Criminial Law and Cyber Crime

p Criminial Law and Cyber Crime

2008

Sophisticated computer crime threatens to outpace the development of legislation . Computer technology has created challenges for investigators and prosecutors due to the inadequacy of existing legislation . Traditional criminal laws are poorly prepared to handle cyber crime since legislations were not enacted with technology in mind The laws are geared toward protecting physical property , not electronic property . Legal challenges result from laws and legal tools required to investigate cyber crime , which lag behind technological , structural , and social changes . Laws defining computer offenses make it

difficult for decision makers to enforce laws adequately

There exists a wide gap in cyber crime laws around the globe . Countries are not consistent in their efforts to develop strong laws governing the cyber crime issue . Nations are not taking the threat seriously . A report by McCormell International (2000 ) analyzing high-tech laws in 52 countries discovered that only nine countries had amended their laws to address cyber crimes in four categories : data-related crimes , network related crimes , access crimes , and associated computer related crimes

In 1986 , the U .S . Congress passed an independent statute , the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA , Title 8 Section 1030 , to address computer crimes . This Act consists of seven different sections that address specific types of cyber crimes : espionage , information violations intrusions into government computers , fraud , hacking , viruses denial-of-service attacks , password trafficking , and extortion (Hancock 2000 . This Act was enacted to help stop cyber crimes and has had many revisions to achieve its goal . Congress amended the...