The act of gaining unauthorized access to computer

“The act of gaining unauthorized access to computer systems (cracking) should not be criminalized assuming that there is no damage. ” Dan Garrison Megan Kuhfeld Nicholas Kurtzman Kristin Cobb Marina Kukso Rob Dodson

Definitions “Damage” shall be defined as any political, emotional, physical, or financial harm that comes as a result of intentional or unintentional causes. l “Unauthorized access” refers to any use of the information on a computer system without the consent and/or knowledge of the administrator of the system. l

US Law l The National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996, the main law governing crimes committed through computers, does not prohibit unauthorized access to computer systems if no financial, health, or national security damage occurs as an intentional or unintentional result of the unauthorized access. We maintain that if there are no damages that can be proven by the owners of the cracked computer system then there is no reason for the cracker to be punished through the law because the cracker has committed no crime.

Implication 1: l l “The intent of the criminal and the extent of the malice has always played a crucial role in our system of criminal justice. ” – Wayner White Hat – Works with authorization of companies to explore and alert them of vulnerabilities Gray Hat – Accesses system without proper authorization and alerts company of holes that could be exploited by malicious hackers Black Hat – Accesses system without proper authorization and then alters/steals information for personal gain

Implication 2: Government’s unauthorized access is important for maintaining national security. l Searching through people’s computers can give the government information as to people’s conspiracies to commit crimes. l This can save lives, financial assets, and emotional harm for the general public. l

Implication 3: l Sharing of intellectual property will allow for an accelerated development of the arts and sciences. l l The idea behind patenting and copyrighting is to further the arts and the sciences. If people gain unauthorized access to other systems, find designs for products or software and help them with it. This would allow for more technology to come out into the market quicker and as long as the profits are split fairly no one loses. l Otherwise, if the information is stolen that would be in violation of intellectual property and damage will have been done. Therefore, this would be illegal according to the CFAA which states obtaining information from a computer through unauthorized access is illegal. In the case above no damage is done, this law prevents damage that could be done by stealing information.

Privacy Issues l The consensus in the legal system (laws and court cases) is that a citizen has no reasonable expectation for privacy regarding information on their computer. l Former Cisco Systems, Inc. Accountants Sentenced for Unauthorized Access to Computer Systems to Illegally Issue Almost $8 Million in Cisco Stock to Themselves l l http: //www. usdoj. gov/criminal/cybercrime/Osowski_Tang. Sent. htm Jurors cleared Levine of 13 counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer, one conspiracy count and one count of money-laundering l http: //web. lexisnexis. com/universe/document? _m=8 c 437 c 7 f 6 b 2 ab 8 b 95 cc 2598199 de 4 a 0 f&_docnum=25&wchp=d. GL b. Vtz-z. Sk. VA&_md 5=b 2 eee 306042 a 9 ab 5602 c 2 b 032 dc 60824