Cyber Crime

Criminal activity in cyberspace.

• Can directly or indirectly involve technology (e.g., session stealing v. piracy)

Remember — All tools can be used maliciously.

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)

Prohibits unauthorized access to certain protected computers of interest to the federal government.

• Protected: Computers used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce and computers used by the federal government and financial institutions.

On “Without Authorization” — Because it isn’t always an outsider without authorization committing crime (stereotypical hacker). Sometimes it is someone authorized exceeding their authorization.

Summary of Penalties

Important — Seven crimes can be prosecuted by the CFAA.

TODO

Wiretap Act

Electronic communicates should be handled by the government in the same way telephone communication is handled.

• Prohibits any person from making an illegal interception or disclosing or using illegally intercepted material.
• Very complex, and has few exceptions.

History

• Originally applied to telephone taps.
• Amended in 1986 to cover electronic communications.
  • This intentionally broad term catches all computer network communications.

Remember — This applies to any person, not just law enforcement.

Exceptions

1. Consent of Party: If the interceptor is party to the communication, or one of the parties consents.
   • If you are planning to do illegal things, this exception doesn’t hold.
2. Provider Exception: Telecom providers can intercept/disclose/use “information necessary to deliver services”.
   • Random monitoring is only allowed for quality control.
3. Good Faith: There are three “Good Faith” defenses:
   1. Warrant, court order, subpoena, and legislative or statutory authorization.
   2. Request of an investigative or law enforcement officer.
   3. Good faith determination that the act permitted the behavior in question.

Penalties

• Class D felony
• Maximum Penalty: 5 years imprisonment and afine
• Fines generally don’t exceed:
  • $250k for individuals, and
  • $500k for organizations
  • Can be bigger if loss is substantial.

Other Network Crime Statues

• Unauthorized disclosure,
• Identity theft,
• CAN-SPAM,
• Wire fraud,
• et cetera

Unlawful Access to Stored Communications

Protects data, email, and voicemail from unauthorized access.

• Protects communications stored by providers pending the delivery to intended recipients w.r.t. to the CIA triad.

USA-PATRIOT ACT

Greatly expanded government powers in response to the September 11 attacks to allow mass monitoring of civilians.

• Divided into ten titles.

On Title II: Allows interception of wire/oral/electronic communications to get evidence for (1) specified chemical weapons or terrorism offenses; and (2) computer fraud and abuse. Among other things, allows for:

• Bulk collection of electronic data.
• Nationwide search warrants.
• Surveillance of citizens and non citizens.
• Roving wiretaps.

Also relaxes requirements for permission to surveil, and expands scope of subpoenas of electronic data.

Sunset and FREEDOM ACT:

• Although the Patriot act was allowed to Sunset in 2005, the Freedom Acct reinstated most of the powers of the Patriot act.

Taxonomy of Cyber Crime

Classic

• Computer Virus: TODO
• Botnet: TODO
• Spyware: TODO
• Malware: Inclusive term for all of the above.

TODO Article notes (read articles linked on Canvas).

Fraud (Crimes of Deception)

• Click Fraud
• Advanced Fee Scam
• Lottery Scams
• Reshipping Fraud
• Freebie Scams

Content and Substance-Oriented

“The easy, bad, and scary.”

Child Exploitation and Child Pornography

All sexually explicit content is subject to federal regulation.

• Prohibitions:
  • 18 USB 1466A and 18 USC2252: Child Pornography
  • 18 USC 2257: Levies specific record keeping requirements on the adult industry (to ensure people in explicit pictures/movies are of legal age).
  • 42 USC 13032: Electronic communications service providers 9ISPs) must report child pornography to the NCMEC.
• And more federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

Remember — Never investigate something yourself, report immediately to NCMEC or FBI.

Warez / Piracy

Pirated copies of proprietary commercial software, typically distributed over the internet after any copyright protection mechanisms have been disabled.

• Music, movies, and games.

In the same vein as property theft, copyright infringement, piracy, illegal sports streaming, etc.

Digital Evidence and Crime

Digital Evidence: Information stored or transmitted in binary form than is associated with electronic crimes, and it used to prosecute all types of crimes.

???

• Do you know your footprint?
• Do you have incriminating digital evidence?
• What online activity is sus?