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Discussion Forum

Many people consider cyber space to mirror the bricks and mortar world.  Therefore, one would expect many of the same types of crime to occur in cyber space as occur in the bricks and mortar world.  Listed below are examples of various types of crime that can and do occur in cyber space.  This list is not exhaustive.  And, as the internet technology changes, the types and prevalence of crimes that occur in cyber space will also change. To learn more about the various examples of cyber-crime listed on this page, please click on the appropriate links in the table directly below:

 Software Priacy  

Software piracy is very common in the United states and other countries.  

      Making a copy for archival purposes (i.e., for a back up) is considered fair use.  However, anything beyond that is considered to be software piracy.  Software piracy is the illegal reproduction and distribution of software applications, whether for business or personal use. For example, this could involve creating an illegal copy of software and selling it, giving it to someone or retaining the copy and selling the original.  This is considered to be a type of copyright infringement or violation of a license agreement.  In terms of license violation, one controversial issue is whether  the unauthorized user is viiolating the software license.  This is because, when using an unauthorized copy, the unauthorized user is not a party to the sales contract and, therefore, not bound by the license.  Using this same logic, only the original purchaser would be in violation of the license agreement.

There are also some controversies about the legality of the typical software license when the license is contained within a shrink wrapped packaged.  Can a buyer consent to a contract of license before they have seen the terms?  If not, then purchase alone can't constitute an agreement to the terms of the contract.  

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 Hacking  

A hacker is an unauthorized user who attempts to or gains access to an information system.

Originally, a hacker was a term of respect used to designate a computer programmer or engineer who created original and ingenious programs or way to solve a problem.  Currently, the term is used to describe people who who break into/access an information systems/software

Hacking is a crime even if there is no tangible damage to the system.  This is because unauthorized computer access ALWAYS involves a non-tangible damage vis-a-vis invasion of privacy/browsing of data.  Thus, unauthorized intrusion  is sort of like trespassing in that both are criminal even if there is no tangible damage

Hacking was criminalized by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Section 1030 Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Computers which states:

(a) Whoever having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access….has committed a crime

Types of Hackers:

• White hat

Ethical hacker are often involved in penetration testing

These people work for a company to try to break into the company system so that ‘holes’ can be found and fixed

May be full time employee of company or consultant

Certification courses available – some funded by DOJ

Tiger Teams: groups of ethical hackers hired to ‘test’ the defenses of an organization’s system

White hat hackers believe that: information-sharing is good, and that it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise by writing free software (freeware) and facilitating access to information

However, there are some ‘white hat hackers’ who are just  "joyriding" on computer systems for fun

System hacking for fun is acceptable as long as the hacker only takes ‘memories’.

There is a ‘thrill’ from breaking into a system and solving a technical puzzle

• Black hat

Causes damage after intrusion;

May steal/modify data, insert viruses, etc

Also called ‘crackers’

 

• Grey hat

Typically ethical but occasionally violates  hacker ethics

Hackers will hack into networks, stand-alone computers and/or software. 

Software hacking can involve software piracy in that the hacker uses technology to get around software security measures (e.g., registration, expiration dates, passwords) that protect copyrighted material.  This allows the hacker to use software without paying for it or beyond the length of the terms for which they did pay for

Network hackers try to gain unauthorized access to private computer networks.  They can do this for many reasons: 

• Just for the challenge;

• Look around and satisfy their curiosity;

• Liberate" (distribute) the information;

• Hack in to do damage;

 Viruses and Worms

There is a distinction between hackers and 'crackers'.  Hackers perform simple unauthorized intrusion with no damage.  Conversely, crackers perform unauthorized intrusion with damage.  Examples of damage could be:

• Stealing proprietary or confidential information

• Changing information

• Inserting malware (viruses, worms, etc) – the topic of this session

Viruses

A computer program line any other computer program.  Most computer viruses have a destructive ‘payload’ that is activated under certain conditions – such as when the user opens an attachment to email or executes a file. Previously, a virus creator had to be proficient in computer programming language – usually BASIC or some similar language.  Today, however, there are virus construction tools, templates available on-line (e.g., http://www.instructables.com/id/E0QSK3O6G1ES1760C4/)

There are several types of viruses

• Boot viruses:

Boot program is responsible for loading the operating system (e.g., Windows, DOS)

A ‘boot’ virus, infects & replaces the boot program (either on hard drive or disk) These viruses infect floppy disk boot records or master boot records in hard disks.

Examples: Form, Disk Killer, Michelangelo, and Stone virus

• Program viruses:

These infect executable program files (e.g.,.BIN, .COM, .EXE, )  These programs are loaded in memory during execution, taking the virus with them. The virus becomes active in memory, making copies of itself and infecting files on disk.

Examples: Sunday, Cascade

• Stealth viruses:

As their name suggests, these viruses HIDE so anti-virus programs can’t find them. They use several techniques to hide.  They can hide by either redirecting the disk head to read another sector instead of the one in which they reside or they mask the size of the file that in which it hides

Examples: Frodo, Joshi, Whale

• Polymorphic viruses:

This is a virus that can encrypt its code in different ways so that it appears differently in each infection.  These viruses are more difficult to detect.

Examples: Involuntary, Stimulate, Cascade, Phoenix , Evil, Proud, Virus 101

• Macro Viruses:

A macro is a shortcut key combination.

For example, pressing one key on the keyboard (e.g., the letter 'a') executes multiple commands with just this one press of the button.  Macros are used in word processing, spreadsheets, etc. A macro virus infects macros within a document or template. When you open a word processing or spreadsheet document, the macro virus is activated, it infects the Normal template (Normal.dot) Normal.dot is a general purpose file that stores default document formatting settings.Every document you open uses to the Normal template and gets infected.The infection can spread if infected documents are opened on other computers.

Examples: DMV, Nuclear, Word Concept

Worms

A self-contained & self replicating  malicious computer program.  The differences between worm & virus are:

• Virus can’t work without another program and can’t self-replicate

• A worm uses a network to send copies of itself to other systems and it does so without any intervention.

• Worms harm the network and consume bandwidth,

• Viruses infect or corrupt individual files on a targeted computer but don’t impact network performance

  Crimes of E-Commerce

Crimes of e-commerce can involve crimes such as corporate espionage, money laundering, embezzlement, spamming, misuse of trademark domain names, denial of services, etc

• Corporate espionage

  Corporate espionage is the  "theft of trade secrets through illegal means such as wiretaps, bribery and cyber intrusions."
  

  Estimated cost in US is $25-100 BILLION annually

  Can be gathered by Competitive Intelligence (CI) firms 

  • Many large companies hire CI firms and hide the cost in their budged under 'research and development' or 'market research'
  • Surprisingly, 85% of information is still gathered through 'human factors' (i.e., from employees or other insiders via trickery, bribery or blackmail)
  • However, corporation America'’ increasing reliance on computers for email, storage of documents, databases, etc makes them very vulnerable to e-espionage making network security, etc increasingly vital.

• Money laundering  

Money laundering is moving illegally acquired cash through financial and other systems so that it appears to be legally acquired   There are several techniques for money laundering.  Some are described below:

1. Transport to country with less stringent banking regulations (i.e., off shore) and then move it back into this country via 'loans' on which the 'borrower' has to pay 'interest' which can be deducted from his taxes. 

2. Transform cash into goods like real estate, luxury items, etc.  This is ostentatious and difficult to hide from the IRS

3. Smurfing or breaking large sums into smaller sums and depositing them into different amounds just under the federal reporting requirements

While all of these methods were possible prior to computer and internet technology, Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT's) have made all three of the above much easier and more successful!

There are three phases of money laundering:  

1.  Placement

   Remove the cash from the location of acquisition and to then transform it into other asset forms ( e.g., travelers cheques, postal money orders, etc)

2. Layering

   Create complex layers of financial transactions

   Layers are created by moving monies in and out of offshore bank accounts of shell companies through electronic funds' transfer (EFT)

    

3. Integration

Money is integrated into the legitimate economic and financial system and is assimilated with all other assets in the system.  This can be accomplished by several mechanisms: 

1. Establish anonymous companies in other, more secret countries 

2. Grant themselves ‘loans’ out of the laundered money in the course of a future legal transaction.  To increase their profits, they will also claim tax relief on the loan repayments and charge themselves interest on the loan.

3. Transfer the money (via EFT) to a legitimate bank from a bank owned by the launderers (i.e., an ‘off the shelf banks’ which are easily purchased in other countries)

There are several law enforcement tools available to fight money laundering:

1. Bank Secrecy Act of 1970

   Requires reporting of suspicious deposits over $10K

    

2. Money Laundering Control Act 1986

   Requires reporting of all deposits – including those under $10k – if they are ‘suspicious’.  This helps uncover ‘smurfing’

    

3. Federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

Provides direct case support to law enforcement agencies investigating money laundering

Provides training & database access to law enforcement

Promotes international cooperation

• Embezzlement

  Unlawful misappropriation of money, property or other thing of value that has been entrusted to an offender’s care, custody or control

  The Process of Becoming an Embezzler

  Cressy’s Three Stage Process

  Faced with financial and un-shareable financial problem

  Recognize embezzlement as a way to solve problem

  Uses their employment position of trust

  Must possess the skill & technical knowledge necessary to do the deed

  Rationalize their acts  (e.g., ‘just borrowing”

  Avoids internalizing criminal self-concept

   

• Identity theft

Taking identifying information without permission and  using it to fraudulently obtain goods or services

Common Ways to Commit Identity Theft include

1. Dumpster diving

2. Shoulder surfing

3. Phishing

4. Tricking someone into giving them confidential information. For example: sending an e-mail falsely claiming to be a legitimate enterprise to scam the user into surrendering private information used for identity theft.

5. Access to identity information through a relationship with the victim

6. Wallet or purse stolen

7. Telephone or mail solicitation and/or purchase

8. Use of legitimately obtained identity information (e.g., on a loan application) by company employee who uses the information fraudulently

 

•    Spamming 

                        

Spamming is sending unsolicited bulk and/or commercial messages over the Internet.  Although irritating to most email users, it is not llegal unless it causes damage such as:

1. Negative impact on consumer attitudes toward Internet Service Provider

2. Overload network and disrupt service to subscribers 

• Misuse of trademarked domain names 

A domain or website name can be a trademark infringement if the domain name uses the name of a famous 'mark' or name.  A trademark is a name, symbol, or other device identifying a product.  It is officially registered and legally restricted to the use of the owner or manufacturer

For example, MicroSoft is the name of a company and www.microsoft.com is the name of their website. A domain name has to be registered when you launch a website.  If the name of one site is substantially similar to that of another, this creates a potential trademark infringement if the first site’s name is a registered trademark.  In a well known but somewhat silly website infringement case, a young teen boy named Mike Row decided it would be funny to build his own website named www.MikeRowSoft.com which told about the boy's life and his school activities.

MicroSoft felt that this was a trademark infringement and sent the boy a letter from the corporate attorneys ordering him to 'cease and desist' which the boy did.  Had this case ever actually gone to court, however, it is unlikely that MicroSoft would have won the case because the website of Mike was substantially different from that of MicroSoft and, thereby, unlikely to cause confusion among MicroSoft clients.  Furthermore, the spelling of Mike's website was not so close to that of MicroSoft making it unlikely that a user  would inadvertently confuse the two when trying to reach MicroSoft's site

•     Denial of Services

Denial of services involves an incident in which a user is deprived of the services for which they pay (e.g., email, access to network or website, etc).  For example,  Web site accessed by millions of fraudulent users can occasionally can crash the site or slow the syste

This is usually intentional and malicious, but can  sometimes happen accidentally. It can be very expensive to the owner of the web-based business

 

 

  On-Line SEX  : Exploitation and Obscenity on the WWW

Crimes of Sexual Exploitation

Sexual exploitation is an abuse of a position of power or trust for sexual purposes.  Most typically, victims of sexual exploitation are women and children.   Crimes of sexual exploitation include two basic categories: NON-commercial  (e.g., pedophilia) and  commercial (e.g., kiddy porn, obscene materials, prostitution, sex slaves for profit)

 Sexual exploitation is not a new crime - in fact, prostitution is also referred to as the 'oldest profession'.  However, computers provide a new technology to commit this ‘old’ crime and to add layers of anonymity between the perpetrator and the criminal justice system.  However, even with this new technology, both sex slavery and prostitution is still pretty much ‘old school’ non-technological crimes.  Yet, the advent of 'U-Tube' and the ability to post personal videos on the internet along with the ability to 'chat' via instant messages may provide the technology to sell something similar to prostitution.  Similarly, the communications technology inherent in the internet and the world wide web cna provide the technology to communicate more anonymously between seller and client thereby 'hiding' more effectively from law enforcement.  One interesting example of this occurred in Merrimac New Hampshire where a prostitution ring  was advertising its services on-line.  When a potential client would email, the 'manager' of the ring would screen that person and then, if the potential client 'passed' the screening, an appointment would be made, a code word given and a location disclosed.  Since police don't typically 'patrol' the internet and victims, as clients, don't typically complain, the probability of finding this prostitution ring was minimal.  The only reason that the police became aware of this ring is because the manager screened-in an underage boy, the boy's father found out and loged a complaint with the Merrimack New Hampshire police who went to the location with a warrant.  They found all the transaction records, client names (both their real names and their code names), credit card transaction numbers, etc on the computer hard drives of the ring's manager.

Sex Slaves 

Women and children with little power are trick into service or sold to sex brokers and forced to perform sexual acts for money.  While this is somewhat similar to prostitution, in the case of sex slaves, the women get none of the profits and their participation is not voluntary.  Instead, they are forced to participate in prostitution and other services due to the power differential between the prostitute and the ‘broker.  For example, brokers in countries with poor economies may advertise for well paid positions (e.g., nanny, house keeper, etc) available in other countries.   The girls who are hired are illegally transported across borders until they get to the buyer's country.  Most of the girls don't speak the language of the new country and are unlikely to complain to the authorities of that country even if they could speak the language because they are aware that they are being transported illegally.  See video of women from the Soviet Union who have been tricked in this fashion by going to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/

Debt bondage is another mechanism similar to the above in which young girls are sold into sex slavery.  Only in the case of debt bondage, parents or guardians pay off loans or acquire needed finances by selling children into sex slavery.  This is often the way young girls enter prostitution in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Pakistan & Thailand.  This phenomena  is illustrated in the popular book and movie, Memoirs of a Geisha which is described on-line at http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/memoirsofageisha/index.html 

Another method that brokers use in order to acquire quasi slaves for the sex market is to 'collect' run-away/throw-away kids.  Many such brokers lurk about Greyhound bus depots and befriend young women who appear to have run away.   They offer them friendship, understanding and a place to stay.   They are 'persuaded' to work as prostitutes, star in porn films in and other similar activities in exchange for shelter, food and drugs.  While this is not sex slavery, per se, it is a grey area between prostitution and sex slaves

On-Line marketing of Prostitution or 'Talk Sex' Services

As illustrated by the example in Merrimack New Hampshire, prostitution services, can be advertised on the web in a way that puts layers between the seller, the clients and law enforcement.  Another phenomena is the sex-for-money chatrooms.  There are web sites auctioning/selling call girls (and boys).  These sites don't screen for age and the highest bidder gets the girl.  Examples of such sites include:

www.sidewalkbubblegum.com/pctyrant.com/hookers.html 

www.adultfriendfinder.com 

www.NewSexBuddy.com 

www.AdultDatingPortal.com 

www.free-chat-line.com 

Child Pornography

Child pornography is use of images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  In the U.S., illegal to view or possess child porn.  It, therefore, is illegal to display  child pornography on the internet.  The internet has dramatically increased the access of sex offenders to the population they seek to victimize because of anonymity and its ability to act as a geographic multiplier (i.e., distance is not a problem so pedophiles, etc can 'fish' in ponds at a great distance from their residence). 

The internet can not only function as well stocked pond in which pedophiles can fish (for example, chatrooms, etc designed for kids are great places for pedophiles to meet children) but its instant communication abilities allow pedophiles to 'groom' their potential victims. For example, during the courtship phase of pedophilia, the pedophile uses the internet to send photos of illegal child pornography to targeted children.  This is done to suggest to the children that everyone does that and that it can be fun.  More about the stages of the grooming process will be discussed below.

 

Regulation of cyber-sex

Is cyberspace within the purview of ‘bricks and mortar’ criminal justice?  As discussed on the 'Jurisdiction' page, they have no jurisdiction over what is on servers in other countries.  However, the criminal justice system can regulate what people can view here on computers in the U.S.  One problem is that information flows so rapidly on the internet and so anonymously (especially with the ability to get free email addresses through Yahoo, etc), that it's difficult to find out who is responsible?   If you can’t find the responsible party, how can the law sanction them?  Or should you sanction the Internet Service Providers (ISP's) on whose servers the information was stored or sent?  The issue of holding a 3d party responsible for content published by another is controversial and has many pros and cons as described below.  Some of the arguments in favor of regulation by criminal justice and legislative systems include: 

1. Laws regulate the content of books and magazines that are published in other countries but distributed here…why not do the same with computers

2. There may be no legal control over what’s on servers in other countries but you CAN have legal control over what can be viewed on computers in the US.  (blocking and filtering software)

3. Publishers of books and magazines are liable for publishing libel, obscenity and kiddy porn…why not consider internet service providers to be ‘publishers’

Some laws that attempt to regulate content on the internet are: 

Federal Compute Decency Act (CDA)

This was the rirst attempt by Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet by attempting to regulate obscenity,  in general, for all cyberspace and indecency for children specifically.  As part of its effort to regulate indecency against children, it proclaimed child pornography illegal.  It further designated, as illegal, pornography in which an adult who appeared to be a child was posing in an indecent manner.  It declared that ISP’s were not publishers (and thus not legally liable for the words of third parties who use their services).  In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Couirt held the indecency portion to be facially overbroad and unconstitutional  because of the part that sanctioned the adult posing as a child.

State Legislation Regulating Internet

Cover topics such as:

1. Selling or distributing harmful materials to minors,

2. Using e-mail for lascivious, filthy or obscene purposes with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass, etc

3. Since internet use crosses state boarders, internet regulation likely to be more successful  and less difficult at federal level

4. Vehicle for interstate commerce???

Internet School Filtering Act

Schools & libraries that receive federal funds must install blocking software that keeps kids out but doesn’t intrude on adult right to view porn (who have a constitutional right to view porn but not obscenity).  There are four common approaches to filtering:

1.  Keyword filtering that blocks access to sites with certain keywords in them.  Examples include Cybernanny and Net Nanny

2. Rating systems where web authors would self-rate for adult content and parents could block those sites with adult ratings.

3. User specific profiles which involves software that allows a user (i.e., parent, library, school, employer, etc) to block access to certain sites during certain time periods

4.  Site blocking in which the filter limits the number of sites that can be accessed to a proprietary list developed by an organization or commercial enterprise.  

Legislation and Other Interventions Regarding Pornography

1. PROTECTION OF CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL PREDATORS ACT 1998 - prohibits the use of the mail or interstate commerce to transmit kiddy porn to anyone

2. CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION ACT - rohibits anyone, by means of a commercial Web site, from knowingly making a communication that is "harmful to minors" available to minors under 17 years of age for commercial purposes

3. Innocent Images National Initiative - This is a component of the FBI's cyber crimes program.  It identifies, investigates and prosecutes sexual predators who use the internet and on-line services to sexually exploit children.  It, therefore, establishes a law enforcement presence on the internet.

4. CyberTipline which is a place in which victims or others can report child exploitation on the internet

Prevalence of Child Exploitation on the internet

The CyberTipline shows significant increase in child exploitation on the net. In 2001, there were 24,442 reports whereas in only the first half of 2006 - by the end of August - there were 370,497 reports of child exploitation on the internet.  The Youth Safety Survey indicates that, of the kids ages ten (10) to seventeen (17) who use computers 20% received a sexual solicitation over internet in previous yea, 3% received an aggressive sexual solicitation (e.g., phone call, presents, etc) and 25% received unwanted exposure to erotic photos.  The modal gender of the victims was, as expected, female (66% of the victims were girls).  However, interestingly, one-third (34%) were boys.  

See an interesting discussion about whether we have gone too far by going to  http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2785100.  This site displays the plight of a teen boy who faces prison time for viewing sexually explicit web sites - a phenomena that many would consider to be a typical rite of passage for teens.  

Uses of Computers for Law Enforcement Regulation of On-Line Sex Crimes

FBI's Innocent Images task force is pursuing several cases of online prostitution rings.  The Chicago police department has an on-line site which describes prostitution statutes and puts photos of the ‘johns’ on line (see http://chicago.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=chicago&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagopolice.org%2Fps%2F%23).  Photos of accused sexual predators are on line at http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/profiled.htm . 

Cyber Stalking

Each state can statutorily define stalking their own way.  Although legal definitions of stalking vary by state, stalking, commonly defined as "the willful, malicious and repeated following or harassing of another person"  Many stalking laws require that the perpetrator make an explicit threat of violence against the victim or the victim's family.  The types of behavior typically involved in stalking are harassing or threatening another person. However, there are a multitude of other behaviors that can also constitute stalking such that virtually any unwanted contact between a stalker and their victim which directly or indirectly communicates a threat or places the victim in fear can be referred to as stalking.  

Cyber stalking involves use of the Internet to stalk someone.  This term is used interchangeably with online harassment and online abuse.   Generally, cyber stalking does  not involve physical contact at the start of the stalking episodes.  This makes it appear as less important than physical stalking. However,  online harassment and threats may be a prelude to more serious behavior, including physical violence. 

Psychologists have put together a psychological profile of the cyber stalker and indicate that many stalkers are motivated by a desire to exert control over their victims.  The  anonymous nature of Internet communications allows people to do what they might not do in person because there are fewer of the social norms that govern cyber-interactions than regulate face-to-face associations. 

The majority of cyber stalkers are men and the majority of victims are women.  In many cases, the cyber stalker and the victim had a prior relationship, and the cyber stalking begins when the victim attempts to break off the relationship. There also have been many instances of cyberstalking by strangers. However, stranger-to-stranger cyber stalking is not as prevalent as stalking between acquaintances.    Enormous amount of personal information on the net makes it easy for a  a cyberstalker to get information about a potential victim

Hate Crimes on the Internet

As is true of many crimes, the legal definition of a hate crime varies by state.  A commonly accepted definition of a hate crime is a crime motivated, in whole or in part, by hostility to a victim based on the victim’s membership in a religious, ethnic, racial, religious group or sexual orientation, gender or disability status.   The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) publishes a special report on Hate Crimes called  Hate Crime Statistics at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2005/index.html  According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) only 44% of hate crimes are reported to police making it a very under-reported crime.  In general, hate crimes involve more violence than other crimes.  For example, eighty-four percent (84%) of hate crimes were violent, as contrasted with twenty-three percent (23%) of non-hate crimes.  

Although hate crimes are crimes that have been in existence for centuries, hate groups have begun to have a presence on the internet with over 1,500 hate groups have a web presence.  Can hate groups publish their messages of hate on the internet?  Absolutely!  Regardless of how abhorrent many people consider hate groups to be, the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of free speech guarantees to everyone - hate groups included - so long as they are not advocating imminent unlawful behavio

Functions that an internet presence serves for hate groups are many and varied.  Hate groups advertise, recruit, communicate, solicit donations and sell goods on the internet.  There are also hate motivated computer games on the internet in which points are given to the user for killing a member of a particular ethnic group.  A small sample of  hate groups on the internet are listed below::

• The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) which is at www.kkk.com .  The KKK describes itself as an American fraternal organization.  It advocates white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism and anti-Catholocism.  It often uses terrorism, violence and acts of intimidation.  

• WorldChurch of the Creator is one of the fastest-growing hate groups in the 1990.  The group operates 22 web sites including a site designed specifically to teach racialist thinking to young children and another geared toward recruiting women.  Their battel cry is RaHoWa" (Racial Holy War)'.  Their web site is at http://www.adl.org/poisoning_web/wcotc.asp and their on-line store is at http://www.wcotc.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=3.  

• Stormfront is another hate group with a presence on the web at www.stormfront.org .  Their web site implies that their philosophy is based on religious ideology.  This is a particularly compelling approach to proselytizing and recruiting members.  If modern day terrorism trends have shown us nothing else, they have demonstrated how committed people can be to an ideology with religious overtones.  And, considering the suicide bombers, how much devotees are willing to give up for their cause!  When Black appeared on 'Nightline' he explained that his web presence allows them to recruit people via the internet who he would otherwise wound't have reached.  In addition to recruitment of potential members, the Stormfront web presences, provides people who are attracted to Stormfront phhilosopy a forum to talk with eachother and to form a virtual community.  Interestingly, Black also hosts a website that purportedly addresses alternative health at  http://www.bamboo-delight.com/   This site hides downloadable anti-Semetic and racist computer games under the false front of a company selling Tai Chi Chuan Chinese Exercise materials.  These games give points to users who kill a victim of the appropriate ethnic group and, when the victim dies, it utters something particularly ethnic. 

• Resistance Records at www.resistance.com  roduces and sells music by neo-nazi musicians through its website.  It also publishes a magazine called Resistance Magazine.  Like Stormfront, it also provides a computer game.  This game, called 'Ethnic Cleansing' can be played on-line  and can be found at www.resistance.com/ethniccleansing/catalog.htm. Players run through urban areas with guns.  They get points for killing African Americans, Jews and Latinos.  When an African enemy is shot, it squeals like a monkey.  When a Jewish enemy is killed, it shouts 'Oy Vey!'. 

There are Anti-Hate group watchers - those organizations that task theselves with the responsibility of watching hate groups and reporting on them to insure that they remain as benign as is possible.  Some examples of hate group watchers are listed below:

1. Simon Wiesenthal Center

2. Hate Watch from the Southern Poverty Law Center

3. The Anti-Defamation League

4. The Hate Directory

5. The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism and RAcism

6. The Council on American-Islamic Relations

7. CyberSquatters Against Hate

8. Free Speech and Hate Speech