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TEP1241 Ethics and Professional Conduct

Chapter 7:
Cybercrime & CyberRelated Crimes

1

Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Among the questions examined in this chapter are:
– What is cybercrime, and how can it be distinguished from
cyber-related crimes?
– Can a meaningful distinction be drawn between hacking and
“cracking” in the context of cybertechnology?
– What is “active defense hacking” or counter hacking, and is it
morally permissible?
– Can biometric technologies be used to assist law enforcement
groups in identifying criminals in ways that are ethically
permissible?
– Why are jurisdictional issues problematic for prosecuting some
cybercrimes?

2

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Contents

1
...

3
...

5
...
National and International
Laws to Combact Cybercrime
Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

3

Cybercrimes and Cybercriminals
• Stories involving computer crime have been
highly publicized in the media
...
”
• The media also sometimes portrayed
hackers in the early days of computing as
“heroes
...

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

A "Typical" Cybercriminal
• Parker (1998) distinguishes between “hackers”
(as nonprofessional or “amateur” criminals) and
professional criminals
...
”
• He describes “typical computer hackers” as
exhibiting three common traits:
1) precociousness;
2) curiosity;
3) persistence
...
”
• The term “hacker” now has a negative
connotation
...
“Crackers”
• Himanen also notes that a hacker need not
be a computer enthusiast
...
”
 For example, someone can be an astronomy
hacker
...
”

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Hackers vs
...
”
• Unlike many traditional hackers, crackers
typically engage in acts of theft and
vandalism, once they gain access to a
computer
...
“Black Hat” Hackers
• Some use the expressions white hat hacker and
black hat hacker (see for example, Wall 2007) to
distinguish between the two types of behavior
separating hackers from crackers
...

• “Black hat hackers" are viewed as engaging in
behavior that is described above as "cracking
...

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Active Defense Hacking or Counter Hacking

• Can counter hacking or “hacking back” (at
hackers) be justified?
• Counter hacking has been done both by
individuals and corporations
...


Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Counter Hacking (Continued)
• Counter hacking can be either preemptive or
reactive
...

• Is counter hacking an act of self-defense, or is it
simply another case of “two wrongs making a
right”?
• It is difficult to provide a moral justification for
counter hacking; and from a legal perspective, it is
not clear whether “hacking back” can be viewed in
a way that is not criminal
...

• Hackers can use the computers of innocent
persons as “host computers” to initiate their
attacks
...
”
• Victims assume that the attacks originated from the
host computer, rather than from the actual
computer that initiated the attack
...

• Should counter hacking be legalized?
Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Hacking and the Law
• In this chapter, we analyze computer breakins and hacking-related issues mainly from a
legal perspective
...


Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Criteria for Determining Computer Crimes

• When is a crime a computer crime?
• There is often a problem of clear criteria
...


Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Criteria for Determining Computer Crimes (Continued)

• Do we need a separate category of
computer crime/cybercrime?
• Some crimes have involved technologies,
but do not require separate categories of
crime
...

• They also use automobiles to commit
crimes, but we don't have a category of
automobile crime
...
g
...


Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Criteria for Determining Computer Crimes (Continued)

• Each of the acts described in the three scenarios
is criminal in nature
...

• But these criminal acts can easily be prosecuted
as ordinary crimes involving theft, breaking and
entering, and vandalism
...
Can we justify such an
inference?
Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Defining Computer Crime
• Forester and Morrison (1994) define a
computer crime as “a criminal act in which a
computer is used as the principal tool
...
”
• But is Forester and Morrison's definition of
computer crime adequate?

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Defining Computer Crime (Continued)
• Review Scenario 4, where a person
(“Sheila”) uses a computer to file a
fraudulent income-tax return
...

• Has Sheila committed a computer crime?
 Consider that she could have committed the
same crime by manually filling out a
standard (hardcopy) version of the incometax forms by using a pencil or pen
...
"
• What is meant by "central component?"
• Was a computer a central component in the
scenario where Sheila filed the fraudulent income
tax form?
• It is difficult to distinguish which crimes have and
which do not have a computer as their central
component
Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Towards a Coherent Definition of Cybercrime

• We define a (genuine) cybercrime as a crime
in which the criminal act can:

1) be carried out only through the use of
cybertechnology, and
2) take place only in the cyber realm
...

• And it also rules out the income tax scenario
(scenario 4)
...

• We can also differentiate three broad
categories of (genuine) cybercrime:
1) cyberpiracy,
2) cybertrespass,
3) cybervandalism
...
Cyber piracy: using cybertechnology in unauthorized
ways to:
- reproduce copies of proprietary information, or
- distribute proprietary information (in digital form) across a
computer network
...
Cyber trespass: using cybertechnology to gain
unauthorized access to:
- an individual’s or an organization’s computer system, or
- a password-protected Web site
...
Cyber vandalism: using cybertechnology to unleash
one or more programs that:
- disrupt the transmission of electronic information across one or
more computer networks, including the Internet, or
- destroy data resident in a computer or damage a computer
system’s resources, or both
...


Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Categorizing (Genuine) Cybercrimes
• Crimes involving the unauthorized exchange
of proprietary MP3 files would come under
the category of cyberpiracy (Category I)
...

• The denial-of-service attacks on Web sites
falls under the heading of cybertrespass
(Category II), as well as under Category (III)
...


Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Distinguishing Cybercrimes from Cyber-related Crimes

• Many crimes that involve the use of
cybertechnology are not genuine
cybercrimes
...

 Nothing about these kinds of crimes is
unique to, or requires the use of,
cybertechnology
...

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Cyber-related Crimes

• Cyber-related crimes can be further
divided into two sub-categories:
i
...
cyberassisted crimes
...
Cyber-assisted crimes

• We can also further distinguish between a
crime in which cybertechnology is used to:
a) file a fraudulent income-tax return,
b) stalk people, distribute pornography
...

• In (b), cybertechnology has played a much
more significant (i
...
, an exacerbating) role
...
e
...


Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Figure 7-1: Cybercrimes and Cyber-related Crimes

Cybercrimes

Cyberspecific

Cyberpiracy
Cybertrespass
Cybervandalism

Cyberrelated Crimes

Cyberexacerbated

Cyberstalking
Internet Pedophilia
Internet Pornography

Cyberassisted
Income-tax cheating
(with a computer)
Physical assault with
a computer
Property damage
using a computer
hardware device
(e
...
, throwing a
hardware device
through a window)

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Identity Theft: A Cyber-related Crime
• Cybertechnology has contributed significantly to rise in
identity theft crimes
...


• Use information to make purchases or transactions
under victim’s identity
...
Identity theft seems
to be cyber-exacerbated crime
...

• E
...
lax security & carelessness involving information in
computer databases – easy to acquire personal information
about victims
...

• One common example is a scheme involving email that
appears to be from a reputable business
...

• The emails often look legitimate because they include the
official logos of the companies they claim to be
...

• This often indicates that the e-mail is not
from a legitimate source
...
”
Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Technologies and Tools Used to Combat International Cybercrime

• Two kinds of tools/technologies
that have been used to fight
cybercrime at the international
level are:
1)Biometrics;

2)Keystroke monitoring

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Biometrics Technologies
• Biometrics can be defined as:
the biological identification of a person,
which includes eyes, voice, hand prints,
finger prints, retina patterns, and
handwritten signatures (Power, 2000)
...

 fingerprints can be “read” by a computer that is
“touch sensitive” and “endowed with hearing
and seeing capacities
...

• These kinds of scanning devices capture a
digital image of one's iris, which is then
stored in a database
...

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Keystroke Monitoring Software
• Law-enforcement agencies have used a technology
called keystroke monitoring to track down
professional criminals
...

• Keystroke-monitoring software can trace the text in
electronic messages back to the original sequence of
keys and characters entered at a user's computer
keyboard
...

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

National and International Efforts to Fight Cybercrime

• Problems of jurisdiction arise at both the
national and international levels
...

• Cyberspace has no physical boundaries
...
S
...

• It was renewed (in a slightly modified form) in March
2006
...

• Works closely with the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986
...

• It authorized the government to attach pen registers and
trap-and-trace devices to a suspect’s phone
...

• A pen register used on the Internet can reveal the URLs
of Web sites visited by a suspect
...

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

Patriot Act (continued)
• In December 2005, it was reported that the Bush
Administration had been monitoring the e-mails and
phone calls of U
...
citizens who were communicating
with individuals outside the U
...

• Opponents argued that the Bush Administration’s
practices violated the law because no court order was
requested in conducting surveillance on U
...
citizens
...
S
...

Bush administration argued that
it was acting within the law because
its primary obligation was to protect
the American public against terrorist attack
...

• The Council of Europe (COE) has considered
some ways for implementing an international
legal code that would apply to members of
the European Union
...
"

Faculty of Computing and Informatics & Faculty of Information Science and Technology , Multimedia University Malaysia

International Laws and Treaties (Continued)

• The COE Convention on Cybercrime
considers four types of criminal activity in
cyberspace:
1
...
Computer-related offenses (such as fraud);
3
...
Copyright-related offenses

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