LESSON 3. LAW AND THE INTERNET

Discussion

1. Think of possible legal problems that the Internet may cause.

2. Search the Internet and find definitions of the following concepts. Present them in a group discussion.

1) charity fraud

2) cyber terrorism

3) cyberextortion

4) cyberstalking

5) cyberwarfare

6) dating fraud

7) espionage

8) identity theft

9) internet marketing and retail fraud

10) phishing

11) piracy

12) purchase fraud

13) social engineering

14) "work-at-home" scams

Reading and speaking

Text 1

1. Read the text below. Find in the text the English equivalents of the following words:

финансовая афера, взламывать систему, вымогательство, взлом компьютерной системы безопасности, злоупотребление интернетом на рабочем месте, фиктивная компания, кража сведений личного характера, преследование, неожидаемый, компьютерная программа, несущая скрытую опасность, использовать уязвимые места в системе безопасности, промышленный шпионаж.

WHAT IS A CYBERCRIME?

Cybercrime is one of the fastest-growing criminal activities on the planet. Cybercrime is defined as the use of any computer network for crime and the high-tech criminals of the digital age have not been slow to spot the opportunities. The scope of the definition becomes even larger with the frequent companion or substitute term “computer-related crime.” Some writers are also of the opinion that “computer crime” refers to computer-related activities which are either criminal in the legal sense of the word or just antisocial behaviour where there is no breach of the law.

Given the extent to which computers have become a part of modern life, it was inevitable that some people would see the wired world as an opportunity to make money or cause mischief. Cybercriminals can range from teenagers who vandalise websites to terrorists who target a nation.

Cybercrime covers a huge range of illegal activityincluding financial scams, computer hacking, downloading pornographic images from the internet, virus attacks, stalking by e-mail and creating websites that promote racial hatred.

ü The term hacking was originally used to describe an audacious practical joke, but has become better known as a term for the activities of computer enthusiasts who pit their skills against the IT systems of governments and big corporations. Hackers sometime crack into systems to brag about their abilities to penetrate into systems, but others do it for illegal gain or other malicious purposes. The handiwork of some hackers, or "crackers" as they are known in the computer industry, has had disastrous results. The "love-bug" virus crippled at least 45 million computers worldwide and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

ü Then there is fraud and extortion. Some hackers have broken into the computer systems of banks and other businesses, with the intention of stealing money - or information like credit card numbers, which are just as valuable to the criminal.

· 90% of US companies which responded to a Computer Security Institute survey said they had detected computer security breaches in the previous year

· 74% acknowledged financial losses as a result of the breaches of security

· 79% detected employee abuse of the internet, for example downloading pornography or pirated software

· 85% detected computer viruses

Gangsters can use computers for extortion. Burglary rings track break-ins and then inventory their winnings from each job. Gangsters who want to murder a person in hospital can crack the hospital’s computers to alter the dosage of medication.

Scams by cyber-criminals include setting up bogus companies on the Net. Unsuspecting buyers are offered products at tempting prices, and then supply their credit card details - only to find that the site suddenly disappears. No phone number, no address and no redress. The dot com becomes a dot con.

ü   Another 21st century crime is identity theft. This usually does not involve hacking at all. Criminals can trawl the web or other public databases for information about someone's date of birth, social security number and address and then use that to apply for credit cards and run up huge bills. It is easy to do and as a result is one of the fastest growing crimes in the US.

ü Cyberstalking. The goal of a cyberstalker is control. Stalking and harassment over cyberspace is more easily practised than in real life. There are many cases where cyberstalking crosses over to physical stalking. Some examples of computer harassment are:

- Live chat obscenities and harassment;

- Unsolicited and threatening e-mail;

- Hostile postings about someone;

- Spreading vicious rumours about someone;

- Leaving abusive messages on a website’s guest books.

ü Malicious codes like worms, viruses and Trojan horses cause damage on a greater scale. These exploit security vulnerabilities of a system and they tend to alter or destroy data. The damage they cause is worth millions of Ringgit to companies as well as government agencies. Worms are different from viruses because they are able to spread themselves with no user interaction. A virus can attack systems in many ways: by erasing files, corrupting databases and destroying hard disk drives.

ü Industrial espionage. This is where corporations spy on other companies and with network systems, this can be an easy task. Companies can retrieve sensitive information rarely leaving behind any evidence. Cyberespionage can also be applied to nations that spy on other countries' sensitive information.

With so many cybercrimes on the rise the need for a cyberlaw is obvious, but the difficulties are baffling.

The internet is a global system. We can now be attacked by criminals who do not need to come to this territory. Lots of policing arrangements have their roots in the fact that victim and offender are geographically co-located. So the problem for all law-enforcement agencies is the way that cybercrime, like the Internet itself, is not limited by national boundaries. An investigation that begins in one country may quickly lead elsewhere, but without the co-operation of other nations, it may be impossible to track down the perpetrators and secure convictions.

Then there’s a question of liberty. When the Council of Europe produced a draft treaty on cybercrime, it was deluged by e-mails from internet users concerned about possible infringements of their privacy and liberty. One complaint said that the proposals could have "a chilling effect on the free flow of information and ideas."

European officials say they have tried to address these concerns, and stress that their intention is simply to consolidate laws against activities such as hacking, spreading viruses, and computer fraud so that in future there is a standard way of securing the digital evidence needed for prosecutions.

2. Define the following words as they are used in the text:

- to pit their skills against;

- dot com;

-dot con;

-to trawl the web;

- hostile postings;

- vicious rumours;

- to retrieve information;

- deluged by e-mails;

3. Make use of the material contained in the previous text as well as your own information to answer the following questions:

1) Why is there a need for cyberlaw ?

2) How would you define cyberlaw?

3) What difficulties does cyberlaw involve?

4) Have you heard about any attempts to enact a law on cybercrimes?

Text 2

1. Read the text, define its main idea.

2. Single out the topic sentence in every paragraph.

THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

The growth in general wickedness online is testing the police

CRIME has been falling in Britain since the mid-1990s, as it has in much of the rich world. Car-related theft has plummeted by 79% since 1995 and burglary by 67%. The decline is partly due to technology; car immobilisers and house alarms make such crimes harder. The increased use of CCTV and DNA databases means criminals are more likely to be caught, and the rewards for burglary have decreased anyway because electronic gadgets are so cheap. The falling crime rate has come alongside big recent cuts in police budgets. In 2015, the coalition government trimmed 20%. Meanwhile, crime has moved online.

Britain is particularly at risk when it comes to cybercrime, argues Charlie McMurdie, a cyber-security expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), a consultancy. It is rich, its infrastructure for moving money around is slick, and it is saturated with technology. Over 60% of the population use smartphones. More than 80% of households are connected to the internet. Three-quarters of them shop online. According to PWC, 69% of companies in Britain experienced a cyber-security incident in the past year, compared to 59% globally.

The term “cybercrime” covers everything from sophisticated attacks on government websites to e-mails offering fake prizes. The more serious kinds—and the damage they cause—are obvious. But many are small in scale, though high in volume. There is a big difference between technically being the target of a cybercrime, such as receiving a fake friend-request on Facebook, and actually being harmed, points out David Wall, a criminologist at Durham University.

The scale of it is also hard to measure, in Britain as elsewhere. According to a study in October carried out by Get Safe Online, a government-supported group, half of Britons have experienced crime online—everything from identity theft to hacking to online abuse. But the Crime Survey for England and Wales, the best indicator of long-term trends, does not include any of it in its overall count (although the government is now evaluating the best ways of doing so). Government statisticians say that card and bank fraud could contribute 3.6-3.8m incidents of crime to the survey’s total. If that is true, it would reverse the decline in overall crime of the past decade.

Underreporting is rife. A Home Office study in October 2013 estimated that businesses reported only 2% of online incidents to the police. Earlier research showed that, among adult Internet users, just 1% reported unauthorised access to their data (though that may have risen). Some victims do not realise a crime has taken place. Having your e-mail account hacked is annoying but few people report such crimes to the police; they turn instead to the Internet company for help.

Businesses keep cyber attacks quiet, worried that customers and competitors will assume they have been compromised. In November Andrew Tyrie, chairman of a parliamentary committee, questioned Britain’s biggest banks about whether they were understating the true scale of fraud. Many companies and banks see little benefit in reporting attacks to the police, says Ms McMurdie of PWC. They prefer to go to firms such as hers which have the skills and resources for a fast response.

Public apathy persists, except around crimes such as online child abuse. Much cybercrime seems remote, compared with more tangibleoffences such as a burglary or an assault. The paucity of information about crime online, including its broader impact, does not help. Such poor intelligence makes it hard to deploy resources effectively. The police do not have ready access to much of the evidence of cybercrime. In November Britain’s police regulator criticised the English and Welsh forces for failing to keep pace with changing criminality, in particular cybercrime.

As a result, police are working more closely with private companies than they might on other crimes. In 2013 the government launched the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership which allows companies to share intelligence with each other and the government, including GCHQ, its electronic-monitoring agency. They can do so anonymously, mitigating fears about reputation damage.

A safe investment

The police are placing a growing emphasis on this kind of crime. The government is investing £860m ($1.4 billion) in its cyber-security programme, established in 2011 (though much has gone to the security and intelligence agencies which deal with more sophisticated cyber-threats). In August the Metropolitan Police set up FALCON, a unit to respond to cybercrime and fraud in London. It deals with online frauds that encourage people to hand over their money or personal details. Since 2009 Britons have been urged to report such fraud to a central body, Action Fraud. The National Fraud Investigation Bureau collates those reports and disseminates them to individual forces to investigate.

Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey and an adviser to Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, says that Britain stacks up well in tackling online crime compared to other EU countries. But the nature of the Internet makes tackling low-level, high-volume cybercrime difficult anywhere. Many perpetrators are based abroad.

The question is how much time and money the police should devote to online fraud. Stealing cars is seen by many criminologists as a “debut crime”, the first step on a journey to more serious offences. Cybercrime does not appear to be, says Professor Wall. Fraudsters merely have to commit a greater number of minor frauds to make more money; more complex offences are unnecessary. Many of those willing to commit low-level crimes online would balk at doing so on the street.

In the meantime, individuals and companies will do more. Few expect every new spammer to be arrested, says Richard Clayton, a computer scientist at Cambridge University. Instead, each spam-blocking system tweaks itself to increase its success rate. No one in the Wild West believed the sheriff would arrive each time someone stole a cow, he says. “Everyone had to look out for themselves.”

3.Provide definitions of the underlined words and word-combinations and translate them into Russian.

4. Answer the following questions and do the given tasks.

1) What kind of crime has been falling in Britain since the mid-1990s? Why?

2) Why is Britain particularly at risk when it comes to cybercrime?

3) According to the text, what does the term “cybercrime” cover?

4) Why don’t individuals report cyberattacks to the police?

5) Why do businesses keep cyberattacks quiet?

6) Prove that the police and the government in Britain are placing a growing emphasis on cybercrime.

7) Do you think more money and police time should be devoted to computer-related crimes? Why (not)?

8) Comment on the metaphor from the final paragraph of the text.

9) Do you believe that some day cyberspace will be completely secure? Why (not)?

Text 3

1. Explain and translate the underlined words and word combinations.

FROM RUSSIA WITH “LOADS”

If you think the teeth-gnashing over unauthorized music downloading begins and ends with Kazaa and Limewire, you're just not thinking globally. A new potential legal battleground on the issue could soon emerge with a focus on, of all places, Russia. A handful of Web sites bearing the ".ru" suffix are offering extremely cheap, downloadable, high-quality MP3s of thousands of CDs.

If the popularity of these sites grows, as it seems to have been doing dramatically in the past year, does anyone think the record labels whose products they're selling will stand by idly and let all this post-Soviet-breakup capitalism run rampant?

What's available on the Russian sites is, in a word, enticing. The two primary sites in question--MP3search.ru Club and AllofMP3 are heavier on current and recent Top 40 fare, but both have a generous selection of hiphop, Latin pop, and classic rock as well. The selection at AllofMP3 is greater, and it also offers music-video downloads.

Here's the best part: All that music is available in high-quality MP3, all of it's completely burnable and compatible with all players, and all of it costs about a penny per megabyte--literally less than you'd pay to hear any of these songs on the jukebox in your corner bar. And in fact, AllofMP3 offers music by some artists free of charge, as sort of a loss leader feature for registered members.

If this all sounds too good to be true, maybe it is and maybe it isn't.

MP3search.ru Club's site swears up and down that everything it's doing falls in line with Russian copyright law: "MP3Search.Ru Club has an agreement with RUSSIAN ORGANIZATION FOR MULTIMEDIA & DIGITAL SYSTEMS" the site's fine print reads.

But suppose you don't live in Russia. Are you violating American copyright laws by using these sites? That's where it gets murky. The CD discussion site Museekster conducted what it calls a thorough review of the legal nuts and bolts behind these sites, and came to the conclusion that it's all on the up and up--at least in Russia.

"Copyrights for downloads in Russia are more or less equal to the rights radio stations have to pay for broadcasting music," the site reads. "But the most important factor is that one U.S. dollar is worth lots of rubles. In Russia, CDs cost about $2-3. So Allofmp3 to Russians is in fact as expensive as iTunes is to Americans."

If you're comfortable with taking this kind of armchair legal advice, you'll probably be inclined to take your chances with the sites. The product is great, the price is certainly right, and from reading the posts of dozens of users, it doesn't seem that anyone has regretted giving either site their credit-card information. (I would avoid the many U.S. sites that seem to be offering the same service, however.)

The bottom line seems to be – repeat, seems to be – that Americans have every right to obtain music from anyone who has a legal right to sell it in their country. But as was the case with Napster five years ago, these sites are probably legally available for use only because nobody has taken steps to shut them down them yet. If you're OK with residing in what seems to be a legal grey area, my advice now is the same as it was during Napster's pre-litigation heyday: Get it while the getting's good.

2. Write the summary of the article.

3. What are other possible legal problems connected with infringement of copyright on the internet (chose one aspect and speak in detail)? What’s you personal attitude to unauthorized music downloading?

4. Have a group discussion of the problems of Internet copyright laws, one part of the group acting as copyright owners (musicians, writers etc.) whose works have been performed on the Internet without the copyright owner’s permission and the other part acting as Internet users, Internet service providers etc. who protect their right to free information on the Internet.

Rendering