SEC575 Week 7 Assignment

Karen Loving

February 23, 2013

1. What are the current criminal risks associated with hacking illegally into computer systems?

Under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, persons who knowingly access and obtains information contained in a financial record of a financial institution , or of a card user …or contained in a file of a consumer reporting agency on a consumer, (b) information from any department or treasury agency of the U.S. (c) information from any protected computer if the conduct involved an interstate or foreign communication, commits a crime that is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. It also prohibits using data wrongfully obtained to perpetrate fraud or for other illegal purposes.

2. Criminal law statutes now protect your name and identity, your communications, and your ideas. Match each of these categories with the appropriate criminal law statute and explain how each statute can be violated.

Name & Identity: Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998. A hacker who gains access to credit card numbers and misuses them would be violating the act.
Knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of Federal law, or that constitute a felony under any applicable state or local law, shall be punished-up to 20 years in imprisonment.

Communications: Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) makes unauthorized interception and disclosure of wire, oral, and electronic communications illegal. It includes emails, cellular, and phone conversations, and other computer generated transmissions. A violation example would be a college student somehow accessing a university computer network and changing his/her grade records.

Ideas: Economic