page 6
daily nebraskan
thursday, march 12, 1981
White-collar computer criminals draw millions
By Hollie Wieland
Computer crimes account for $100
million of the $40 billion lost to white
collar crime a year in America, said Harold
Berghel, assistant professor of computer
science.
Berghel, speaking in the Nebraska
Union, said although computer fraud
cases are spread throughout the United
States, they seem most prevalent in Cali
fornia, and least prevalent in the federal
government.
California has a large system of com
puter networks which probably accounts
for the larger number of computer crimes
there, Berghel said.
The federal government's lower number
of crimes could be due to a feeling of
paternalism, which might prevent people
from committing crirneR against their
country, but more likely such crimes are
dealt with by the administration and never
reach the public, Berghel said.
Four categories of computer crime were
listed by Berghel,
-cases when the computer is the in
strument of the act.
-cases in which the computer is the
victim of the act.
-cases in which the computer is used
to intimidate or deceive.
-cases in which the computer creates
a unique environment for the act.
According to Berghel, computer crimes
most often involve banks and education
services.
Free credit
Banking crimes generally involve mon-
Senators get student view
in GLC's adoption project
Adopt a senator. Visit his office. T.e
him out to lunch. Bring him home to meet
the folks. Voice your views as .. student to
the state senator from your district.
Adopt-a-senator is the newest project
sponsored by UNL's Government Liaison
Committee. GLC members Drew Belt, and
Laura Lonowski said the purpose of the
program is to "let the senators know what
the students are concerned about."
The committee will recruit at least 49
students from legislative districts to adopt
a senator. The students will be asked to
contact senators from their districts and
meet with them to discuss student con
cerns. Lonowski said the students will not be
required to discuss any specific topic with
their adopted senators.
She said, however, that GLC will pro
vide some general guidelines for meeting
with the senators.
GLC will be recruiting students for the
adopt-a-senator program Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday in a booth in the Ne
braska Union.
The committee will hold an orientation
meeting Sunday before students meet with
their adopted senator. A follow-up meeting
is April 5.
According to Belt, state senators have
endorsed the adopt-a-senator program.
"We have shared the idea with several
senators and they seemed pretty enthu
siastic about it," he said.
Belt, also said the program will not
limit one student to each legislative
district.
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ey, and education crimes involve services
such as assigning students extra credit
hours," Berghel said.
Berghel called one example of computer
fraud the "ping-pong check case." The
case involved a check with a false I ast
Coast bank identification on the top of
the check and a false West Coast magnetic
coding at the bottom.
Berghel said that when a check was
cashed on the Mast Coast, the computer
would read the magnetic coding and send
it West. It was then discovered by the
computer that there was no such bank
account and the check would then be sent
back Hast, where, if ran through a com
puter again, would be sent back West.
After three days banks automatically
consider checks good. Long before the
check returned to the hast for the first
time, the bank would have transferred
funds for the check into an account,
Berghel said, adding that several thousand
dollars could be gained through this pro
cess. Berghel cited another computer crime
which he called the "blank deposit case."
The crime involved replacing uncoded
deposit slips which banks provide for
customers with the criminal's deposit slips,
automatically depositing money into his
account.
Extra shipments
The "Jerry Schnieder case" involved
a man obtaining access to a company's
computerized system and ordering extra
shipments to be delivered to his warehouse.
Eventually when he had a full warehouse,
he sold his merchandise to the company
at a cut-rate, Berghel said.
Berghel said of people involved in com
puter crimes, only 50 percent are convicted
of felonies, 10 percent are charged with
felonies only to have the charges dropped,
35 percent are never prosecuted, and 5
percent are hired by the victim of the
computer crime.
According to Berghel, a study of com
puter crimes showed the average computer
criminal is 25 years old, generally does not
work alone, and thinks it is immoral
to criminally hurt an individual but it is
all right to hurt a large company.
The study also showed that more than
90 percent of computer crimes are per
formed by employees who generally
do not appear to do anything that would
lie considered abnormal in their wmk.
if
J g .
f ; :m '
Photo by Mitch Hrdlicka
Hal Berghel
Graduates choosing Lincoln
may explain city's growth
The growth Lincoln experienced be
tween 1970 and 1980 may have been due
partly to UNL graduating seniors deciding
to stay in the city.
Census records show Lincoln had a
population of 171.7X7 in 19X0. up 14.9
percent from the 1970 total, to rank 80th
in sie among the nation's cities.
The Nebraska capital was one of
only three northern cities to gain popula
tion since 1971, joining Columbus. Ohio,
and Anchorage, Alaska.
In an informal poll of I 5 seniors, all but
three said they intend to stay in the
Lincoln area.
Janinc Copple. a fine arts major, said
her staying would depend on whether she
will attend a graduate school or not. but
she said the city's growth did not surprise
her.
"I think people may be realizing life in
the big cities may not be what they want."
Copple said. "A city like Lincoln that's not
out in the sticks and still able to offer a
cultural life may be more enjoyable.
Marc Krause. who was graduated in
December with an accounting degree, said
Lincoln is a good place to find a job. is not
too big or tt'o small, and has a low crime
rate.
David Berger, a horticulture major who
was bom and raised in Lincoln, also said he
would stay.
"f rom my own observation, it's basical
ly a family town, and it's a clean town,"
Berger said.
"I know quite a few people from out of
state, and they are moving in not so much
because of the jobs the city has to offer,
but because of the good atmosphere."
'A lot of people are looking for that
nowadays." he added.
Jane Hurlbut. an elementary education
and human development major, said she
will stay in Lincoln if she can find a job
here.
"I like the town." Hurlbut said. "It's
nice, clean. There aie a lot of opportunities
available here, and it's just the right size."
Jim Harper, a pre-mcdieal student,
said that while Lincoln is a nice place to
live, he prefers a larger city.
"I like Lincoln, but I like Omaha a lot
bettei." Harper said. "There's a lot more
Omaha has to offer."
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