Computer Ethics And Crime Essay
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Introduction
Legality, piracy, ethics, effects, moral dilemmas, motives, age, involvement, types -
encryption are all main issues in Computer Crimes in todays world. How do we determine
someone fate? Computer crime has become such a hot topic in the media since the middle
of the 1980's. By now most of us would have probably recognize the names of some of
the prominent "hackers" such as Kevin Mitnick or Robert Morris, which I will touch upon
their crimes. These hackers or more appropriately "crackers" have been both vilified and
herofied by the media and the computer field. Some of these criminals have been made
out to be modern day Robin Hoods, or cyberpunks or whatever. I however disagree with
them, and feel as a member of the computer community their actions are irresponsible.
Kevin Mitnick is a well knowncomputer criminal who was apprehended with the
aided of "Cybersleuth" Tsutumo Shimomura, whose computer was one of the many that
Mitnick invaded. He had always been in trouble with the law for computer related crimes.
He was first convicted and was declared to be addicted to computers. Part of the
stipulations of his parole was that he not have access to computers. It was his return to
computer use that brought the law against him, but he was not captured again until after
invading Shimomura's computer. Mitnick had apparently invaded computers across the
nation, stealing millions of dollars worth of corporate trade secrets, in addition to over
20,000 credit card numbers.
Robert Morris was the author of the infamous Internet "worm" that brought the
Internet to a standstill back in 1988. Morris a highly knowledgeable first year graduate
student at Cornell University authored this worm program which exploited many security
flaws in the UNIX operating system to spread throughout the Internet. Reactions to his
worm are greatly varied. Some claim that this act was unlawful, irresponsible, and
negligent. However, other have heralded his release of the program as a way to bring
national attention to the security flaws inherent in the UNIX operating system.
Legality
The United States government has proposed that a compromise that would allow
people to use encrypted devices, but still allows the government to break the codes if
necessary. Essentially, an encryption chip, the clipper chip, would be placed into devices
that need secure data transmission. The keys to decoding the encrypted message would
be kept in escrow by two separate government agencies. Each agency would contain half
of the key to prevent abuse. Law enforcement agencies would be able to obtain the keys
by obtaining a warrant.
The current body of laws existing today in America does not apply well to the
Internet. Is the Internet like a bookstore, where servers cannot be expected to review
every title? Is the Internet like a phone company who must ignore what it carries because
of privacy? Is it like a broadcasting medium, where the government monitors what it
broadcasts? The trouble is that the Internet can be all or none of these things depending
on how it's used. The Internet cannot be viewed as one type of transfer medium user
current broadcasting definition.
Jim Exon, a democratic senator from Nebraska, wants to pass a decency bill
regulating the Internet. If the bill passes, certain commercial servers that post pictures of
unclad beings, like those run by Penthouse or Playboy, would of course be shut down
immediately or risk prosecution. The same goes for any amateur web site that features
nudity, sex talk, or rough language. Posting any dirty words in a Usenet discussion group,
which occurs routinely, could make one liable for a $50,000 dollar fine and six months in
jail. Even worse, if a magazine that commonly runs some of those nasty words in its
pages, The New Yorker for instance, decided to post its comments on-line, its leaders
would be responsible for a $100,000 fine and two years in jail. Why does it suddenly
become illegal to post something that has been legal for years in print? Exon's bill
apparently would also "criminalize private mail," ... "I can call my brother on the phone
and say anything -- but if I say it on the Internet, its illegal".
Congress, in their pursuit of regulations, seems to have overlooked the fact that
the majority of adult material comes from overseas. Although many U.S. government
sources helped fund Arpanet, the predecessor to the Internet, they no longer control it.
Many of the new Internet technologies, including the World Wide Web, have come from
overseas. There is no clear boundary between information held in the U.S. and
information stored in other countries. Data held in foreign computers is just as accessible
as data in America, all it take is the click of a mouse to access. Even if our government
tried to regulate the Internet, we have no control over what is posted in other countries,
and we have no practical way to stop it.
Piracy
Software piracy is a very large problem in the software industry. Millions of
dollars are lost in sales yearly by software corporation because of it. In addition to the
loss of sales, software piracy also aids in the spread of computer viruses. There have been
a number of occurrences of viruses that were designed to show how rampant piracy
actually is. Here is two examples of software piracy; Aldus Peace Virus and the Pakistani
Brain.
The Aldus Peace Virus was a harmless virus that was inserted into a popular
computer game that displayed a message of peace to Macintosh users on March 2, 1988.
Richard Brandow acknowledged that he had written the message and that his intention
was to display how widespread software piracy had become.
The Pakistani Brain Virus was designed by two brothers, Amjad Farooq Alvi and
Basit Farooq, who ran a software company to protect their software from piracy. They
entered it into programs so that they would know who pirated their software when they
called for the vaccination. They also inserted this virus into American copyrighted
software that was being purchased in Pakistan because they believed that by purchasing
American software that wasn't protected by copyright laws in Pakistan that people were
pirating that piece of software and should be punished.
Ethics
This is a touchy subject, there are many various meanings; Unethical means not
conforming to an appropriate personal standard of conduct, Not ethical means not
violating an appropriate personal standard of conduct, No ethics means no appropriate
personal standard of conduct was involved or the action was clearly illegal.
Advancements in computer and data communications technology have resulted in
the need to re-evaluate the applications of ethical principals and establish new agreements
on ethical practices. The application of ethics information science, technology, and
business is more difficult than in other disciplines for several reasons. Computer and data
communications alter relationships among people. Data communications take place
without personal contact, without the visual and aural senses to help convey meaning.
Moreover, the paperless society, in which information is transmitted at electric speeds,
functions side by side with the paper-based society, where information is shared at a snail's
pace. Conveying one's intentions in a letter, which can take days to reach the recipient, is
very different from instantaneous electric transmission because of how quickly the
recipient may act on them. Communication occurs so quickly that one may not have time
to consider the implications of the information before it has been sent and received.
Information in electric, magnetic, and optical form is far more fragile than
information on paper. Computers and data communications systems provide for high-
speed, low-cost processing, communication, copying and printing of intangible intellectual
property. This capability introduces new factors in decisions about property rights,
residual rights, plagiarism, piracy and violation of privacy. Negative events happen so
easily, sometimes without the initiators even considering the consequences, that ethical
issues are intensified. Freedom of expression is greatly levered and magnified to the
extent that far more good may be done with creation, use and dissemination of
information. Yet it follows that the consequences of unethical...
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