Illegal Activities

Malware and Hacking | Copyright Infringement | Identity Theft

When children have unrestricted, unlimited, and unsupervised access to the Internet they may get involved in behaviors that are illegal. Some of the illegal activities include hacking, malware creation and or distribution, copyright infringement, and identity theft.

What are Malware, Hacking, and Cracking?

Malware is short for malicious software and is software that is designed to change or alter the intended behavior of other software causing harm or damage to a computer system. There are three types of malware: boot-sector viruses, macro-viruses found in shared documents and spreadsheets, and logic bombs.¹ A boot-sector virus is typically found on a floppy disk which is activated if the disk is left in the drive when the computer is booted up. The virus then affects the local drive.² A logic bomb is software that sits idle until triggered by something, such as the termination of an employee. The software then typically destroys data as retaliation for the termination.³

Hacking is term that has changed meaning over time. Originally it referred to someone who learned how to write a programming language, but now it refers to someone who uses their programming knowledge for illegal purposes whether for ideological or financial purposes. Hacking commonly refers to bypassing security measures to gain access to a system.

Cracking can refer to breaking into a computer system as well as breaking into a software program. Software cracking occurs when changes are made to the original code to bypass copy prevention, password protection, or the need for the CD to be in the drive to operate the software. Often, cracked software is made available for free from Internet sites, but it is loaded with other code that runs on your computer. This is an effective way of delivering harmful viruses to your computer and you do the installation yourself. This is known as a Trojan.

The viruses may cause your computer to become a zombie. A zombie is essentially asleep until it is called upon to perform a service at the discretion of the hacker. Usually your computer is called up on to repeatedly request a service from a Web server along with thousands of other computers that also have the virus. The sudden and massive requests made to the Web server will cause the software to fail and the system to crash making it unusable for anyone. This is called DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service attack.

Title I of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998) criminalizes the "circumvention of technological measures used by copyright owners to protect their works and ... tampering with copyright management information—and adds civil remedies and criminal penalties for violating the prohibitions." In Title II of the DMCA a procedure is established so that a copyright owner can get a subpoena demanding that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) release the identity of a subscriber engaged in copyright infringement.⁴

Resources:
¹The WordSpy site defining Malware http://www.wordspy.com/words/malware.asp
²The About.com site defining Boot-Sector virus
     http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/a/bootsectorvirus.htm
³The About.com site defining Logic bomb http://www.wordspy.com/words/logicbomb.asp
  The Wikipedia site defining Software cracking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_cracking
  The Wikipedia site explaining the DMCA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA
⁴The United States Copyright Office site pdf on the DMCA
     http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf
  The WordSpy site defining Zombie http://www.wordspy.com/words/zombiecomputer.asp

What is Copyright Infringement?  

The purpose of a copyright is to protect intellectual property for a period of time in order to encourage more creative work¹. Intellectual property is one of the most important products or assets held by American businesses. Examples of copyrightable works are: music, movies, paintings, sculptures, literary works, computer programs or industrial design.² The works must be in tangible form. The copyright law establishes certain rights for the holder of the copyright:

1. Reproduction rights of the work
2. The right to create works derived from the original work
3. Distribution rights of the work
4. Performance rights of the work
5. Public display rights of the work
6. Performance rights through digital mediums of the work

Laws to know about:

Copyright Law of the United States   To read the actual copyright law on the The United States Copyright Office site.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
In Title II of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) a procedure is established so that a copyright owner can get a subpoena demanding that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) release the identity of a subscriber engaged in copyright infringement.
The United States Copyright Office site http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

Fair Use Principle (part of the 1976 Copyright Act (section 107)
The Fair Use Principle is an attempt to balance the restrictive nature of the copyright laws with public need. Section 107 lists the ways a copyrighted work may be reproduced. A work can be reproduced for research, scholarship, teaching, comment, criticism, and news reporting. The four guidelines for determining fair use are:

1. Whether the purpose is commercial or nonprofit educational
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. How the reproduction will affect the value of the copyrighted work or its market
4. How much of the whole product is reproduced

Intellectual Property Protection and Courts Amendments Act of 2004
TITLE I--Anti-Counterfeiting Provisions
This provision established what constitutes counterfeiting of Intellectual Property. An individual knowingly using a counterfeit or illicit label attached to or enclosed with the copy of the intellectual property. The penalty is a fine and or not more than 5 years in imprisonment.
TITLE II--Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions
It is illegal to provide false information to a domain name registration authority in registering, maintaining, or renewing a domain name.

The THOMAS site - Legislative Information on the Internet
    http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.3632.ENR:

See statutes on our site: GEORGIA COMPUTER CRIME STATUTES § 16-9-93.

Resources:
¹The Chilling Effects site http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi?NoticeID=789
² The Wikipedia site defining copyright http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
  The Wikipedia site on copyright infringement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement
  The United States Copyright Office site http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
  The NetSafe site on copyrights http://www.netsafe.org.nz/keeping_safe.php?pageID=91§ionID=education&menuID=62

What is Identity Theft?

Identity theft happens when someone steals your identity and impersonates you in order to open credit accounts, rent apartments, and even engage in criminal acts. You don't know when it happens. Then one day you are turned down unexpectedly for a loan, you get a call from a collection agency about an account you never opened, or worse yet, a call from the police about a crime you didn't commit. Suddenly you are a victim of identity theft.

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in America and has become a national crisis according to the Social Security Administration's inspector general. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse estimates that there are between 500,000 to 700,000 identity theft victims a year.

How do I Protect Myself from Identity Theft?

Resources:

Internet Fraud Tips from the National Consumers League’s Internet Fraud Watch -
     Avoiding Identity Theft http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/idtheftavoid.htm