How does it affect:
3A - Technology used by myself
Swipe Card system
The Swipe Card system is one used by the school I attend. To enrol at the school, you are obligated to enter all contact information and any other more personal data regarding you as a pupil. It goes from your date of birth, your phone number, your address to your medical conditions, your GP contact and various other details. With all this information and the vast number of pupils in one school, it is vital that the school protect it as pupils can be in danger if certain people gain access to this information.
This is where the Data Protection Act comes in. It ensures that the school keeps this information exactly how it is—private. The Data Protection Act is extremely important in this case. Children are extremely vulnerable to various dangers in this world. Abuse of children is a major problem. If someone dangerous got a hold of these children’s information, they can be in danger or threatened in various ways. They can be stalked, harassed and a whole range of other criminal offences. But the Data Protection Act keeps the wrong people from accessing this personal data and makes sure the school keeps it safe. I, as a student, can feel much more secure knowing the act is in place and protects the information I have given to the school.
But if the Data Protection Act is broken, then my safety is put into compromise. But this gives me the right to hold charges against the school for breaking the act and breaching my rights. It further gives an incentive to the school to keep my data personal and safe. Swipe cards are also made safe by not holding actual information. They merely refer back to the school database.
3B - Technology used by an adult in employment
Computer/Internet
When using a computer, Mr Ajaib also has access to the internet which he uses to sign up for sites and software such as the various instant messaging programs he uses e.g. MSN, Skype etc. He can also purchase things online through sites such as eBay, PayPal and Amazon. This is where the Data Protection Act is extremely important.
Signing up to lots of different sites means that a whole load of places hold his information. Sites usually require an email, a name, data of birth and other personal data, sometimes even including an address. These aren’t too harmless when breaking the Data Protection Act. For example, the most that can happen would be that Mr Ajaib’s e-mail address would be given out to the sponsors of the sites who would then pester him through his e-mail, sending advertisements and other sales offers.
But the Data Protection Act really comes into play when Mr Ajaib uses sites where he enters important details such as an address or credit card details. Usually, these are kept extremely secure by well-known sites and this is maintained by the Data Protection Act. But shady sites can often steal this information and use it to steal Mr Ajaib’s identity, use his details to make their own purchases and other such fraudulent behaviours.
This is where the Data Protection Act comes into play. While it stops sites from giving his e-mail and home address to sale companies and such which send junk mail, it more importantly stops sites from performing credit card fraud. Sites usually have an agreement when signing up which you agree to if you sign up to them. These agreements are made essential due to the Data Protection Act. It lets the user see what exactly the site can do with his information and usually keeps Mr Ajaib from knowing what risks he gets into by giving his information out. Breaking this agreement usually also breaks the Data Protection Act and they can face very serious charges. Mr Ajaib can sue and take the companies to court.
But some sites take advantage of long drawn-out agreements. They usually take advantage of those signing up by making them agree to allow their data to be used for the company’s own needs. This affects users who do not read the whole agreement and sign up anyhow. That’s why it is extremely important for Mr Ajaib to make sure he knows what he’s agreeing to and be wary of what he signs up to as the Data Protection Act can’t exactly help if the user agreed to his data being used. However, the act does impose the companies to not hide this information in any way. They have to make sure it is noticeable to any users signing up. The act also makes sure that those aiming to use this agreement maliciously, i.e. for credit card fraud or identity theft, to be charged.
Mr Ajaib can safely sign up to a lot of sites due to the Data Protection Act but he still needs to make sure he knows what it is he’s agreeing to.
3C - Technology used by a person with special/particular needs
Facebook
While using Facebook, Sarah gave information on her name, e-mail address, location, pictures, work information, education information, date of birth and what she likes/dislikes. Facebook also holds similar information for hundreds of millions of other users. If Facebook were to give this information out to third parties, they would be breaking the Data Protection Act.
The Data Protection Act is vital in Facebook’s case. Facebook can easily sell its information to businesses. Businesses can take advantage by spamming its millions of users or trick them into buying their products. Facebook can also retain data of its users and users will have no control over what information of them stays on the internet and what goes.
While the Data Protection Act in this case imposes a limit, it cannot protect the whole user-base. While Facebook can be made to directly stop giving user’s information out, businesses can also take advantage by tricking users to give out their information anyway. This is done by joining Facebook pages which seem to simply be a fan page but in actual fact are used to spread something, a message, a business or some other motive. Facebook users are vulnerable to fraud, phishing and all other things.
However, Facebook tries its best to abide to the act. Billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg, can directly be affected if people were to try and use Facebook for malicious reasons. Thus, safety acts are added to Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg due to the Data Protection Act. For example, some policies in terms of keeping information have been changed and spammers can be reported and taken care of.
3D - Technology used by a community
Librarian system
The librarian system has information stored upon it regarding everyone who at one point in their lives signed up to it. The database retains all this information until it is somehow deleted. A librarian can easily access people’s phone numbers, address and other details. But more-so than that, librarians can also access people’s accounts and can add impending fines, renew or return their books even if they already haven’t done so or even take out a book on their account without having their library card.
This is where the Data Protection Act comes in. If an employee were to do any of these things, they would be in immediate violation of the act. They can be charged and taken to court.
Personal information also cannot be shared. The library holds this information in privacy and keeps it from being accessed by unknown sources.
Evaluation
As described, the Data Protection Act is extremely essential. It stops people from committing crime regarding people’s data and/or identity with the threat of breaking the law. It gives an incentive for people to further protect their personal data. It gives people a guideline on what steps would be going over the line and what is appropriate. It is an extremely effective law in protecting the rights of people. Without it, people could have their privacy breached and they would have no right to stop it from happening. This law is effective in that it stops this from happening. Privacy is maintained. Un-prohibited access is prevented. Fraudulent crimes are stopped. With the large number of people who use computers right now, the vulnerability of these users is also high. That’s why the Data Protection Act is vital in current society.
Computer Misuse Act of 1990
What is it?
The computer misuse act is essentially an act preventing unauthorised access in the digital world. Basically, it aims to act against hackers and viruses which cause problems and try to access data which belongs to someone else.
With the advancement of technology, the previous laws in regards of hacking and viruses soon became insufficient. As the internet and computer use expanded, people became more prone to hacking and viruses. Hacking also became much more dangerous as it allowed people access to data which could be extremely important and fatal to be in the hands of someone that it doesn’t belong to. For example, a hacker could add a ‘key logging’ virus which essentially logs all the keys pressed and sends it back to the hacker. If the victim was making a purchase online, all his details would now be known by the hacker. The hacker could find out the password of any accounts of the victim’s. The victim would essentially be at the mercy of the hacker. Not just key logging but hackers can also access important files of their victim. This makes hackers very dangerous. They also often work to send viruses to people’s computers. This is why the Computer Misuse Act was set up. The growth of technology also meant the growth of hacking and the malicious use of technology. With this act in place, hackers could face up-to 5 years in prison and an unlimited fine. Hacking is essentially trespassing into another’s property but its potential misuse can be extremely high, hence such extreme charges.
Brief history of the Computer Misuse Act
The law was coined up after the case of Robert Schifreen and Stephen Gold in 1984-1985.They gained access to the account of a BT engineer, giving them the ability to explore the whole system and even access the personal message box of Prince Philip. With current laws, they would have been charged and fined quite a lot, but the current laws did not condemn what they had done. This is when Parliament made the decision to make new laws regarding hacking and thus, the Computer Misuse Act formed.
What does it consist of?
The Computer Misuse Act essentially makes the following things illegal:
- Hacking - unauthorized people gaining access to computer networks
- Data Misuse and unauthorized transfer or copying - file sharing
- Copying and distributing software, music and film - Including copying CD's on your computer and sharing them on the internet
- Email and chat room abuses - Impersonation and deception or spreading malicious rumours
- Pornography - any material showing illegal acts stored on computers
- Identity and financial abuses - Identity theft and misuse of credit cards and even printing counterfeit money
- Viruses - programming and deliberately spreading viruses
(Taken from pass-ict.co.uk)
Some of these offences are also covered by the Copyright, Design and Patents Act. But the main purpose the Computer Misuse Act was meant to battle against was hacking and viruses.
Examples of the Computer Misuse Act being broken
Hacking PCs and virus attacks
With a lot of modern antiviruses and firewall, it is quite hard to hack PCs nowadays. But a lot of computers are still unprotected and vulnerable to hacking.
Thousands of computers used to be hacked all the time. Hacking was quite simple, then. People could simply send viruses which would plant a bug. A bug could do numerous things, record the tasks, act as a key logger etc. while also staying unspotted. Users would be totally unaware of anything going on. This made them extremely vulnerable. Their machines could also be hijacked and all their files could be accessed.
However, nowadays it is much harder to hack a PC. Computers now come with a strong firewall which detects easy-to-spot viruses/hackers. However, there are still subtle ones which can pass through a firewall and there are many ways these can be transferred. Junk mail, downloads, spyware etc. But fortunately, most antiviruses can spot and get rid of these easily.
An example of how people could use hacking was to cause business competitors to go offline. Hackers from an opposing business could launch a DDoS attack to knock their computers offline.
People can also take advantage of features using things such as bots. Bots can be made to do a certain task, to spam people and to bombard websites.
That’s why the Computer Misuse Act is vital in preventing these from happening. Hackers can be fined and charged up-to 5 years in jail. But when hacking is then used to do something bigger, such as fraud, the punishment increased.
Computer Fraud
With the easy access to people’s files via hacking, people could also steal data and hence, identity. With the ease to find out the information of a person’s account, whether it’s a bank account or some other account, their identity can be used to benefit the hacker and leave the original owner with a sum of money to pay. People could use credit cards that didn’t belong to them. This was a serious crime and the Data Protection Act as well as the Computer Misuse Act protects against this.
How does it affect:
3A - Technology used by myself
Internet
I use the internet almost every day. While the internet is quite safe to use nowadays with updated security in browsers and notifications on phishing sites, sites holding any potential threat or risk or sites with a bad reputation. However, the internet has a lot of mediums through which it can still manage to send viruses despite security.
With the internet, I use my e-mail a lot. E-mail can come with attachments but these attachments aren’t always safe. A common virus sent through emails is one involving spyware. This spyware is disguised as a common email with a different aim. People are fooled into opening the attachments. This certain spyware acts as a chain. It then sends a fake email to the victim’s friend’s emails, persuading them to open the attachment. Once they open it, the chain continues marking a large growth of the spyware. This is quite dangerous.
However, I am discretely warned by Hotmail when I have been sent a potentially risky email/attachment. A lot of dangerous emails also go straight to Junk mail. This is a good way to avoid viruses. Hotmail also virus scans every attachment before sending them off. However, some can still go through. I have to use my personal judgement to realise what’s real and what’s not. While this may not be efficient, it is quite helpful for me as it becomes clear after becoming used to emails which ones are manufactured by viruses and which emails are legit.
However, sometimes a virus does manage to go through. When this happens, my anti-virus kicks in. Kaspersky is extremely perceptive. It immediately detects virus activity without even having to scan and proceeds to delete the virus.
But as mentioned before, a lot of sites carry a virus risk. The latest internet explorer, however, detects the ‘security certificate’ of a site to gauge whether it is trustworthy or not. This filters a lot of the bad sites from the good. And if a bad site manages to send a virus through, Kaspersky makes short work of it.
If I didn’t have Kaspersky, I’d be completely vulnerable. This is where the Computer Misuse Act comes into place. Hackers and virus spreaders can leave traces of their tracks. These can be referred to as ‘computer fingerprints’. If a hacker spreads an extremely threatening virus and targets important document, he can be targeted by the law and charged and face a jail sentence. If I am affected, I can charge him myself. This acts as a deterrent to a lot of virus spreaders but it’s extremely hard to trace back skilled hackers. They can use proxies and other such devices to hide their ISP, making it really hard to trace back to the original culprit.
3B - Technology used by an adult in employment
Facebook
Mr Ajaib uses Facebook quite often. But Facebook is an extremely large site with a large user-base to go with it. Paired with the fact that most of its content is user uploaded, it is hard for Mark Zuckerberg to monitor everything. So it is sometimes difficult to know when someone is doing something bad, regarding viruses and/or hacking.
Mr Ajaib is quite an easy target to viruses/hackers on Facebook. He’s not a technologically savvy person and has trouble understanding or marking the difference between a virus and an innocent message.
Mr Ajaib can thus easily be tricked. Facebook contains a lot of bots. These are computerised programs coded to do a certain task. These bots are typically fake profiles, often disguised as attractive women, which send messages to people in hopes of passing viruses, no euphemism intended. Mr Ajaib can be quite vulnerable to this, despite being a married man. He can find it difficult to differ between what he sees as a ‘hot chick’ to what really is a computerised spamming device. Once Mr Ajaib falls prey to the bot’s lewd attempt at making Mr Ajaib follow a certain link or open an attachment, he then falls prey to the virus or leaves his computer vulnerable to a hacker.
Similar to email viruses, he will then be made by certain viruses to spam messages to all his Facebook friends. Not only will this increase the risk of spreading the virus, it’ll also tarnish his reputation to fall and spread these viruses.
What Mr Ajaib can do to aid against this is to install anti-virus software. His MacAfee trial ran out after 60 days, but if Mr Ajaib purchases it, he can be safe from key loggers, hackers, spyware and more.
The Computer Misuse Act is also there to stop hackers. There’s a report message button to report various Facebook offences. While a lot of these would just result in a Facebook account being terminated, the more offensive ‘hacking or virus’ threats can be taken to court and charged.
3C - Technology used by a person with special/particular needs
Computer
Sarah uses a computer often. Having spent most of her life on a computer, she is quite skilled. A computer is open to lots of threats and these threats can be extremely dangerous. If her computer is hacked, she can lose important files. It’d be extremely bad, especially as she does her work on her home computer. She can also be the target of identity theft as she keeps her details saved on her computer. A hacker can access her files and use this data to make purchases under her name.
This is where anti-virus is vital. Someone could be key logged for months and not know it without something protecting them.
The Computer Misuse Act works heavily against people who attack computers directly as that can lead to a breach of privacy, as personal data of other people can be accessed. It can also lead to identity fraud. These are both major offenses and they can be taken to court and given a large sentence for this.
3D - Technology used by a community
ATM Machines
ATM machines are located for anyone to use. But, as expected of something which accesses a lot of heavily confidential information, they are heavily secured against hackers and/or viruses. If a virus such as a key logger were to get past the system, it could track the credit card details of lots of different people. However, it is rather hard as ATM machines have top-notch security and it’s hard to not leave a trace from just an attempted hack. The threat to the hacker is great as even if they failed, they can be traced back and with the Computer Misuse Act, they could be prosecuted and charged a lot for trying to access governmental information and possibly credit card fraud.
Evaluation
The Computer Misuse Act is an extremely important law. It deters cyber criminals and adds an actual law to the cyber space which previously was a state of lawlessness. People could do lots of crimes and not be prosecuted. However, the Computer Misuse Act now prevents this. Now, hackers, viruses and credit card/identity frauds are protected against via the law.
However, the act has become less important as time went on. While it still has an impact, the need of the law is overshadowed by strong firewall, security measures and anti-viruses. However, it still does have an importance such as in the Sarah Palin email hacking case. In this case, anti-viruses and such were useless as the hacker used the Yahoo! Mail system to figure out the password instead. If the computer misuse act wasn’t it place, this criminal would have gotten away free after having accessed an important (so to say) politician’s emails.
Copyright, Design and Patents Act of 1988
What is it?
The Copyright, Design and Patents Act of 1988 is essentially an act to prevent illegal copies of copyrighted data being made, sold or used knowingly. In other words, an act against piracy in all forms.
Piracy is happening worldwide and while there may not be a lot the law can do about every case, it can prevent the big cases from happening. Piracy essentially takes what is copyrighted by the owner/creator and uses it for the person’s own needs. The creator loses money as this lets people access the object, usually a piece of media, for free instead of having to pay for it. This can lead to a person and or a bigger company becoming bankrupt and not getting the money they deserve.
The Copyright, Design and Patents Act is the law that prevents this to the best of their ability. They prevent the illegal creation, distribution and use of media that is copyrighted by someone else. The only way to make it legal would be to own a license giving you permission to do so. The Act basically stops companies from going bankrupt by closing big shot pirates who distribute worldwide.
Brief history of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act
The act was created in November 1988 and was given the go by the UK parliament. It reformulates the Copyright Act 1956 while adding extra laws to pertain to current times. It also essentially adds a lasting copyright after a creator dies. The copyright lasts 70 years after the death of a creator and 50 years after the creation of something with no set creator.
What does it consist of?
The Copyright, Design and Patents Act is an act acting against copyrighted materials which can be:
- Using software without a proper licence (a copied version OR a single user version on a networked machine)
- Downloading text or images from the internet and using them without permission or acknowledgement
- Copying a computer program
- Copying music
- Sharing music files that you have copied
- Downloading files from file sharing services (such as Kazzaa)
(Taken from pass-ict.co.uk)
This covers copyright in terms of ICT but the law also covers any published works such as books or art, any literary work and any costly services that can be otherwise provided free or at a lower price illegally. There are also tons of other things but these are the main ones.
Examples of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act being broken
The Copyright, Design and Patents Act can be broken in a lot of cases but it’s really only taken into action in ‘hardcore pirates’ who offer hundreds and thousands of copyrighted files a day for other people to download. While it may be broken when one person downloads a song, the main action is taken from large suppliers who actually make a difference to how much money the owner gets/loses.
An example would be sites such as thepiratebay or Limewire. The former is a torrenting site while the latter is a P2P sharing site. Thepiratebay offers hundreds of copyrighted material to download and all of it is user uploaded so it is hard to prosecute. Limewire essentially was taken down and sued for trillions of dollars.
How does it affect:
3A - Technology used by myself
Nintendo DS
My Nintendo DS requires me to buy games often to play with. These games are all copyrighted and the money goes back to the companies who made them. However, with the Nintendo DS, it is quite easy to stumble upon piracy. The NDS cartridges containing data. This data can be taken out and uploaded onto the internet. People can download this data and save it on a device called a flash cart which allows users to input this downloaded data into your DS to play without having to purchase the game.
The Copyright Act targets sites who allow people to download this data and can legally prosecute and take them down. They can also track people who purchase flash carts off the internet which are illegal according to the Copyright Act.
3B - Technology used by an adult in employment
iTunes
Mr Ajaib uses iTunes to put music onto his iPod. iTunes uses an iTune shop to provide people with the chance to purchase music directly, deterring them from downloading it illegally. Sites like thepiratebay offer illegally distributed music to download. The act makes it illegal to do this and people who are caught are arrested. However, while the act deems downloading music to be illegal, not much can be done as music is downloaded worldwide and individual people who haven’t done much would be targeted. It’s also hard to track people who spread music as they are usually under proxies.
3C - Technology used by a person with special/particular needs
Microsoft Word publications
As a writer, Sarah publishes books and has the right to copyright them. This means that anyone who distributes them without her permission can be legally prosecuted by her. This act allows people to buy Sarah’s book instead of downloading it for free. This stops money being essentially stolen from Sarah whose sales would have been bad due to the ease of downloads.
3D - Technology used by a community
Library
Libraries use copyright to allow them to distribute author’s books to the public. Each free loan gets the government to give the author money so libraries are encouraged as the community are using books for free and the authors are getting credit and being paid for their work.
Evaluation
While this act is quite useful in stopping companies going bankrupt, it’s still being broken on a day-to-day basis. Piracy has become so world-wide and common that it’s incredibly hard to stop it altogether. Sometimes, the act is also unjustified in what it does. For example, while Limewire did allow people to download a lot of music for free, it was provided by Limewire peers meaning Limewire users themselves were the ones who spread the copyrighted media. The owners of Limewire are made to take the blame for all the apparent loss the copyrighted creators have accumulated. This, however, is entirely subjective as it doesn’t mean that every download would have equated a purchase. Due to this, they are being sued for a ridiculous 72 trillion dollars. It shows that the law doesn’t always work perfectly.
Conclusion
These three lawful acts all help keep the cyber world safe and justified. They are all bound by their own rules and help make technology easier for all kinds of people, including the community itself.
And other than the three acts mentioned, there are also acts such as health and safety at work and health and safety regulations. These acts account towards the safety and health of workers. They account for what employees work with, the risk and formulate an ethical/moral response to their work from that. If a certain technology has the risk of giving cancer or producing radiation, then that has to be accounted and employees have to be given fair treatment.
