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ence level of the computer user thereby jeopardising the cyber system itself.

Computer is a tool

This is a result of the technological advances upon the traditional crimes. Here, the traditional crime is committed with the aid of the computer or Internet etc. Essentially, the criminal introduces a new code (programming instructions) to manipulate the computer’s analytical process, thereby facilitating the crime or converts a legitimate purpose [6] . In this category of computer crimes, the computer is not essential for the crime to occur, but is related to the criminal act. This means that the crime could occur without the technology; however, computerization helps the crime to occur faster, permits processing of greater amounts of information, and makes the crime more difficult to identify and trace. Here the processes and not the contents of the computer facilitate the crime. [7]

Crimes in this category include fraudulent use of credit cards and accounts, theft of money from accrual, conversion or transfer of accounts, telecommunication fraud etc. One example of using a computer as a tool or instrument to commit a crime is the growing problem of individuals using cellular phones and then electronically billing charges to other customers. In this case offenders obtain cellular billing identification codes by using scanning devices, which are small parabolic antennae connected to the portable computers. When activated, these scanners capture and store account numbers transmitted by cellular phones simply by hooking up the phones simply by hooking up the phones to a personal computer.

Computer is incidental

The advantages of the cyber space allow the criminals more sophistication and global reach. For example the paedophiles and child pornography is nothing new but the advent of Internet has increased their reach and access and thus made the menace much more serious. Through the medium of Internet they are able to lure the innocent children, with almost no threat of exposure, by using false identities. Similarly, fraud is not a new crime. But the use of internet makes it easy for the fraudster to target the entire world and yet escape the consequences. The ever repeating Nigerian Money laundering scam in which unsuspecting individuals for countries like India are made to pay significant amounts as administrative charges for facilitating transfer of huge amounts from Nigeria, with a promise of a generous cut of the bounty, is an example of this kind of cyber fraud. Internet is being utilized for a wide range of illegal activities ranging from sex racketing to illegal sale of firearms and international money laundering. [8]

Computer as associate

Yet another type of crimes that falls under the purview of Cyber crimes is the new versions of traditional crimes that arose as a result of widespread increase in the availability of computers and Information Technology. Software piracy is an ideal example of this type of crimes. It is only because there is a ready market due to large number of computers, that software piracy takes place. In this type of cybercrimes, technological growth essentially creates new crime targets. Counterfeiting, copyright violations, theft of computer accessories, piracy in audio and video markets etc are some examples of this type of crimes. As the Internet and computers increase their presence in the global societ