cybercrime

Hamburg court rules against forum providers

2006-04-27T02:05:00.000-07:00

The first-instance court of Hamburg gave its final ruling on the liability of forum comments, stating that moderators of internet forums are liable for content posted on their sites.
Initially, the legislation held forum providers liable for illegal content they had knowledge about and there was no obligation for them to search for such content. This interpretation was now overruled by the Hamburg court who considered providing forums as a business operation. Therefore forum providers should be able to have sufficient staff and means to check out comments on their forums. As the court stated, in case they cannot operate accordingly, â€œthey either have to expand their in-house resources or [...] reduce the scope of their business operations,"
The case originating the ruling was that of a forum member of German news site Heise Online, who posted a script disrupting the business practices of Universal Boards, a Munich company criticised for allegedly distributing premium rate internet dialers and also accused of buying up expired domain names to use them for advertising porn. The company asked the publisher to remove the script, which it did, but it refused to sign a formal obligation.
Universal Boards then obtained from the district court a temporary restraining order.
Without taking account of the argument given by Heise that verifying the contents of more than 200,000 comments per month would be an unreasonable burden on the publisher, the court considered that a publisher should have been able to prevent such situations by "reviewing the content of the comments before publishing them."
The court was not clear in whether every Web forum could be held liable or only the services of the press. The statement refers to "people who operate facilities in which content is disseminated as in the press." And this "also applied for companies that disseminate content via the Internet." As a result, probably every Internet forum will enter this category.
Heise is appealing this ruling.
First-instance district court of Hamburg says forum operators are liable for comments (18.04.2006)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/72085
German court rules moderators liable for forum comments (21.04.2006) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/21/moderator_liable_for_comments/

Anti-spam laws

2006-04-27T02:04:00.000-07:00

OECD urges governments and industry to do more to tackle spam (19.04.2006) http://www.oecd.org/document/62/0,2340,en_2649_34487_36488702_1_1_1_1,00.html
OECD Recommendation on Cross-Border Co-operation in the Enforcement of Laws against Spam (19.04.2006)
http://www.oecd-antispam.org/article.php3?id_article=238
Sophos report reveals latest 'dirty dozen' spam relaying countries
(20.04.2006)
http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/04/dirtydozapr06.html
EDRI-gram: ITU wants codes of conduct for tackling global spam (15.03.2006) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.5/ituspam
OECD Anti-Spam Toolkit
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/63/28/36494147.pdf

I've been hacked!

2005-07-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

Our ents website has been hacked!
http://www.essexentsonline.com/html/admin.php

Background on the Cybercrime Convention

2005-05-05T04:17:00.000-07:00

For those needing a refresher a 2003 article from the JHTL.

2005-03-23T01:04:00.000-08:00

EU Big 5 agree data rentention extension to combat terrorism

Some hate speech-Internet content articles

2005-03-21T02:41:00.000-08:00

"Ashcroft v. ACLU: Should Congress Try, Try, and Try Again, or Does the International Problem of Regulating Internet Pornography Require an International Solution?" Kate Reder (2004) 6 North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology 139
"Code, Hybrid Models of Consent and the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002" by J Savirimuthu [2004] Journal of Information, Law and Technology (2) http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2004_2/savirimuthu and http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=630161
"Content Regulation in Malaysia: Unleashing Missiles on Dangerous Web Sites" by Ida Madieha Azmi [2004] Journal of Information, Law and Technology (3) http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2004_3/azmi/
"Worldwide Prescriptive Jurisdiction in Internet Content Controversies: A Comparative Analysis" by Yulia A. Timofeeva (2004) 20 Connecticut Journal of International Law http://ssrn.com/abstract=637961

Week 10 - Jurisdiction, Constitutional Rights and Extradition

2005-03-20T05:44:00.000-08:00

Link here to many cybercrime extradition cases. Babar Ahmad will have his case heard again on 24 March.

Blogging

2005-03-14T04:12:00.000-08:00

An interesting article from last week's MediaGuardian, on the extent to which bloggers can be considered journalists, particularly with regard to protecting one's sources. NOTE: MediaGuardian online make you sign in before you can read its articles now, but this is probably worth doing due to the wealth of information held within...

Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005

2005-03-14T01:28:00.000-08:00

Can be found here: it became law on Friday.

All Party Internet Group: new DOS Bill to be introduced

2005-03-14T01:14:00.000-08:00

See news story and Bill.

Weeks 9 & 10

2005-03-11T02:54:00.000-08:00

Week 9: Civil Liberties and Jurisdiction Issues
Lloyd Chapter 20, pp463-492.
Read the first judgment in the House of Lords decision to declare the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act Part IV contrary to the Human Rights Act 1998.
Consider whether the government or opposition amendments to the Prevention of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2005 better meets their Lordships' criticisms?
Week 10: Concluding session.

Telenor Botnet

2005-03-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

For those who do 654, Telenor might ring a familiar bell...

Cybercrime essay titles

2005-03-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

1. 'The Protocol to Convention on Cybercrime is a specious conceit in the face of globalisation'. Discuss with reference to recent caselaw and legislation from at least two jurisdictions.
2. 'Interception of communications without judicial supervision cannot be justified under any circumstances'. Discuss with reference to the Protection of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2005.
3. Denial of service cannot be prosecuted successfully under the Computer Misues Act 1990. Discuss with respect to recent caselaw and suggestions for reform.
4. 'Extradition is fundamentally unfit for the purpose of responding to crimes without a physical location.' Discuss with respect to cyberterrorism cases in the UK and US.

NISCC

2005-03-03T04:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.niscc.gov.uk/niscc/index-en.html

US wants London website expert extradited

2005-03-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Below is a link to an article appearing in The Times today

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1507918,00.html

Denial of Service - some materials

2005-03-02T04:05:00.000-08:00

Interesting report on a California case, also FBI sweeps of DOS, phishing and scamming criminals, and a UK-based workgroup on the issues.

Law of cybersecurity - advanced article

2005-03-02T03:32:00.000-08:00

"The Law and Economics of Cybersecurity: An Introduction" by Mark F. Grady and Francesco Parisi (2004) George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 04-54

The price paid for blogging Iran

2005-03-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

BBC news

NCSA

2005-02-28T16:41:00.000-08:00

The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) is a public-private partnership focused on promoting cyber security and safe behavior online.
http://www.staysafeonline.info/

NCSA recognizes that there is increased cyber activity as a result of numerous tsunami relief appeals. When donating online, always pick reputable charities with secure web sites that accept credit cards, and give to organizations you know and trust. Beware of emails asking you to click on links to donate; instead, manually type the organization's address into your Internet browser. Also beware of emails from strangers claiming to have attached photos of the tsunami. If you don't know who sent it to you, be very cautious in downloading files from strangers.

The electronic "Jihad"

2005-02-27T15:04:00.000-08:00

This article highlights an example of the types of crimes committed online illustrating the new challenge that legislative, judges and prosecutors are likely to confront in the digital era; the electronic "Jihad" on the 28th of Feb 2005;this case is concerning a Jordanian man called 'Morad' who was accused of menancing the Jordanian department of intelligence by sending messages that threaten the stability of security in the Jordanian soil.
This man has acquired a CD and sending e mails that included an electronic catalogue on how to use explosive material and missiles.
It is in Arabic
http://www.alrai.com/pages.php?news_id=22943

New Tech.

2005-02-24T04:59:00.000-08:00

Hard drive security issues

NUS Xenophobia

2005-02-24T04:51:00.000-08:00

NUS Student Charter

Example of homophobic posts on EssexStudent.com before the site was moderated.

Home Secretary on phone taps as evidence

2005-02-23T10:51:00.000-08:00

David Blunkett in November, but it's still the official line.

Week 8 - preparation for Richard Starnes

2005-02-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

Read the House of Lords judgment of 16 December 2004 (given out in class Week 7), declaring Part IV of the ATCSA 2001 contrary to UK human rights obligations. What do you believe to be the best solution aired during the debate of 22 February in Parliament?

Week 7 - Denial of Service attacks

2005-02-23T06:38:00.000-08:00

There's a slight change in the course order - with Richard Starnes here Week 8 (5-7pm remember!), this week we concentrate on Denial of Service and spam.
Read the 2004 APIG report on the CMU 1990, including their recommendations for amendment to the law, and also the Earl of Northesk's draft Bill. Do you think his Bill would be effective?
On interception/surveillance, read Lloyd Chapter 9 from 9.30.

Extract from Home Office Cybercrime Report

2005-02-23T00:22:00.000-08:00

The top three concerns were online paedophile activity (e.g. online grooming, pay-per-view websites of illegal images, sharing of images by offenders using peer-to-peer applications), fraud (e.g. theft of personal organisers containing sensitive personal information to execute fraudulent online transactions, identity theft against egovernment services) and espionage (corporate, criminal and political spies, using techniques as diverse as social engineering and complex software).
This paper has adopted the term netcrime (Mann and Sutton, 1998), defined here as ‘criminal or otherwise malicious activity utilising or directed towards the Internet and/or information technology applications’. This definition extends beyond desktop or laptop computers, embracing all forms of networked device (e.g. hand-held computers of various forms and networked domestic appliances). It is also assumed that most criminal activity will involve such devices being connected to a Local or Wide Area Network, the Internet or a public telecommunications network.
The highest rated single item related to the perceived ability of offenders to undertake secure (from law enforcement) communications via the use of email and associated technologies such as cryptography, steganography and anonymous remailers. The highest rated category of technology was the use of peer-to-peer or file sharing applications. Such applications vary from those commonly used for the illegal downloading of music and video (e.g. KaZaA), to more specialised applications built for security and anonymity, which can facilitate secure criminal communications. As well as facilitating criminal or malicious activity, some technologies were also a source of concern as they represented a security threat to legitimate users. Peer-to-peer applications were considered to represent a potential security breach to legitimate users, as were wireless networks, currently being deployed in both public and private environments. One of the broadest concerns reflected the use, or abuse, of the World Wide Web via individual websites. Websites themselves can represent a direct threat to users if they are designed to falsely capture sensitive personal information for fraudulent purposes. Indirectly, websites represent a threat as a number are a source of offending information, providing resources to offenders for a variety of offences, most cited being the provision of hacking tools and know-how. Finally, websites can be the targets of offending, falling victim to denial-of-service attacks or web defacements for example.

technology and crime

2005-02-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.tecrime.com/llartV29.htm

Blasphemy and the Miss World Contest in Nigeria

2005-02-22T11:33:00.000-08:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/11/27/nigeria.fatwa/

new cybercrime

2005-02-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

Evil Twin
How crackers use wi-fi connection to phish sensitive data

Paris Hilton and Anna Kournikova's phone number

2005-02-22T05:10:00.000-08:00

T-Mobile Sidekick servers have been hacked for a year - and this latest episode proves it for all the world!

Channel4 tonight 8pm blasphemy, hacking and Murdoch

2005-02-21T02:22:00.000-08:00

Programme 'Dispatches' should be interesting.
We all watch pay-TV sometimes - see this story on how one company hacked another's security system.

new types of crime

2005-02-20T07:31:00.000-08:00

electoral fraud via the Internet.

about electronic voting systems see,

http://www.calvoter.org/issues/votingtech/pub/0101KAtenthings.html
http://www.paulschwartz.net/pdf/votingtech.pdf

Employee Blogging

2005-02-18T04:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.employersnews.co.uk/news/n204.html

Week 5 blogs

2005-02-17T11:06:00.000-08:00

Everybody get blogging your new hi-tech crime!

Week 6

2005-02-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

1. Acronym - and Lloyd Chap.13

New technologies and crime

2005-02-16T05:56:00.000-08:00

There's some sites here and here to get you started on new technologies and crime - remember, this is your week to explain the criminal law of blasphemy in your jurisdiction and then later to explain what you've found regarding new technologies and crime - independent research is required!

Mobile service regulation

2005-02-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting story on mobiles and consumers.

Week 5 Reading

2005-02-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

First, the Home Office Research Report 1 and Report 2.
Second, please don't blog anything to do with Irish jokes - my family is Irish and you could be in trouble under the Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime.
Third, look to your national criminal law to see if there is a criminal offence of defamation or blasphemy - in the UK, these are civil offences but were criminal.
Fourth - look at this link - lots of new technology stories here and also on news.google.com.

Reidenberg - latest paper on law enforcement by states

2005-02-05T01:21:00.001-08:00

See Joel Reidenberg's latest paper - he plans to make this into a book during 2005, for those interested.

Week 4 Reading - Esposito and Reidenberg

2005-02-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

For Week 4, we are considering xenophobia as an example of a speech-related crime that is not universally accepted. Please read either Schumacher or Rorive (whichever you have not previously read) and also the article on the implications of the France v. Yahoo! case by Professor Reidenberg.
You might also wish to look at the Working Paper on cybercrime by the UN Working Group on Internet Governance - comments by 11 February if you'd like to contribute!

Info Tech Text Book

2005-02-03T08:24:00.000-08:00

Info Tech text book by Ian LLoyd 4th Edition class mark is KD 667.C6 we have one copy in short loan, one 3 days loan and one 7 days loan. We also have copies of the 3rd Ed and some much older editions. Enjoy

LW655: Cybercrime Syllabus Outline

2005-02-02T13:42:00.000-08:00

Week 1: Reading week.
Week 2: Introduction: Defining Cybercrime
Week 3: Speech Crimes I: The European Convention on Cybercrime, E-Commerce
Directive and ISP liability – Felix Somm et al.Lloyd Chapter 11 & Chapter 28, pp640-6, Chapter 31, pp692-701.
Week 4: Speech Crimes II: European Convention Protocol Xenophobia and Yahoo!
Lloyd Chapter 15
Week 5: Technology and Crime: Broadband and Mobile
Home Office Reports on Cybercrime
Week 6: Surveillance and the State
Lloyd Chapter 13
Week 7: International Case Study: Spam, DOS attacks, Phishing
Lloyd Chapter 13 Chapter 14
Week 8: Cyberterrorism: Guest Seminar by Richard Starnes
Lloyd Chapter 16
Week 9: Civil Liberties and Jurisdiction Issues
Chapter 20, pp463-492.
Week 10: Concluding session.

Home Office reports on the future of cybercrime

2005-02-01T02:04:00.000-08:00

The Cambridge project on anti-Denial of Service also links to the Home Office reports.

WorldCom criminal trial - email evidence and audit trails

2005-01-31T04:27:00.000-08:00

The CEO of WorldCom is on trial for fraud of $11billion from stockholders. FindLaw has a resources page - which shows how enormous a body of evidence can now be found.

Richard Starnes' Bio

2005-01-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

Richard Starnes, CISSP Director of Incident Response Cable and Wireless
Richard Starnes is an internationally recognised expert in information security, incident response, computer crime investigation and cyber terrorism. Richard has extensive experience in designing and implementing information technology security systems, crisis management, policy and procedure development, physical security implementation, audit and review of information security programs. Richard has seventeen years experience in planning and implementing information technology systems and security solutions and is also an expert in identifying, documenting and reviewing current - and developing - best practice, standards, policies and procedures.
Richard is currently the Director of Incident Response for the Managed Security Operations Centre (MSOC) at Cable & Wireless. His responsibilities include assisting customers and internal clients with resolving security related events, in which an unauthorized entity attempts to obtain confidential information stored on computer systems, gain unauthorized access to data or resources or prevent a system from performing properly.
He has served as Chairperson of the Communications and Public Relations Project Group of Interpol's European Working Party on Information Technology Crime, as well as advising their Wireless Applications Security Project Group, He is also the President of the UK chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) and sits on the editorial advisory board of the ISSA Journal.
Richard is a member of the Internet Crime Forum which is tasked to promote, maintain and enhance an effective working relationship between industry and law enforcement, and which aims to tackle crime and foster business and public confidence in the use of the internet in ways that respect human rights and are sympathetic to the needs of industry.
He is a regular contributor of articles and quotations to numerous internationally recognized publications and has been interviewed by such media notables as: Computer Weekly, SC Magazine, Reuters, The Times, The Guardian, BBC News and ZDNet. This is coupled with presenting at numerous international information security conferences, seminars and symposiums and at such prestigious universities as the Oxford Internet Institute, London School of Economics and Royal Holloway, University of London.
He has received the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. (ISC)², President's Award for service to the information security community and fostering cooperation between industry and international law enforcement (2002 and 2004). He has been profiled in the 20th, 21st and 22nd editions of, "Who's Who in the World", the 34th edition of, "Who's Who in Finance and Business", the upcoming 8th edition of "Who's Who in Science and Engineering" and the 31st edition of the Dictionary of International Biography.
Richard holds a Master of Science in Information Security from Royal Holloway, University of London. He is a Lead Instructor for the (ISC)² CISSP CBK seminar. He also holds MCSE, BS7799 Lead Auditor and A+ certifications.

Week 8 Guest Speaker

2005-01-30T08:54:00.000-08:00

Our guest cybercop will be Richard Starnes of Cable & Wireless, President of the Information Systems Security Association UK chapter. There's not much Richard doesn't know about cybercrime!

Week 2 Readings

2005-01-30T08:03:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the delay - I was in Paris Friday/Saturday (for work, I promise) and couldn't blog from there.

For Thursday:
1. Read the report of the Felix Somm case at:
http://www.ijclp.org/1_1998/ijclp_webdoc_14_1_1998.html

2. Then go on to compare with any ONE of these articles on more recent developments in dealing with hate crimes on the Internet:
http://www.ijclp.org/7_2003/pdf/rorive-ijclp-artikel.pdf
http://www.ijclp.org/7_2003/pdf/esposito-ijclp-artikel-15-01-03.pdf
http://www.ijclp.org/8_2004/pdf/schumacher-paper-ijclp.pdf

3. How would you assess the development of jurisprudence regarding these cybercrimes? In class, you will be expected to present your views briefly.

4. Think about whether to buy Lloyd, I. (2004) Information Technology Law, Butterworths, 4th Ed. It can be useful background to our class. If you are also taking data protection Law, I really encourage you to buy the book.

I will also get these assignments emailed to you.

Economic cybercrime - week 1

2005-01-27T07:48:00.000-08:00

DDOS
Phishing
Hacking - computer misuse - entering secured secured systems - passwords, funds etc.
Business information - insider trading
Bulletin boards - misleading investors
All kinds of small-scale fraud - eBay etc. PayPal
Tax fraud
Contributes to tax evasion (illegal)/avoidance (legit)
IPRs
Rogue dialler scandal - premium rate scams
Money laundering - off shore scams

Spam crime - week 1

2005-01-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

Commercial and non-commercial
Selling unprescribed or even illegal drugs
Advertising products against regulations - e.g. cigarettes, drugs
Unlicensed financial services
Obscene spam
Minors - receipt of harmful material
Soliciting - prostitution
Viruses
Spoofing charities - appeals - e.g. tsunami
Nigerian scam - ISP block all email
Gambling - Spitzer NYC and credit card companies
Collecting passwords
Phishing
Distributed Denial of Service attacks - DDOS

Speech cybercrime - week 1

2005-01-27T07:25:00.000-08:00

Defining speech - very wide
Defamation/libel - Beresovsky, Lennox Lewis
1st Amedt - Pornography as speech - ACLU v. Reno (1996) Communications Decency Act
Political speech - opposition speech - censorship
Incitement to voilence - Al Zarqwri particular example - Al Jazzera
Blasphemy
Evidence and communication - conspiracy
Data pretention
Treason - conspiracy - Indian case - current trial - capital penalty
Sex offences - homosexualtiy/paedeophilia - conspiracy - chatrooms, email - surveillance, entrapment.

Tygpes of Cybercrime - week 1

2005-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Offline crime and online activity
Terrorism and environmental terrorism - e.g. al Qaeda and critical infrastructure hacking
Activism involving criminal activity - coordinated through Internet
Slavery 0 human trafficking, sex trade
Sale of obscene materials
Blackmail - extracting money with menaces via Internet, and for Internet sites visted
IPR theft
Theft of legal pornography (e.g. Playboy)
Cannibalism
Evidence trail - email, IM, voice over Internet

Singaporean education to avoid cybercrime

2005-01-26T11:26:00.000-08:00

DIY courses for computer users

Yale conference on digital cops

2005-01-26T11:22:00.000-08:00

This will be advanced reading for the end of the course:
http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/digital%20cops/schedule.htm

Welcome to 2005's Cybercrime LL.M. course

2005-01-26T10:51:00.000-08:00

I will post the syllabus here tomorrow.
Anyone can comment on any post - I wil update with hyperlinks and news stories as the week goes on.
Please feel free to add comments etc. as we continue.
Remember - good academic practice - always acknowledge sources and always be polite!
Good blogging practice - include URL references wherever possible.
Welcome to the course blog.