of our field trip. I suggest you do not start on this paper immediately, however, for after you experience a few weeks of this course, you will have a much better idea of the required concepts involved.

You will have two weeks to complete your take-home, open-book final. It will be an essay final involving the concepts presented in all the articles, lectures, films, and other media presented in class.

You are a new CEO in a 25-year old company with 100 employees. Your company makes computer boards for PCs. It is your job to create an empowered work force with the security needed to protect the piracy and theft of corporate secrets and assets. Because you are a new CEO and are starting new procedures and policies, you are creating change. This change will create insecurities among some employees, reveal some Hems and Haws, some Sniffs and Scurries. According to our bible, the article Fraud, Ethics, and Empowerment, several measures are needed for security and company efficiency during times of change, both to protect the company and to foster empowerment.

Write a 5 page paper using information from Who Moved my Cheese, Fraud, Ethics, and Empowerment, and any pertinent 3 articles assigned in class from Computers in Society, and present your plan as the new CEO to create an empowered and secure company.

Hand this in the last day of class along with your research paper. Please - double spaced, New Times Roman, 12 point font, one inch margins.

These Web Sites are to be used for educational purposes only. In order to combat illegal hacking, it is necessary to understand how and why these activities take place.

Below are some hacker and pfreaker websites. Study them to learn about their environment, culture, beliefs, and purpose. Learn the difference between the hacker that's a vandal and the hacker that's looking for security leaks in software encouraging the manufacture of such software to repair the vulnerable points in its product.