In America, and worldwide, there is a growing concern for a new breed of criminal acts. These acts are classified as computer crimes, and they are performed with ease through the assistance of a personal computer. The slang term for this variation of crime is hacking. Computer crime is defined as a criminal activity directly related to the use of computers, specifically illegal trespass into the computer system or database of another, manipulation or theft of stored or online data, or sabotage of equipment and data. Computer viruses are the most prevalent forms of computer crimes. A computer virus is defined as a computer program that is designed to replicate itself by copying itself into the other programs stored in a computer. It may be benign or have a negative effect, such as causing a program to operate incorrectly or corrupting a computer's memory. By comparing these two definitions it is very noticeable that a virus is a form of computer crime. A virus falls into the classification of illegal trespass into the system or database of someone else. A similar form of hacking is known as a worm. This refers to an autonomous program that transfers itself through a network, taking up residence in machines and forwarding copies of itself through the network. These can also merely be for play or meant to cause malicious effects on a computer system. The two of these are sometimes collectively referred to as computer vandalism.
             The existence of computer viruses is growing at an enormous rate. New viruses hit the "market" on a daily basis. I, personally, receive emails every couple of days from my anti-virus software distributor notifying me of updated virus definitions. National security is also threatened by hackers and the like. A vast amount of this nation's, and others, confidential information is stored on networks that are linked to the internet. With this knowledge, a novice hacker can retrieve just about any information that...