Kasad 1

Dallas Kasad
Professor Fisher
ENG123, Intermediate Composition
27 September 2015
Week 4 Reflection Journal
Timeline: Create a chronological timeline for the history of your topic. On a basic
horizontal number line, include key dates and significant events/names related to your
project.
1986: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) enacted in Congress
1994:
o Expanded tampering offense to reckless conduct.
o Added civil cause of action.
Summary - Broadened reach of act and magnitude of its penalties.
1996:
o Expanded taking information offence over all government and private computers used
for interstate or foreign trade.
o Removed intent to use from taking classified information offense.

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o Added extortion offense

o Defined damage
Summary Not only government computers but computers in charge of trade within the country
and outside of the country are protected and the terms for prosecution are broadened.
2001:
o Intentional tampering and taking of classified information can now be considered a
terrorist offense.
o Increased all penalties, including at the state level.
Summary A violation of the CFAA, depending on the case, can now label you as a terrorist.
Sentences for all cybercrimes increase at federal and state levels.
2002:
o Increased Penalties
2008:
o Expands the taking information offense to any private computer system in the United
States.
o Increased penalties.
o Added Criminal forfeiture

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Summary Anyone is now subject to the use of the CFAA against them. The property used in the
crime can now be taken away from the defendant.
Criteria: This week you will begin establishing the criteria to evaluate your policy
solutions. Which of the six criteria mentioned in lecture do you think might work for you?
The criteria I think will be most useful is precedence. The topic is shaping to be a story of
how the government took action to protect itself during the onset of the digital age, but lost
control of the laws they enacted. It has had a snowball effect in gaining more reach, more power
and more money/time from those it is now allow to prosecute. It is now at the point where the
law, which can potentially imprison anyone, takes precedence over the freedoms of the people.
Thesis: Start working on multiple drafts of your thesis. Offer three to four versions. Begin
with one that is stripped of all details (I will argue... by analyzing...). Then write another
thesis that includes more details. Finally, think about how you might revise it so that your
reader will know exactly what you will argue and how you will make that argument.
Stripped of Details:
I will argue that the current cybercrime laws are too broad and are too harsh by analyzing
the birth of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, its interpretations and the cases where the full
effect of it is used to blame average Americans with cybercriminal charges.
Current working thesis:
Todays laws used to charge cybercrimes serve to be too broad and in most cases the
punishment does not fit the crime. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was originally born to
make cybercrimes punishable, but has become a power-hungry piece of legislation responsible

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for punishing average Americans with charges the top-notch cybercriminal would receive. The
need for reform through a Code-Based Theory of Interpretation is needed with reinforcement
of the reform proposal Aarons Law to stop the tyrannical snowball that is gaining speed in the
digital age.
Before Journal Entry:
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was developed with good intentions, but fails to
offer any modern day American any chance at executing justice in regards to cybercrime. The
laws in effect today in regards to cybercrime and hacking lump all offenders from under-aged
children to elders, from computer programmers to those who seldom use a computer into the
same category allowing for anyone to be introduced to the incarceration system.
Before Journal Entry:
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was developed with good intentions, but fails to
offer any modern day American any chance at executing justice in regards to cybercrime. The
laws in effect today are incredibly broad allowing for nearly anyone, including under-aged
children, to be at fault for minor crimes and be charged with similar sentences cybercriminals
and cyberterrorists are charged with. The law allows for prosecutors to threaten with plea
bargains, saying that if an individual pleads guilty to the CFAA then the jail and fine sentencing
will be less. This results in a definite jail sentencing.
Include the Smart Thinking feedback for your proposal and reflect briefly on how it helped
you improve your annotation.
The Smart Thinking tutors have come through immensely this week. I have been
struggling with motivation due to the influx of information and trying to make sense of it all. I

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find myself constantly thinking where do I start? The time comes to get down to finishing the
pieces I have put together all week to send into the tutor and I always feel unsure if I did the
assignment correct. When I received the feedback from the tutor a breath of relief was had. It
seems that I did the assignment correct in their eyes, based on the instruction I communicated to
them. The primary issue with the proposal was clarification. The tutor had an issue with
following along with what I was trying to say. It is a very technical subject and while it makes
sense to me, I understand that what we are writing should appeal to a reader that does not know
much on the subject. The major motivator was knowing that I am on the right track at the end of
the week.
How did the annotations and literature review prepare you to write your proposal?
The annotations were surprisingly helpful because I did not have to go searching through
articles when I remembered a point of the reference I wanted to use. I frequently referred back to
it when writing the literature review as well as the proposal. The literature review was sort of an
outline before the outline in my opinion. Putting our findings in one place to then organize and
make the most sense of them helped incredibly. When writing the proposal, thanks to the
literature review, I was able to communicate the direction I wanted to go based on the research I
have done.
Reflect on the weekly lectures. Have you been listening to all the lectures? Do you listen to
them in front of your computer and/or while you are doing some other activity (e.g. driving,
running, etc.)? Is there anything you would like to improve in terms of the lectures?

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The weekly lectures are very helpful. Dr. Sung does an excellent job of communicating
what we are supposed to be doing and thinking during the week while working on our papers. I
do however find it hard to keep focus on just the lecture and notes. Instead of writing full notes, I
tend to leave a very small note on the timestamp of the lecture so I can quickly refer back to the
audio track for clarification. This allows me to work on something that does not take a lot of
thought while listening to the lectures and stay awake. I do this because my window for doing
classwork is usually late into the night, after the kids are asleep and my wifes school work is
done.
Reflect on how the course has been going for you so far. What has been going well and not
so well for you? Why? And is there anything the professor can do more to help?
This course has been rough. My first two courses at CBU online were ENG113
(Composition) and HIS213 (History of US to Reconstruction), so by this point I am hitting that
point of being burnt out of writing essays. I use the reflection journals each week to push
myself to write more than is expected so that the following week writing will be easier. Due to
the feeling of being burnt out I am having issues with motivation. Thanks to my wife, mother
and the smart thinking tutors I have been overcoming that problem. However, I do feel like I am
learning a substantial amount of information! The annotated bibliography, the literature review
and the proposal have all taught me a more in-depth method of putting research and thought
together to try to convince someone else of my viewpoint. While at times I feel like my head will
explode, but I attribute it to the feeling you get the day after lifting weights or working out;
soreness.