Problem 1: Define cyber-crime/cyber-threats
Sinrod and Reilly efficiently state the real quandary of affairs:
What is cyber-crime? Law enforcement experts and legal commentators are divided. Some experts believe that computer crime is nothing more than ordinary crime committed by high-tech computers and that current criminal laws on the books should be applied to the various laws broken, such as trespass, larceny, and conspiracy. Others view cyber-crime as a new category of crime requiring a comprehensive new legal framework to address the unique nature of the emerging technologies and the unique set of challenges that traditional crimes do not deal with: such as jurisdiction, international cooperation, intent, and the difficulty of identifying the perpetrator.
I am half and half on this issue and understand why there must be debate. Like the Pew Institute’s Internet & American Life Project has shown through various forms of extensive research the Internet seems to just be another area where all human behavior is mimicked from the real world. Online activities and behaviors – both the positive and the negative – mimic real world activities and behaviors. Thus, fraud is equivalent to cyber fraud, viruses are equivalent to burglary, and sniffers are equivalent to theft. In this sense, criminal law as it stands should be sufficient to deal with these issues. However, is a denial of service attack aimed at threatening public health and safety, such as in the case of U.S. v. Unnamed Juvenile, where a teenager ‘disabled a key telephone company’s computer servicing the Worcester airport…vital services to the FAA control tower were disabled for six hours’ which caused financial damage as well as threatened the lives of airplane passengers and personnel equivalent to attempted murder? If it is, the courts do not punish it the same way. Likewise, in cases of straight up fraud or theft using pre-established law may be the best way to prosecute such offenses. It would certainly expedite the debate on such things while allowing for attention to be focused on the more complicated and pressing issues such as the above noted case.
Additionally, I think the advent of the Internet has brought upon new issues. As previously discussed in an early post – What if our culture is changing – this means cyber-threat permeates many more levels not only in cyberspace but also offline and these issues may need to be brought into consideration and should certainly be thought about. Defining cyber-threat/cyber-crime and the potential implications of the Internet’s proliferation will need to be thoroughly, yet concisely discussed as background material.