**3. Information security in contemporary society**

The introduction of computers in almost every dimension of the society has changed the way people and organizations obtain or use information, or doing business: greater efficiency is achieved, control of operations is increased and there is better access to information. Along with many benefits, computers and connecting them to the network presents negative aspects, such as the emergence of new types of offenses (distribution of computer virus), and the possibility of committing traditional crimes through new technologies (such as fraud or forgery).

With the spread of technology, more powerful and available at increasingly smaller prices, and massive expansion of inter-connectivity, offered to the potential attackers the possibility to create quick attacks without geographical barriers, often with serious consequences for the victims and with little chance of detection or incrimination. Because electronic attacks against information systems can make a lot of negative consequences of financial, operational, legal or strategic type—at the individual level, organization or national, the risks for electronic attacks must be well understood to be reduced or even eliminated.

Cybercrime is a real phenomenon these days, which is frequently reflected in the media. Fear of informatics attacks exceeds on intensity then that of ordinary theft or fraud. Criminological research on crimes carried out through computer systems aim to change the classic way that are seen as offenses in the criminal justice systems.

In the PhD study 'The legal aspects of cybercrime in the information society' (study COM‐ CRIM) [17] realized for the European Commission by Ulrich Sieber, from the University of Wurzburg, Germany, the following categories and sub-categories of computer crimes are shown:


**•** Computer-mediated communication (C.M.C.)

**•** Privacy and social control through ICT

**•** Project management with ICT support

**•** Public access to the Internet, etc.

attract more people to use them'.

**•** The relationship between technology and social change

**•** The impact on privacy and individual development

**•** Dynamics and trajectory ICT—policies and guidelines

and informatics, media and other professions and disciplines.

**•** ICT and changes in education (distance learning, e-learning, etc.)

power relations)

in the Knowledge Society

84

**•** Organizational changes resulting from the use of ICT (work, communication, structures,

Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Studies (ICIS 2016) - Interdisciplinarity and Creativity

Research information systems have the ability to draw attention to developing new technol‐ ogies. Benamati [9] said that 'changing technologies obliges our discipline to change more quickly than others'. Web 2.0 phenomenon has captured the attention of industry technology

The Internet is in the fifth stage of its development. First stage, starting from its appearance in the 1960s until the late 1980s, ARPANET [10] has been a well-kept secret, used by government scientists and researchers. The second phase, between 1987 and 1992, has made open the Internet to the public. In the third stage, 1992–1996, began with the realization of the HTTP [11] protocol, on which was created the World Wide Web (WWW) [12] and search engines. The global network has become an information service accessible from 1991 and, as described by Berners-Lee [13] (1991), 'the WWW project combines techniques of finding information and hypertext to create an easy to use global information system, but powerful at the same time'.

In the fourth stage of development, the Internet becomes a place where people are organizing communities that collaborate, cooperate and sometimes compete. Some favourite digital tools and services at this stage include social networking sites, collaborative writing tools, network services, file exchange between customers/users (peer-to-peer) and more. O'Reilly and Daugherty describe this stage in the evolution of the network as a 'Web 2.0', O'Reilly [14], a term introduced and officially registered in 2004. O'Reilly offered a clearer definition of the term thereof as the (2006) [15]: 'revolution in computer industry caused by the move towards using the Internet as a platform, and to understand the rules for success on that new platform. The most important of these rules is this: Build applications that use the network effects to

In the fifth stage since 2010, it begins Web 3.0—that is sometimes used as a synonym for Semantic Web, representing a 'web of data' that enables computers to understand the meaning of information on the WWW that means total dynamic web pages by including vector graphics and the introduction of 'Semantic Web' [16] as a tool of computing systems to observe

information in texts and generate new information based on them.


<sup>1</sup> The term is conceptually formulated for the first time in 2006 by Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium: 'People ask me what is Web 3.0. I think if you add vector graphics, and all content being dynamic, interactive and attractive, over Web 2.0, and also provide access to semantic web over an enormous data space, you get access to an incredible data resource'[18].Also, he defines the Semantic Web as 'a component of Web 3.0, a data network that can be processed directly and indirectly by computers'[18].

	- **◦** Piracy of computer programs
	- **◦** Computer sabotage
	- **◦** Computer fraud
	- **◦** Distribution of pieces of information that is illegal or injurious (racist propaganda, dissemination of pornographic materials, etc.)
	- **•** Other crimes:
		- **◦** Crimes against life
		- **◦** Offenses related to organized crime
		- **◦** Electronic warfare
