" The use of stepping stones can make it difficult for law enforcement to find where an attack actually originated. As was previously mentioned in this discussion, Hackers are often used by companies to develop stronger security. Hackers often perfect their techniques at conventions that also feature hacking competitions. The competitions are usually sponsored by large organizations and challenge the Hackers to see if they can break the companies programming codes or hack into their systems. According to an article found in the Yale Law Journal

The contests are popular among hackers. One contest...logged almost 20,000 attacks. The companies carefully tailor their competitions to the participants' motivations. More than a passing fad, competitions are increasingly prevalent, and some of them are annual affairs. Companies continue to put contests to new uses. Early last year, the search engine Google announced a programming contest to develop software, and Microsoft challenged hackers in order to test its software's security (Wible, pg.1557)."

In addition to "professional" hackers, there is also a great deal of readily available software and hacking instructions available on the internet. This means that the developing of hacking techniques is no longer necessary. People with absolutely no experience as hackers can cause a great deal of harm to individual users and organizations.

Current legislation

For many years legislators have attempted to introduce laws that will deter and harshly punish cyber criminals. According to the American Criminal Law Review

In 2003, the White House released its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. In 2004, the United States Department of Justice Task Force on Intellectual Property issued its Report, and detailed the Justice Department's roadmap for combating crimes involving trade secrets and other intellectual property often stolen or distributed over computer networks. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has made cyber-crime a top priority. More recently, the House of Representatives passed a resolution acknowledging the "increasing threat of malicious attacks" through computer intrusions. Congress also enacted the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which made it a felony to use a computer to upload previously unreleased movies, games and software onto the Internet (Wang & Hoffstadt, pg 201).

The author also explains that that congress has considered and passed legislation that would make it against the law to use a computer to acquire personal information including social security numbers or credit card information (Wang & Hoffstadt). Congress has also considered legislation that would make it a crime to install software on a computer with the intent to engage in criminal activity (Wang & Hoffstadt).

It is evident that legislators are taking cyber crime very seriously. Legislators understanding the significant cost associated with maintain secure computer systems and networks. Legislators also understand that serious computer breaches can rattle consumer confidence and destroy businesses and...

The increased reliance on technology for such things as shopping and paying bills, increases the probability the cyber crimes will continue to increase. It is evident that cyber criminals are aware of the security measures that have been taken and they have found ways to circumvent many of these measures. Because this is the case cyber criminals are often one step ahead of law enforcement agents.
In the future, businesses and organizations will have to be savvier about the manner in which they approach security. In addition they will have to be more vigilant about who has access to a network. Many cyber crimes occur at the hands of employees and employers must be more aware of this reality.

Conclusion

The purpose of this discussion was to investigate various aspects of cyber crime. The research found that cyber crime is growing in prevalence and severity. The research also indicates that Law enforcement has experienced some success in tracking down perpetrators but failure in getting them convicted of a crime. The investigation also asserted there are several investigative elements that can be used to find cyber criminals including forensic analysis.

It is also evident from the research that Cyber security is costly and accounts for at least 10% of most it budgets. The research also suggests that Hacking is a sport in which stepping stones are a fundamental technique. In attempts to combat cyber crime, several legislative steps have been taken and congress seems to be aware of the serious nature of cyber crimes.

Lastly, it is very probable that cyber crimes are going to be prevalent well into the future