Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

868 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The internet and crime

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
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.
The CFAA was made to cover the majority of computer crimes. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was created because the United States Secret Service, and other government agencies needed a law to allow them to investigate cyber-crimes. The United States government also needed a way to discourage and stop people from hacking, accessing data, and many other internet crimes from a government computer. With computers on the rise, and the government converting to computers, the government needed a way to discourage and prosecute someone that damaged or gained access to the government’s information, and any other kind of computer. This law was also made to protect any kind of businesses computers or servers. The CFAA also is considered a net that Congress throws all the bad fish in. Including “fraud, hacking, piracy, DOS (Denial of Service) attacks, trafficking passwords, (selling, stealing, and buying passwords), and distributing malicious code.” To summarize the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act it protects “anything that connects to the internet”.
Computers were on the rise (being used more often), and so were computer crimes. How did Congress prosecute these criminals? They didn’t because couldn’t. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was the solution to intern...

... middle of paper ...

...4 2014.
Dawson, Christian. http://blog.servint.net/2013/10/17/short-history-u-s-internet-legislation-computer-fraud-abuse-act/. 17 October 2013. 3 February 2014.
Doyle, Charles. fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS20830.pdf 27 December 2010. 29 Januaray 2014.
Electronic Frontier Foundation. https://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act_(CFAA). 24 April 2013. 27 January 2014.
Fowler, Bree and Joe Mandack. http://news.yahoo.com/hackers-may-used-pa-company-hit-target-195942337.html. 7 February 2014. 11 February 2014.
Hendler, James. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-times-reform-computer-fraud-abuse-act/. 16 August 2013. 24 Janurary 2014.
IT Law Wiki. http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act_of_1986. 2 Januarary 2014. 10 February 2014.
PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hackers/blame/crimelaws.html. 1995-2014. 27 January 2014.

Show More
Related

  • The Statute of Frauds and the Uniform Commercial Code

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    The primary purpose of the “Statute of Frauds” (SOF) is to protect the interests of parties once they are involved in litigating a contract dispute (Spagnola, 2008). The relevant statutes are reliant upon state jurisdictions to determine whether the contract falls under the SOF, and whether the writing of the contract satisfies the requirements of the statute of frauds (Spagnola, 2008). However, all contracts are not covered under the SOF. In essence, for a contract to be deemed as legal by definition of the SOF, there must be verification of the following requirements for formation of the contract, which are as follows: (1) There must be least two parties to the contract, (2) There must be a mutual agreement and acceptance on the price to pay for goods and services offered, (3) The subject matter or reason for entering the contract, must be clearly understood by all parties to the contract, (4) and there must be a stipulated time for performance of duties under the contractual obligations (Spagnola, 2008). Lastly, there are five categories of contracts that are covered under the SOF, which are as follows: (1) The transfer of real property interests, (2) Contracts that are not performable within one year, (3) Contracts in consideration of marriage, (4) Surtees and guarantees (answering to the debt of another), and (5) Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.) provisions regarding the sale of goods or services, legally valued over five hundred dollars ($500.00) (Spagnola, 2008).

    Read More

  • Computer Fraud And Abuse Act (CFAA) Of 1986

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • History Of The FBI

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the Rise of cyber crimes grew so did the FBI’s influence on the growing technology.

    Read More

  • Patriot Amendment Pros And Cons

    1548 Words  | 4 Pages

    While this paper will later explain the many and often repeated criticisms that the Patriot Act entails, it is very important to outline what the Patriot Act allows and what it brought into law. For starters, the original bill was a lengthy 320 pages and changed 15 federal laws so there was a massive overhaul in how security would function in what many considered to be a new nation. Essentially, the Patriot Act does an assortment of things. Though it may come off as paranoid to the people that say the government is watching you, this is true. The

    Read More

  • The False Claims Act

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    Proprietary education dates back to the late nineteenth century where institutions focused on professional training in teaching, medicine, and law (Breneman, Pusser, & Turner, S., 2000). The 1972 Higher Education Reauthorization Act included for-profit institutions in federal financial aid programs and changed the vernacular of higher education to postsecondary education (2000). This piece of legislation along with new technologies along with increased demand for higher education and prompted a resurgence of for-profit institutions in the latter half of the twentieth century (2000). From these changes, a new era of postsecondary education was born

    Read More

  • Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

    2269 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Stop Online Piracy Act was proposed in January of 2012. SOPA was a legislative act that attempted to prevent piracy through DNS blocking and censorship. The legislation caused the protest and blackout of multiple online internet services including Reddit, 4Chan, Google, Wikipedia, Mozilla, and Tumblr. Now, internet users are faced with another possible challenge called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. CISPA was quickly passed by the House of Representatives on April 26th, 2012, and is now being processed through the Senate (Beadon). CISPA's purpose is to promote national cybersecurity through allowing private companies and the federal government to exchange users' private information, including emails and text messages, with complete legal immunity and one hundred percent anonymity. To some, CISPA appears as SOPA 2.0, another attempt to further limit American rights and privacy. Meanwhile, to others, CISPA appears as a milestone that needs to be reached in order to advance technologically and improve the nation's security. CISPA's purpose appears noble, but the current version of the legislation at least requires a revision due to its privacy invading policies, vague terminology, possible restrictions of internet freedom, and violation of the Fourth Amendment.

    Read More

  • Computer Forensic Tools

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    The use of computers in homes, schools, offices, and other places has increased in the past few years due to technological developments. As computers have become important components of modern communication, their increased use has also led to the emergence of computer crimes. Computer crimes basically involve the use of a computer system to carry out an illegal activity. In attempts to lessen the frequency and impact of computer crimes, law enforcement agencies use computer forensic to investigate these offenses. Actually, computer crimes are governed by specific laws and dealt with through conducting a computer forensic investigation (Easttom & Taylor, 2011, p.337). Notably, a computer forensic investigation is usually carried out through the use of computer forensic tools, which help in collection of evidence based on the specific offense.

    Read More

  • Hacking

    1389 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On National Security

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by a group of Islamic terrorists who hijacked four airplanes and carried out three simultaneous suicide attacks against the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. As a result of the multiple crimes, the United States’ government increased national security and prioritized our nation 's’ defense, often at the expense of the people’s privacy, by enacting policies like the Patriot Act (What is the USA Patriot Web 2011). This left personal emails, text messages, internet history, and personal belongings exposed to the government. Although the government reduced the public’s rights to privacy, it is a necessary step to ensure national safety and security.

    Read More

  • Surveillance and Privacy Issues

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perhaps the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said it best when he claimed that privacy is no longer a “social norm.” Virtually everyone has a smart phone and everyone has social media. We continue to disclose private information willingly and the private information we’re not disclosing willingly is being extracted from our accounts anyway. Technology certainly makes these things possible. However, there is an urgent need to make laws and regulations to protect against the stuff we’re not personally disclosing. It’s unsettling to think we are living in 1984 in the 21st century.

    Read More

  • Use of Technology in Police Departments

    1310 Words  | 3 Pages

    Technology has opened new encounters and opportunities for the criminal justice system. There are so many new practices of criminal activity, such as computer crimes. There are different types of computer crimes that many people become victims of every day. Computer crime is any crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target ("Computer Crime: Chapter 2: What Are the Crimes?", n.d.). Crimes such as data diddling, pump and dump, social engineering and spoofing are computer crimes. Even though these crimes are difficult by privacy issues, the new technology has made investigations and prosecutions well organized and effective. Though views are different on the pros and cons of specific technological changes in the criminal justice system, there is an agreement the system has changed affectedly ("Effects of Technology in Criminal Justice | eHow", n.d.).

    Read More

  • Misuse Act 1990

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    Legislation Computer Misuse Act 1990 What it is? Comptuer misuse act is an act which was released in 1990 , this was designed to protect users against accts and thefts of information, this information can include addresses, names, credit card details etc… Theres many offences that come under this act which include hacking, unauthroised access to computer with the intent of spreaching malicion software such as viruses. This act also includes the modification of computer software and data which include passwords , settings and other changes which affect the normal operation of the system.

    Read More

  • Why Is Citizens Safety More Important Than Privacy

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the modern era technological breakthroughs have shaped how we socialize with one another, do school work, and even cook. This is a great thing for many people as they can easily access information about anyone or anything that they want to know about. However, since the 9/11 attacks the Government has been able to help foil many potential terrorist attacks by using the information that you store online. Many people believe that having the Government being able to access that information is wrong, although in order to help protect the general public, law agencies must be able to access this as; the information on the internet is stored online which makes it not your private information and

    Read More

  • Lack of Internet Security and Privacy

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    Internet privacy and security has become the concern of many individuals throughout recent years. There are a very limited amount of laws that have been enacted to combat computer or cyber related crimes. This has become an issue because as the internet grows increasingly popular so does the criminal and immoral behavior that abounds on it. With these crimes gaining in impact, effectiveness, and frequency, there needs to be more repercussions for these crimes. The United States government needs to increase restrictions on the amount and type of data on individuals from the internet, to prevent the government from invading privacy of citizens and to prevent companies from storing browser histories of individuals, to then sell that information to ad agencies and other companies.

    Read More

  • Data Mining And The Government's Invasion Of Privacy

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone in today’s world uses the internet without knowing its potential dangers. Hackers could steal medical histories, bank records, and credit histories with just the click of a few buttons. Companies can harvest and sell their customers’ information without any consequences. The government data mines and stores information in an attempt to target terrorists, despite violating millions of people’s privacy. People need stronger privacy protection to ensure their personal safety, to stop companies from data mining, and to prevent the government from gaining excessive control.

    Read More

More about Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Open Document