Computer crime is an act performed by a knowledgeable computer user, sometimes referred to as a hacker that illegally browses or steals a company's or individual's private information.

In some cases, this person or group of individuals may be malicious and destroy or otherwise corrupt the computer or data files.

Computer crime is also known as cybercrime, e-crime, electronic crime, or hi-tech crime.

There are four major categories of computer crime:

1. The computer as a target: Computers can be the target of an illegal activity, which means the attacker has the main objective to deny the owners or legal users of the system their data or computer.
2. The computer as an instrument of the crime: In this category, a computer is used to gain some information or data, which data is further used for any illegal activity. For example, a computer system can be used by a hacker to steal personal information, which can be used for a criminal objective.
3. The computer as incidental to a crime: The computer may be incidental to a crime which means it can only facilitate the crime but may not be the primary instrument of it. For example, the trading of child pornography and money laundering.
4. Crimes associated with the prevalence of computers: This category comprises actions such as software piracy, intellectual property theft, and other crimes against the computer industry.

Reasons for committing computer crime:

In most cases, someone commits a computer crime to obtain goods or money. Some people may also commit a computer crime because they are pressured, or forced, to do so by another person.

Some people also commit computer crimes to prove they can do it.

Examples of computer crimes:

• Theft: Stealing or taking anything (e.g., hardware, software, or information) that doesn't belong to you.
• Wiretapping: Connecting a device to a phone line to listen to conversations.
• Swatting: The act of calling in a false police report to someone else's home.
• Spoofing: Deceiving a system into thinking you are someone you're not.
• Vandalism: Damaging any hardware, software, website, or other objects.
• Unauthorized access: Gaining access to systems you have no permission to access.
• Software piracy: Copying, distributing or using software that was not purchased by the user of the software.
• Salami slicing: Stealing tiny amounts of money from each transaction.
• Identity theft: Pretending to be someone you are not.
• Harvesting: Collecting account or account-related information on other people.
• Fraud: Manipulating data, e.g., changing banking records to transfer money to an account or participating in credit card fraud.
• Espionage: Spying on a person or business.
• Cyberbullying or Cyberstalking: Harassing or stalking others online.
• Cyber terrorism: Hacking, threats, and blackmailing of a business or person.
• Copyright violation: Stealing or using another person's copyrighted material without permission.
• Child pornography: Making, distributing, storing, or viewing child pornography.