The Legislation that protects individuals and groups from the misuse of ICT.

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The Legislation that protects individuals and groups from the misuse of ICT.

Introduction

In this report, I will be writing about different legislations that protect individuals and groups from the misuse of ICT. The misuse of ICT , would be online hacking which is sometimes disguised as Trojan horse or spam mainly used for inappropriate reasons.

ICT fraud and abuse are still posing major problems to public sector organizations and those who use their services, an in-depth survey shows.

New technologies, like the use of handheld devices (PDAs) and wireless networking, are creating fresh risks that public services are only slowly reacting to. And, despite better ICT security systems, a 'culture of complacency' and a failure to ensure that staff understand the rules is undermining the effectiveness of ICT security arrangements.

The survey, carried out in 2004 by the Audit Commission, is based on the responses of more than 400 public sector organizations, including NHS trusts, local authorities, police and fire authorities. 200 cases of ICT fraud and abuse were identified in the survey. The results are published in the report An Update on ICT Fraud and Abuse 2004.

Since the last survey in 2001, the new report points to some improvement in ICT security, with security policies in place at 96 per cent of organizations. It also recorded a fall in the incidence of 'business disruption' (viruses or other deliberate acts aimed at denying users access to systems), making up only 20 per cent of cases in the 2004 survey compared with 39 per cent in 2001.

Data Protection Act (1998)

The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament that provides a legal basis and allowing for the privacy and protection of data of individuals in the UK. The act places restrictions on organisations which collect or hold data which can identify a living person. The Act does not apply to domestic use[1], for example keeping a personal address book.
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Data collected by any person or organisation may only be used for the specific purposes for which they were collected. Personal data may only be kept for an appropriate length of time and must not be disclosed to other parties without the consent of the data owner, unless there is legislation or other overriding legitimate reason to share the information (for example, the prevention and detection of crime). Schools, for example, may decide to keep information on former pupils for no longer than ten years.

The eight principles of Data Protection Act are :

.Personal data ...

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