Cybercrime

AuthorRonald Griffin
PositionProfessor of Law, Washburn University Topeka, Kansas
Pages136-153


 !
136
CYBERCRIME
Ronald C. Griffin
PROFESSOR OF LAW
WASHBURN UNIVERSITY
TOPEKA, KANSAS
ronald.griffin@washburn.edu
Abstract. This essay recounts campaigns against privacy; the fortifications erected
against them; and hi-jinx attributable to hackers, crackers, a nd miscreants under the Fair Credit
Reporting Act.
1. Introduction
Hell is living on earth without love.
Dwellers feel empty inside.
Monotony is a curse. But……
America is changing.
1
Cyberspace blankets the continent. A new generation is at the nation’s helm. Citizens are
making weird accommodations with their surro undings.
2
Privacy is under siege.
3
People are anxious, fearful, and
unsettled. Cyberspace makes things worst.
Like nature, in the past, cyberspace is indifferent to the antics of man. But cyberspace technology, when put
in the wrong hands, is threatening and unfriendly.4 Business computers prowl the landscape to co mpile data
about us.
5
Government software spies on people to trap law breakers.
6
This essay recounts campaigns against
privacy; the fortifications erected against them; and hi-jinx attributable to hackers,
7
crackers,
8
and miscreants
under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
9
1
R
EICH
, G
REENING OF
A
MERICA
2-6 (1970); M
ARCUSE
, N
EGATION
33-34 (1968). Man is the o riginal actor. He makes history.
He chooses sides and acts.
2
R
EICH
, supra note 1, at 8.
3
Chick, Customary International Law: Creating a Body of Customary Law for Cyberspace. P art 2: Applying Custom as Law
to the Internet Infrastructure, 26 C
OMPUTER
L
AW
&
S
ECURITY
R
EVIEW
1 85,193 (2010) (trolling search engine data bases
(Google, Yahoo, and America Online) for acade mic reasons is suspect); Ha fner & Richtel,Google Resists U.S . Subpoena of
Search Data, N.Y.
T
IMES
, Jan. 20, 2006, at A-1 (digging into ISP log files (i.e., asking providers to surrender the records for
every person accessing a particu lar internet website) is a bit much); Electronic Frontier Foundation, From EEF’s Secret
Files: Anatomy of a Bogus Subpoena, http://www.eff.org/wp/anatomy-bogus-subpeona-indymedia (last visited Sept. 9,
2011).
4
Aquilina, Public Security Versus Privacy in Technology Law: A Balancing Act, 26 C
OMPUTER
L
AW
&
S
ECURITY
R
EVIEW
130 (2010) [hereinafter Aquilina].
5
. McClung, A Thousand Words are Worth a Picture: A Privacy Tort Response to Consumer Data Profiling, 98 N.W.U.
L.R
EV
63, 69 (2003) [hereinafter McClung]; Keck, Cookies, the Constitution, and the Common Law: A Framework for the
Right to Privacy on the Internet, 13 A
LB
.
L.J.
S
CI
.
&
T
ECH
. 83, 109 (2002); see Online Profiling: Benefits and Concerns,
Hearing Before the Sen. Comm. on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 106th Cong. (2000) (statement of Jodie
Bernstein, Dir., Bureau of Consumer Protection, F.T.C.), available at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/06/onlineprofile.htm.
6
People get shoved into the spotlight, indeed, find themselves put there by a swirl of events, polit ics, psychology, and
emotions. What the government does under the Patriot Act is a horrifying example. American Civil Liberties Union,
Surveillance Under the USA Patriot Act, available at http://www.aclu.org/National-Security/surveillance-under-usa-patriot-
act; see Aquilina, supra note 4, at 133; see also Shipler, Free to Search and Seize, N.Y.
T
IMES
, June 23, 2011, at A-21.


 !
137
2. Sketch
Cyberspace is a parallel universe.
10
It is electrons, computers, routers, servers, local networks, clouds, webs, and
super highways (nets) transporting information everywhere. The realm looks like an old growth forest. People
dart in an out to trap information to solve problems.
Cyberspace is lawless.
11
It is indifferent to folks p oaching data from others. Today’s users demand privacy:
patches of ground that accommodate images (self-constructed ones),
12
anonymity ( things people want to keep
secret),
13
solitude (peace and quiet),
14
and rights (claims against others).
15
Rummaging through a computer is suspect.
16
Using a computer to poach data from other computers is a
wrong.
17
Using webs to bully others is suspect.
18
Using them to goad somebod y into taking their life is a crime.
19
Assuming somebody’s identi ty is wicked.
20
Using a server to download prop rietary information is suspect.
21
Selling the stuff to foreign governments is a crime.
22
3. Landscape
3.1. Future Shock
Let’s ease onto the landscape. In my lifetime books and television mad e indifference to suffering unfashionable.
E-commerce made old fashioned deal-making obsolete. Machines per formed tasks that took older generations
time to complete.
23
Robotics changed everything.
24
7
Sinrod & Reilly, Cyber-Crimes: A Practical Approach to the Application of Federal Computer Crime Laws, 16 S
ANTA
C
LARA
C
OMPUTER
&
H
IGH
T
ECH
.
L.J. 177, 181 (2000).
8
Id. at 182.
9
Pintos v. Experian Info. Solutions, 605 F.3d 666 (9th Cir 2010); see FTC Releases Survey of Identity Theft in the U.S., 27.3
Million victims in the Past 5 years, Billions in losses for Businesses and Consumers (Sept. 3, 2003), available at
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/09/idtheft.htm.
10
Hardy, Law and the Internet, 5 B
US
.
L
AW
T
ODAY
8 (1996).
11
Rho, Blackbeard of the Twentieth Century: Holding Cybercriminals Liable under the Alien Torts Statute, 7 C
HI
.
J.
I
NT
'
L
.
L.
695, 713-74 (2007).
12
Mell, Seeking Shade in a Land of Perpetual Sunlight: Privacy as Property in the Electronic Wilderness,11 B
ERKLEY
T
ECH
.
L.J. 1, 78 (1996).
13
Lester, The Reinvention of Privacy, A
TLANTIC
M
ONTHLY
, vol. 284, no. 3, at 27, 31-32 (Mar. 2001).
14
See Intel Corp. v. Hamidi, 71 P.3d 296 (Cal. 2003). Business webs create no-fly zones above their owners’ space. When
folk enter their realms they have a right to police a nuisance. See Epstein, Intel v. Hamidi: The Role of Self- Help in
Cyberspace, 1 J.
L.
E
CON
.
&
P
OL
. 147 (2005).
15
See Cvent, Inc. v. Eventbright, Inc., 739 F.Supp.2d 927 (E.D.Va. 2010).
16
Invading a reality created by a computer is a crime. 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(4) (2011). Looting data is wrongdoing. Paradigm
v. Celeritas, 722 F.Supp. 2d 1250 (D.Kan. 2011).
17
Lawson, The Case of the Stolen WI-FI, PC
W
ORLD
, Aug. 8, 2005, available at
http://www.pcworld.com/article/122153/the-case-of-the-stolen-wifi.htlm.
18
See Chaffin, The New Playground Bullies of Cyberspace: Online Peer Sexual Harassment, 51 H
OW
.
L.
J. 773 (2008).
19
Breuer, Cyber-Bullying Suicide Case Goes to Jury, available at
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,202242541,00.html [hereinafterBreuer].
20
Folsom,Defining Cyberspace (Finding Real Virtue in Place of Virtual reality), 9 T
UL
.
J.
T
ECH
.
&
I
NTELL
.
P
ROP
. 75, 105
(2007).
21
Multiven v. Cisco Sys., Inc., 725 F.Supp. 2d 887 (N.D.Cal. 2010).
22
Ngowi, Ex-Tech Worker in Mass. Pleads Guilty in Spy Case, B
LOOMBERG
B
USINESS
W
EEK
, Aug. 30, 2011, available at
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9PEMJCG0.htm.
23
G
ALBRAITH
, T
HE
N
EW
I
NDUSTRIAL
S
TATE
293 (1967).
24
T
HROW
, T
HE
Z
ERO
S
UM
S
OLUTION
146-147, 157 (1985).

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT