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Computer Security Law

Computer security means protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information stored on, processed by, and transmitted by computers. In order to achieve this, various governments and organizations have established laws, regulations, and standards for securing computers and the data stored, processed, and transmitted by them. This category is for questions about existing and proposed laws and standards specifically related to computer security including the contents of the laws & regulations, who is legally responsible, who/what the laws/regulations/standards apply to, how the security is evaluated, and how it is documented.

310 Questions

Is it illegal to print information from someone's computer without given permission?

It depends on the nature of the information. It is certainly only common courtesy to ask permission.

If you are printing contents of files from the computer without permission it falls into the realm of theft of information if the information you print is not already in the public domain.

What kind of practice is information assurance?

Information assurance is about minimizing risks when dealing with information and data. It is an important practice when dealing with the storage and processing of digital data.

What steps to take to address ethical and IPR issues?

If ethical issues arise, they should be brought to a board of ethics at your company or school. They will determine whether or not ethics have been breached and how to rectify the problem if there is one.

What type of court has jurisdiction for cyber cases?

The court that has jurisdiction depends on the type of case and the laws of the state or country where the issue occurred. It gets even more complicated when the issue crosses national state or national boundaries. In general there are three kinds of cases: civil, criminal, and national security.

Civil cases deal with when someone does damage to you through cyber methods. It might be theft of information, corruption to the information of your system, or denying you access to your cyber resources. Civil cases seek to get the responsible party to pay for the damage they did. It would include cases of commercial espionage where business information is stolen, damage to the reputation of a company, stealing your personal information, intruding on your privacy, stealing resources for unauthorized use, erasing the database containing billing information, launching a denial of service (DOS) attack against a company, or any of a multitude of other damaging actions. Civil courts have jurisdiction in these kind of cases.

Criminal cases are those where a law has been violated. Because of the complexity of what you can do in the cyber universe there are a lot of very unethical and dishonest things people can do that are not technically illegal but are still fundamentally wrong. There are also a lot of perfectly legitimate things that people do that can run them afoul of laws that are either poorly written or deliberately written to grant power to repressive political regimes. China, North Korea, and Middle Eastern countries are notorious for making legitimate cyber activities illegal, but even countries that consider themselves to be free and enlightened are often guilty of passing laws that make reasonable actions illegal. Because of the complexities of what can be done, governments struggle to find a balance. Criminal cases almost always fall under the jurisdiction of criminal courts. Note that in many instances criminal cases have legitimate victims who can follow up the criminal case with another case filed in civil courts.

The third situation is cases that involve national security. Technically these cases are usually criminal, but sometimes the law lags behind the problems that deal with national security and special courts are required to address them. They can also involve activities conducted by military personnel which are dealt with by military courts outside the usual civil and criminal courts. Depending on the jurisdiction, national security cases may fall under the jurisdiction of special courts or review boards who only have power to revoke security clearances, military courts that impose penalties only for those working for the military, or, in some jurisdictions, tribunals run by government security forces.

To make this more general, we probably should also include religious courts for those areas where a violation may not be against the law of the land but is considered a violation of the tenets or principles of the dominant local religion. Some countries grant religious courts power to enforce their beliefs independent of the rest of the government. In some cases these courts only have jurisdiction over those who are officially members of the religion. In other places, they can enforce their beliefs on all people within the country. An example would be punishing someone who posted an article on-line critical of a member of the clergy or posting something in a blog that the religion considers heresy.

How do I make your emails go away when I can't unsubscribe because I don't know my username or password?

Your best bet is to contact whoever is hosting the email server and discuss deleting your account. If you are able to demonstrate to their satisfaction that you are indeed the the person the account was supposed to belong to you may be able to get the account closed. A word of warning however: there are a number of situations where the email service provider is required by law to archive the emails for a period of time. Many service providers do this just as part of their business practices as part of their contingency plan, continuity of operations, or disaster recovery plan. Even if the account is closed and the emails "deleted" on the active servers they may still be sitting out there on some storage media for years to come.

Who is responsible for Information Assurance?

Normally, a Senior Information Assurance Officer is responsible for Information Assurance.

Who has legal authority to prosecute the perpetrator of an Internet scam when the perpetrator is not in the US?

Typically the jurisdiction (state, country, whatever) has the authority to prosecute - IF - they have any statues on their books that make the scam illegal. It is surprising how many nations have not enacted such laws. Some have chosen not to because the illegal activities provide revenue for them. Sometimes you will even find government officials involved in the illegal activities - mostly via bribes and such.

If the US has an extradition treaty with the nation where the perpetrator resides, they file charges and seek to extradite the perpetrator to the USA for prosecution.

Is it correct for a business to send unsolicited mailers?

Generally the sending of unsolicited mailers via email is classified as "SPAM". Many jurisdictions have passed legislation making the sending of SPAM illegal. Examples include (but are not limited to):

USA
  • "CAN-SPAM" Act of 2003 passed by the US congress.
European Union
  • E-Privacy Directive: Directive 2002/58/EC Concerning the Processing of Personal Data and the Protection of Privacy in the Electronic Communications Sector, 2002 O.J. (L 201) 37
  • E-Commerce Directive: Directive 2000/31/EC on Certain Legal Aspects of Information Society Services, in Particular Electronic Commerce, in the Internal Market, 2000 O.J. (L 178) 1
Finland
  • Personal Data Act (adopted March 1999)
Italy
  • Legislative Decree Implementing Distance Contracts Directive (May 22, 1999)
Netherlands
  • Telecommunications Act articles 11.7, 11.8
Norway
  • Act No. 47 of 16 June 1972 relating to the Control of Marketing and Contract Terms and Conditions (Marketing Control Act) § 2a (as amended effective March 1, 2001)
Sweden
  • Marknadsföringslag (1995:450) (Marketing Practices Act)
Australia
  • Spam Act 2003
Canada
  • Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, Bill C-6 (enacted Apr. 4, 2000)

Can a police chief on suspension still access your computer accounts?

Typically when a member of the police is placed on suspension it also entails them being cut off from access to the resources they had as a member of the police - whether it be a beat-cop or chief of police. They don't go into the office, they don't have access to the phones, radios, or computers unless one of their buddies does it for them. A police chief would only be granted access to your computer accounts as part of their official duties, and within the constraints of the law. If they are suspended, they are not allowed to perform their duties until re-instated, so they should not be able to access your accounts while suspended.

What is Verizon's email address to report scam from fake bill?

You can report fake billing or scam emails from Verizon by forwarding them to their official phishing report email — simply send the suspicious message to their security team’s phishing address.

Make sure not to click on any links or attachments before forwarding, and delete the email afterward to stay safe.

Should spyware be legal or illegal?

To the degree that spyware extracts information without the clear consent of the individual whose information is being extracted, it should be illegal. It is invasion of privacy and theft of information and services. Most spyware is installed without the knowledge of the user and is correctly classified as malware. Note that some companies install software that can be used to monitor employees and their use of the company computer resources. Such software could be considered "spyware" but in this case there is a significant distinction: the company has required the user to sign an "acceptable use" agreement and posted a disclaimer informing the employee that they will be subject to monitoring - thus the employee has given consent for the information to be collected.

Another reason why malware like spyware should be illegal is that it consumes system CPU cycles and bandwidth, thus stealing performance from the unwitting user.

What does ar 25 2 require all users to do?

Logoff their computers at the end of the work day

Can anyone get the list of websites that one browsed from ones service provider?

There is a certain presumption of privacy that would preclude the service provider from handing over that information to just anyone, but there is certainly not a problem with extracting that information from the logs that most service providers maintain.

What certifications would satisfy DODI 8570 for IAT level I II and III?

For the different levels only 1 certification is required at that particular level, in other words, only one cert off the list is required as long as it is under that category.

IAT Level I

A+

Network+

SSCP

IAT Level II

GSEC

Security+

SCNP

SSCP

IAT Level III

CISA

GSE

SCNA

CISSP (or CISSP Associate)

GCIH

What does UK Data Protection Act 1998 cover?

The Act covers any data held by a company, organization, or government about a living and identifiable individual. It does not include data held by an individual for their own use such as a person's personal address book. Anonymised or aggregated data is not regulated by the Act, providing the anonymisation or aggregation has not been done in a reversible way.The Act applies only to data which is held, or intended to be held, on computers ('equipment operating automatically in response to instructions given for that purpose'), or held in a 'relevant filing system'.

It regulates the "processing" of "personal data". According to the Act:

"personal data" means data which relate to a living individual who can be identified-

(a)from those data, or

(b)from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller,

and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual;

"processing", in relation to information or data, means obtaining, recording or holding the information or data or carrying out any operation or set of operations on the information or data, including-

(a)organisation, adaptation or alteration of the information or data,

(b)retrieval, consultation or use of the information or data,

(c)disclosure of the information or data by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, or

(d)alignment, combination, blocking, erasure or destruction of the information or data;

What is source for DIACAP resources?

There are several good sources for DIACAP information. The attached links point to some of them. Note that they generally require a CAC to access.

How often does the DIACAP require you to review your IA posture?

According to DoD 8510.01 (DIACAP), paragraph 4.9:

"All DoD ISs with an authorization to operate (ATO) shall be reviewed annually to confirm that the IA posture of the IS remains acceptable. Reviews will include validation of IA controls and be documented in writing."

And according to paragraph 5.16.8, the Program Manager (PM) or System Manager (SM) shall:

"Ensure annual reviews of assigned ISs required by FISMA are conducted."

So reviews must occur at least once a year.

Is Jim required to assist the PM in this activity?

This question cannot be answered without first specifying the activity.

AR 25-2 requires all users to what?

As per Section 4-5, paragraph a.(8)(a):

All users must receive IA awareness training tailored to the system and information accessible before issuance of a password for network access. The training will include the following:

  1. Threats, vulnerabilities, and risks associated with the system. This portion will include specific information regarding measures to reduce malicious logic threats, principles of shared risk, external and internal threat concerns, acceptable use, privacy issues, prohibitions on loading unauthorized software or hardware devices, and the requirement for frequent backups.
  2. Information security objectives (that is, what needs to be protected).
  3. Responsibilities and accountability associated with IA.
  4. Information accessibility, handling, and storage considerations.
  5. Physical and environmental considerations necessary to protect the system.
  6. System data and access controls.
  7. Emergency and disaster plans.
  8. Authorized systems configuration and associated CM requirements.
  9. Incident, intrusion, malicious logic, virus, abnormal program, or system response reporting requirements.
  10. INFOCON requirements and definitions.
  11. AUP requirements.