Chapter 6: Digital order

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• “The Internet is the first thing that humanity has
built that humanity doesn’t understand, the
largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever
had”
Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO

• J. Barlow- Declaration of independence of the

internet. It is an uncivilized, free and open
territory in which concepts of property,
expression and identity are not applicable
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 General Definitions
• "Malware" encompasses computer viruses along
with many other forms of malicious software,
such as computer worms, computer virus,
spyware, adware, Trojan horses, etc…
• A computer virus is a type of computer program
that, when executed, replicates itself by
modifying other computer programs and
inserting its own code. When this replication
succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be
"infected" with a computer virus.

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 General Definitions
• A computer worm is a standalone malware
computer program that replicates itself in order
to spread to other computers. It often uses a
computer network to spread itself, relying on
security failures on the target computer to access
it.
• A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is any malware which
misleads users of its true intent. The term is
derived from the Ancient Greek story of the
deceptive Trojan Horse that led to the fall of the
city of Troy.

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 General Definitions
• A botnet is a collection of compromised
computers under the remote command and
control of a criminal “botherder”.
• A botherder can gain control of these
computers by unleashing malicious software
such as viruses, worms,, or Trojan horses.
• A phishing site is a fraudulent site that mimics
a legitimate site to steal users’ information
(e.g. username and password).

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• What is the responsibility of computer owners
to keep their systems secure from attacks?
Discuss.
• Do software developers shoulder some of the
blame when they distribute operating systems
and applications that include security flaws
that make computers vulnerable? Discuss.

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 Law and Order on the Internet
• The internet is, and perhaps will always be, a work in
progress.
• Crime and security go hand by hand.
• IT systems are designed to prevent crimes, so order is
created in the architecture of IT systems.
• Individuals and nation states “bump into” one another
on the internet, and this puts pressure on the order
that prevailed before.
• Censorship is one of the most challenging issues of the
internet order.

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 Law and Order on the Internet
How can we allow freedom of expression and
simultaneously protect individuals from
offensive behavior? Discuss and give examples.

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 Online crimes
• Distinction in computer crime between:
o New versions of old crimes or traditional crimes
facilitated by a computer: theft, fraud, stalking,
defamation, trading child pornography, engaging
in terrorist activities…
o Crimes in which the computer is the target so
they couldn’t exist without computers or are
directed at computers: sending a virus…

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 Online crimes
• Importance of the distinction: Figuring out
whether current laws could be applied to what
seemed to be new crimes or new laws had to be
created

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 Online crimes
• The two kinds of online crimes have the features
distinctive to IT:
o Global, many-to-many → crimes cross criminal
jurisdictions
o Reproducibility → criminals can make copies of credit
card numbers with ease and with little evidence that
the numbers have been copied
o Special identity conditions

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 Hackers and the hacker ethics
• Hackers: Discover vulnerabilities and exploit them
in computer systems and software, may be
criminal in action but not necessarily motive
• Hacktivists: Hackers who perform their activities
in pursuit of a political or social goal
• Cybercriminals: Hackers or otherwise perpetrators
of illegal activity with the goal of personal gain

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 The Four Hacker’s Arguments
• All information should be free.
• Attempts to break into computer systems are often
beneficial because they illustrate security problems to
those who can do something about them.
• Gaining unauthorized access to computer systems does
not harm as long as the hacker changes nothing.
• Hackers have the expertise to find out about illegal or
immoral uses and abuses of IT.
• Hackers also draw our attention to the unreliability and
vulnerability of computer systems.

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 Sociotechnical Security
• Is security an intrinsic or instrumental value?
• Intrinsic value for some kinds of security (e.g.
bodily security).
• Computer security is an instrumental value.
Security is instrumental to whatever good is
aimed at in the particular IT system. For example,
the security of financial systems is instrumental to
the protection of financial resources and the
accuracy of accounting.
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 Sociotechnical Security
• Security is achieved sociotechnically.
• For example, the use of password to protect
against intruders.
• Security has to be implemented sociotechnically
to achieve its goal. It is achieved through a
combination of social and technical means, and
any missteps in either arena make the system
vulnerable (e.g. a manager lending his password
to his daughter so she can get faster access to the
internet).
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 Sociotechnical Security
• “Security arms race”: Intruders develop devices
and techniques that assist them in breaking in;
security experts figure out and deploy techniques
to prevent the use of these devices; and so on…

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• Malicious Insider
❑ Employees, contractors, or consultants who
have inside access to a system and perform
damage for personal gain

• Industrial Spy
❑ Captures trade secrets, competitive
advantage

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• Cyberterrorist
❑ Destroys critical infrastructure components of
financial systems, utilities, and emergency
response

• All provide increasing levels of threat to EVERY

business and government entity

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 Phases of an attack
• Planning
Why attack? For what purpose?

• Scoping
How do you measure victory or failure?

• Reconnaissance
Who, what, when, where, why, how?
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• Scanning
Find vulnerabilities in software, system, and/or
organization

• Exploitation
Deliver the attack, receive the result

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 Cyber crime laws in the US
• Cyber security enhancement act of 2002
❑ Imprisonment for life for attacker who recklessly
causes or attempts to cause death

• Title 18 § 1362: Communication lines, stations

or systems
❑ Prohibits malicious injury or destruction of
communications equipment, with fines and
imprisonment up to 10 years

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• Title 18 § 2510: Wire and Electronic
Communications Interception and Interception
of Oral Communications ( in transit)
❑ Prohibits unauthorized interception of electronic
communications without explicit permission
❑ Allows service providers to monitor network to
keep it running
❑ Specified procedures for law enforcement to
apply to court order
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• Title 18 § 2701: Stored wire and electronic
communications and transactional records
access
❑ Prohibits access to stored information without
permission of owner with fines and
imprisonment ranging between 1 year and 10
years
❑ Exceptions for service provider and legitimate
intended recipient of the information
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• Title 18 § 1029: Fraud and related activity in
connection with access devices
❑ Focus is on access device, password, credit card
account number, cell phone…
❑ Covers committing fraud, counterfeiting devices,
possessing, selling and using fraudulent
communications devices, unauthorized access to
telecom services
❑ Fines of $ 10,000 to $ 1,000,000, imprisonment
of up to 20 years
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• Title 18 § 1030: Fraud and related activity in
connection with computers
❑ The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984,
amended by the National Information
Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996
❑ Focus is on unauthorized access to the computer
itself and damages caused to it
❑ Fines at value of damage and possible
imprisonment up to 20 years
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❑ Criminalizes fraud and related activities in
association with computers:
➢ Accessing a computer without authorization or
exceeding authorized access
➢ Transmitting a program, code, or command that
causes harm to a computer
➢ Trafficking of computer passwords
➢ Threatening to cause damage to a protected
computer

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 Cyber crime laws in Canada
• Criminal Code of Canada, Section 184:
Interception of Communications
❑ Criminalizes the interception of private electronic
communications
❑ Exceptions for consent of originator or recipient,
service providers
❑ Penalties include up to 5 years imprisonment

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• Criminal code of Canada, Section 342:
Unauthorized Use of Computer
❑ Criminalizes the use of computers for fraudulent
activities as:
➢ Obtains computer service without authorization

➢ intercepting any function of a computer system

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➢ Using a computer system with intent to commit
an offense

➢ Using, possessing or trafficking in passwords used

to commit an offense

❑ Penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment

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 Cyber crime laws in the United
Kingdom
• Computer Misuse Act of 1990
• A person is guilty of an offense if:
❑ He causes a computer to perform any function
with intent to secure access to any program or
data held in any computer
❑ The access he intends to secure is unauthorized
and
❑ He knows at the time when he causes the
computer to perform the function that it is the
case

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• Other clauses deal with facilitating others to do
the above, modifying content on computers,
impairing operations of computers and blocking
access to data

• Penalty: Imprisonment up to 5 years

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 Cyber crime laws in Australia
• The Cybercrime act 2001
• A person is guilty of an offence if:
❑ The person causes any unauthorized access to or
modification of restricted data, computer systems
and electronic communications
❑ The person intends to cause the access or
modification
❑ The person knows that the access or
modification is unauthorized
• Penalty: 2 to 5 years imprisonment

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 Convention on cyber crime of the
Council of Europe of 2001
• Offences against the confidentiality, integrity and
availability of computer data and systems
❑ Illegal access: the access to the whole or any
part of a computer system without right

❑ Illegal interception: the interception without

right, made by technical means, of non-public
transmissions of computer data to, from or within
a computer system
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❑ Data interference: the damaging, deletion,
deterioration, alteration or suppression of
computer data without right

❑ System interference: the serious hindering

without right of the functioning of a computer
system by inputting, transmitting, damaging,
deleting, deteriorating, altering or suppressing
computer data
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❑ Misuse of devices: production, sale,
procurement for use of:
➢ a device, including a computer program,
designed or adapted primarily for the purpose of
committing any of the mentioned offences
➢ a computer password, access code, or similar
data by which the whole or any part of a
computer system is capable of being accessed

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 Cyber crime laws in Lebanon
• Lebanese draft law of 2004
• Illegal access: the intentional access to the whole
or any part of a computer system without right
❑ Prohibits unauthorized access to others’
computers whatever the motive is
❑ Penalty: imprisonment from 2 months to 1 year
and/or a fine from 1.000.000. L.L. to 20.000.000.
L.L.

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• Illegal access to the whole or any part of a
computer system without right followed by the
deletion of computer data or computer
programs, or their modification, or alteration of
the functioning of a computer system

❑ Penalty: imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years

and/or a fine of 3.000.000. L.L. to 60.000.000.L.L.

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• System interference: the intentional hindering
by all means of the functioning of a computer
system
❑ Possible means: inputting, deleting altering
computer data

❑ Penalty: imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years

and/or a fine of 3.000.000. L.L. to 60.000.000.L.L.

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• Data interference: the intentional deleting,
alteration of computer data or programs of a
computer system

❑ Penalty: imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years

and/or a fine of 3.000.000. L.L. to 60.000.000.L.L.

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• Lebanese Law n°140 of 21/10/1999
Criminalizes the illegal interception without right,
made by technical means, of non-public
transmissions of computer data

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