In 1986, The United States body of Congress decided to create a law that would combat specific types of cybercrimes; this law is called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). With the increase in cybercrimes gaining the attention of many, there was a growing desire by the government to protect the citizens of the United States of America. “The key element of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is to prevent any unauthorized person from accessing a computer” (Britz, 2009). With that said, the laws that followed were meant to strengthened specific parts of a cybercrime, then was placed in order to target computer fraud crimes. Government organizations and financial institutions are the main reason that the CFAA was created by congress …show more content…
“Over one hundred and fifty cases were filed under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in the year 2014” (Johnson, 2013). The CFAA is used as a deterrent whenever it is necessary to try major violations. “With many of the legal battles under the CFAA, it is the key to protect government organizations and financial institutions around the country” (Johnson, 2013). “Whenever courts take a look at the CFAA for a particular case, their interpretation determines if it should be broad or narrow to cover the scope of that certain crime” (Britz, 2009). This allows prosecutors to use the CFAA as a weapon in the courthouse as most business litigators will utilize it due to the broad range it can be interpreted. Civil action that is brought against someone, as per requirement, can amount to the minimum of $5,000 or higher in damages. This makes litigation against a plaintiff easy due to the low amount that the CFAA requires. “The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is supported by the federal jurisdiction” (Johnson, 2013).
Many of the changes that need to be made to the CFAA must be looked at closely as time progresses. The law can be beneficial to prosecutors, of course, but the fact the criminals can use this law to their advantage as well is a glaring fault. Technology constantly evolves and with that the CFAA needs to evolve with it. Most serious offenses the prosecutors were not able to win because of how broad the CFAA is. A recommended improvement that I would suggest is to increase the punishment of major offenses. This can act as a deterrent as it should make criminals consider the risk of being
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) of 1986 is a foundational piece of legislation that has shaped computer crime laws for the United States. It was spawned from Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, Section 1030 that established three new federal crimes to address computer crimes. According to Sam Taterka, “Congress tailored the statute to three specific government interests: national security, financial records, and government property” (Taterka, 2016). The statue was criticized for the narrow range of issues it covered and vague language.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act brought the most significant changes to financial regulation in the United States since the reform that followed the Great Depression. It made changes in the American financial regulatory environment that affect all federal financial regulatory agencies and almost every part of the nation’s financial services industry. Like Glass-Steagall, the legislation passed after the Great Depression, it sought to regulate the financial markets and make another economic crisis less likely. Banks were deregulated in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Biley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and essentially allowed for the excessive risk taken on by banks that caused the most recent financial crisis. The Financial Stability Oversight Council was established through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and was created to address the systemic risks in the United States financial system and to improve coordination among financial regulators.
Cybercrimes and Cyber Protection in Canada Whenever a new technological advancements are made, laws and agencies must be implemented and amendments must be crafted to protect its users. As personal computers became available to Canada’s population, information became more accessible than ever before, and personal information such as a person’s address was easier to obtain. The computer and new technological advancements led to a new branch of criminality; cybercrimes. Cybercrimes are computer-related crimes defined by the Council of Europe (2001) as offences against the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer data and systems as well as computer-related and content-related offences.
Computer misuse Act It is an act of the parliament of the UK redacted in 1990 as a measure to cope to the new technological threats. Old traditional forms of crime such as harassment and fraud offences are being committed electronically via computers or internet nowadays. Lately are appearing new forms of e-crime using new technologies such as Denial of Service ( DOS ) attack and phishing by offenders with good technical knowledge in IT.Thus laws in our society needs to be updated to deal to the new forms of crime. Computer misuse Act has been enacted after some cyber attacks, for instance the hacking attack against British Telecom commited by Robert Schifreen and Stephen Gold, between 1984 and 1985, using conventional devices such as a
needs of business. The big business and business leaders influenced the regulation and the government worked for
In todays fast pace world of technology many of us leave ourselves vulnerable to become victims of a cybercrime. With people using the internet to do everything from paying bills, personal banking, and on-line shopping their financial and personal information is available at the stroke of a key to a hacker. Often someone is unaware that they have been attacked and had their information stolen. The use of the internet has grown exorbitantly throughout the world. Nelson Online reported that as of December 31, 2014, there were 360,985,492 users of the internet throughout the world. (2015) With so many users in so many countries accessing the internet, prosecuting cybercrimes is nearly impossible.
“As in the past, it is criminals who have been among the first to recognize the potential of a wide-open, sparsely populated, and poorly policed space (Fuller 11).” That is exactly what cyberspace was in the beginning, and most of it is new territory still. One way to become aware of the cyber-crimes one can fall victim to is to first know what types are out there. The top five cyber-crimes are the following: tax-refund fraud, corporate account takeover, identity theft, theft of sensitive data, and theft of intellectual property (Singleton 2). Also, all cyber-crimes have three things in common; the tools needed to commit the crime, a strategy on how to follow through with the crime, and the outcome which is the crime itself (Singleton 2). There are also different forms...
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, is an act that was put into place in 1977 to control the dealings US persons or entities would have with foreign officials. The act make it unlawful for any US party to pay, whether it is directly or indirectly, with money or anything else of value, to a foreign official in exchange for obtaining or retaining a business (FCPA Enforcement). In addition to this, any company that trades securities in the US is required to file periodic report to the Securities and Exchange Commission to have record of any business transactions in order to maintain effective internal controls (Department of Justice).
Everything is stored on the internet including highly classified government information, and your bank information. How do we make sure no one steals, views, or sells your passwords, and private information? Congress passed a law in 1986 called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to protect the government’s information. Many laws have been passed that revises the CFAA. The CFAA has imprisoned many people, and many people want changes to the CFAA today.
Computer hackers in today's world are becoming more intelligent. They are realizing that people are constantly developing more hack-proof systems. This presents the hackers with a bigger challenge and a bigger thrill. The government is realizing this and is working on making harsher laws to, hopefully, scare the potential hackers. With the increase in hacking and hacker intelligence, governmental regulation of cyberspace hasn't abolished the fact that it's nearly impossible to bring a hacker to justice.
Every day millions in some cases billions of dollars are made by businesses from income brought in by online sale of products and services. As businesses continually develop and expand their client base with online products and services so does the desire by criminals to exploit vulnerabilities in their e-commerce setup. The mass worldwide internet usage growth within the last 20 years has been “an approximate 16 million users in 1995 to an estimated 2,937 million in March of 2014” As the importance of e-commerce increases so does the need to protect the technological infrastructure that will carry out online transactions for each business regardless of its size. I will attempt to highlight and review the history of a few cyber crimes to show the progression of the crimes within the last 30-40 years. I also plan to review how the economy and consumers are impacted by cyber crimes. Finally I will make an effort to contribute with information gathering on how to lower the risk of a cyber attack from and individual user to a large scale business.
Every day, citizens are constantly losing money and being victimized due to these fraudulent activities. Cyber crime, including fraud, identity theft, stalking, and hacking, is a growing problem that can be prevented by taking the proper precautions. The biggest cases of cyber crimes are cases of fraud. Online fraud comes in many forms. It ranges from viruses that attack computers with the goal of retrieving personal information, to email schemes that lure victims into wiring money to fraudulent sources” (What is “online fraud”).
To be able to understand cybercrimes we need to know where it started. It all started with the birth of the internet. In the late 1960s, one of the authors (HMD) was a graduate student at MIT. His research at MIT’s project MAC (now the Laboratory for computer – the home of the World Wide Web Consortium) was funded by APRA – the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense. Later on APRA proceeded to implement the APRANET, which even...
Cybercrime is a global issue plaguing the world. The dictionary defines cybercrime as “crime conducted via the Internet or some other computer network”(Merriam-Webster). The definition remains very broad because the word “cyber” is defined as “relating to the culture of computers, information technology, and virtual reality.” Due to the growing number of people gaining access to the internet, rapid development of technology, and the globalization of the world, more of the world population is becoming susceptible to involvement in cybercrime – whether it be as a victim or a criminal. Cybercrime involves different levels of the world on both the victim and criminal side from an individual citizen, to small groups, businesses, and the government, to the countries of the world. There are different groups from law enforcement agencies to the U.S. Secret Service, that are attempting to combat the problem through cooperation and preemptive efforts. If these groups combined with the public to protect themselves and the country from criminals that commit cybercrime, the nation’s network and technology servers would be much safer for technology users. Clearly, cybercrime is a problem because it puts internet users at risk of being taken advantage of or harmed.
...ng to many individuals who have suffered from hacking, phishing, scams, identity theft, fraud etc. Computer crime describes a very broad category of offenses, which include anything that requires an electronic device or the Internet. Cybercrime is now a global issue and it has a major impact on every individual or business that interacts with technology and the World Wide Web. When important information is stolen, not only are individuals at risk of becoming part of greater crimes but it can also affect an entire country when its national secrets are stolen. In the end I may conclude that computer crime is a dangerous crime that all individuals should be aware of due to the many devastating results it can cause. Cybercrime cannot be stopped due to the high levels it has reached, but immunity can be used to keep safe from it or at least keep individuals less at risk.