As stated above Computer Misuse Act states three offenses, the “provision of section 1,2 and 3 of the Computer Misuse Act, as now amended by the Police and Justice Act 2006, provide the major United Kingdom activity in the regard of illegal access involving hacking, virus and the misuse of devices.” (Ian J., Lloyd 2008). This act as a whole was purely introduced to prevent such mishaps such as above and also to prevent hacking, copyright infringements, theft or fraud, “interfering with or obstructing the lawful use of a computer, impeding or preventing access to or impairing the usefulness or effectiveness of any computer program or data, or disclosing a password, access code, or other means of gaining access to a program or data,” [guardian, 2008]. Other Laws that apply to Computer Misuse are Police and Justice Act 2006, Criminal Damage Act 1971, Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 and Malicious Damage Act 1861.
Cyber crime is increasing day by day, especially for the people who use credit cards and make purchases online. “An increasing number of domestic and international criminal activities are using the Internet. Computers and other electronic devices can be tools to commit crime or are targeted by criminals.” [Parliament Office of Science and Technology, 2006]. The reason why cyber crime is on high is that most of the people use internet as their main source of crime because it is relatively easy and person can maintain its anonymity on the internet. In LexisNexis there was an article stating, “according to statistics released by the CBI in August 2001, two-thirds of businesses in the UK have been the victim of some type of cybercrime; £500 million was lost in fraud throughout Europe in 2000.” [LexisNexis, 2001]
For example, the case involving cybercrime was when “Gary Glitter, whose misdeeds were discovered when he took his computer in for repair. The problem of pornography is an international one and this was illustrated in November 2001 when police in 19 countries carried out 130 arrests and search warrants that targeted Internet users who download and distribute child pornography. The NCIS and the Internet also played a role in the arrest of Jonathan King who was convicted of child abuse at the end of 2001.” [LexisNexis, 2001]. This is one of the most common type of cybercrime, “British Association for the Advancement of Science estimated that almost half of all searches made using internet search engines were seeking pornographic materials” (Ian J., Lloyd 2008)
However many laws have been placed to prevent that from happening again, laws that have been placed to tackle cyber crime are Computer Misuse Act 199, The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act 2000, Online privacy laws, Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998, Malicious Communications Act 1988, Protection of Children Act 1978, The Obscene Publications Act 1959 & 1964, Protection of Children Act 1978. Sexual Offenses Act 2003, Public Order Act 1986 and Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Computer crime involves all kind of activities from hacking, viruses, denial of service attacks, illegal access of data and information, unauthorized access by unauthorized user, illegal interception, damage to data, misuse of devices, deception of a machine, dishonest obtaining of services and other copyright infringements. Even where crime appears directly linked to computer technology, the element of skill involved is often limited. One of the significant United Kingdom cases in the field is that of R v Pile, P wrote two viruses, 'Pathogen' and 'Queeg', with which he caused a minimum of £500,000 damage to British companies. He was jailed for 18 months when he admitted five charges of gaining unauthorized access to computers, five of making unauthorized modifications to them and one of inciting others to spread the viruses. [Lexis Nexis 2009]
As we all know that computer crime is a global issue, any kind of crime related to computers can be generated by criminals anywhere in the world. Its important people feel safe and secure while using the internet, making purchased online, feel safe from their work being copied, so the laws that are put in forced to cover these problems are Human Right Act 1998, Data Protection Act 1984, 1998, Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, Fraud Act 2006 and Theft Act 1968.
Reference
Convention on Cybercrime: Lecture notes, 2008 [online] [2 February 2009]
HYPERLINK "http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Summaries/Html/185.htm" http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Summaries/Html/185.htm
Diane, Rowland., and Elizabeth, Macdonald., 2005, Infomation Technology Law: third edition: London: pg. 433
Guardian, Newspaper article: Identity theft fears [Online] 4 February 2009]
HYPERLINK "http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/27/identity-theft-biometric-unisys" http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/27/identity-theft-biometric-unisys
IAN J., LLOYD., 2008, Information Technology Law: fifth edition: London: pg. 221, 249.
LexisNexis 2008, Government Publication [online] [2 February 2009]
HYPERLINK "http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/legal/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5601459635&format=GNBFULL&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5601459642&cisb=22_T5601459641&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=274768&docNo=1" http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/legal/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5601459635&format=GNBFULL&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5601459642&cisb=22_T5601459641&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=274768&docNo=1
LexisNexis 2008, Journal Article [online] [2 February 2009]
HYPERLINK "http://www.lexisnexis.com:80/uk/legal/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5726099904&format=GNBFULL&sort=PUBLISHED-DATE,D,H,$PSEUDOLOSK,A,H&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5726099907&cisb=22_T5726099906&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=280320&docNo=1" http://www.lexisnexis.com:80/uk/legal/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5726099904&format=GNBFULL&sort=PUBLISHED-DATE,D,H,$PSEUDOLOSK,A,H&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5726099907&cisb=22_T5726099906&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=280320&docNo=1
LexisNexis 2001, Journal Article [online] [8 February 2009]
HYPERLINK "http://www.lexisnexis.com:80/uk/legal/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5726117619&format=GNBFULL&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5726117613&cisb=22_T5726117621&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=280390&docNo=2" http://www.lexisnexis.com:80/uk/legal/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5726117619&format=GNBFULL&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5726117613&cisb=22_T5726117621&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=280390&docNo=2
LexisNexis 2009, Journal Article [online] [8 February 2009]
HYPERLINK "http://www.lexisnexis.com:80/uk/legal/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5725943096&format=GNBFULL&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5725943099&cisb=22_T5725943098&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=280148&docNo=6" http://www.lexisnexis.com:80/uk/legal/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5725943096&format=GNBFULL&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5725943099&cisb=22_T5725943098&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=280148&docNo=6
Out-Law, 2007 [online] [3 February 2009]
HYPERLINK "http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/cybercrime/cybercrime.htm" http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/cybercrime/cybercrime.htm
Parliament Office of Science and Technology, Government Publication, 2006 [Online] [6 February 2009]
HYPERLINK "http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn271.pdf" http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/postpn271.pdf
Commentary
Whiles preparing for my essay, I collected information from various types of materials for example: I used books, Journal Articles, Newspaper Articles, Government Publication, Law and media related websites e.g. Out-law , BBC and Lecture slides.
The books that I used to get information from are Information Technology Law book edition third and fifth. The chapters I used were nine until thirteen; it gave me a lot of information regarding computer misuse. I found so much information in those five chapters that I did not found on the internet, and after reading those chapters I certainly understood the assignment much better, as everything, which was asked in the assignment brief, was in the book.
Another source that I used was Journal Articles; I used LexisNexis for this research. I found a lot of information on computer crime and cyber crime in the journal article is that I looked at. After that, I decided to add ‘computer crime and cyber crime’ as part of my three definitions and it certainly helped me to find different law cases and other computer misuse related examples.
For Government Publication I used the official website of ‘Parliament Office of Science and Technology’ and LexisNexis. I have to say is a good self-help website for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is mostly up-to-date. It also offered access to thousand articles and explaining the application of all kind of computer related crimes.
For newspaper article, I used Guardian Newspaper, which I found online on WebCT. It was easy and simple to use as it is updated every weekday. The newspaper was the most interesting application to use, as it had all kind of law related example’s of people, which I didn't use in my essay however it gave me lot of idea’s and knowledge, on how to do the essay correctly and in a logical structure.