computer crimes

Question 1

what are the requirements to be guilty of hacking?

Answer 1

• defendant causes a computer to perform any function
• with an intention to secure access to any program or data held in any computer
• at the time they do this they know that the access is unauthorised

Question 2

what did the courts use as the defining characteristics of a computer?

Answer 2

the ability of the appliance to:

• store information
• retrieve information so stored
• and process that info

Question 3

what is the scope of “perform any function”?

Answer 3

broad element
no requirement that the function performed is particularly extensive or invasive
turning computer on/off would constitute performing a function

Question 4

what is the mens rea requirement of hacking?

Answer 4

can’t be performed recklessly or negligently, only intentionally
no requirement that the defendant has actually gained access as long as they perform the function with the intent to access it will be sufficient

Question 5

when will a defendant’s access be unauthorised?

Answer 5

he is not himself entitled to control access of the kind in question to the program or data
he does not have consent to access the kind in question to the program or data from any person who is so entitled

Question 6

when is someone guilty of unauthorised impairment?

Answer 6

if they do an unauthorised act in relation to a computer
and intend:
- to impair the operation of a computer
- prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in a computer
- impair the operation of a program or the reliability of data
- or enable any of these things

Question 7

what are the activities that the courts have deemed to fall within the scope of unauthorised impairment?

Answer 7

online defacement
creation/dissemination of viruses
mail bombing and other denial of service attacks

Question 8

what is the precedent for viruses?

Answer 8

anyone who creates and/or disseminates a computer virus will commit an offence under S3 CMA 1990

Question 9

what is mail bombing?

Answer 9

intentional/reckless impairment of email addresses is an offence under s3 CMA

Question 10

what are the two main varieties of denial of service attacks?

Answer 10

standard DoS attacks - one person or a group of persons acting in a coordinated fashion attack a single server or web server
- distributed denial of service attacks - where malicious code such as a trojan horse is used to create a network of slave computers under the control of one operator that can be triggered all at one time to carry out an attack

Question 11

the offence of obscenity will be committed when?

Answer 11

defendant

- publishes an obscene article and this must be done for gain or not

Question 12

when is an article published according to s1(3) obscene publications act 1959?

Answer 12

a person will publish an article when they either distribute, circulate, sell, let, hire, give or lend it to other people. transmitting data electronically

Question 13

what is an article according to OPA 1959?

Answer 13

any description of article containing or embodying matter to be read or looked at or both, any sound record, and any film or other record of a picture or pictures

Question 14

what is the test for obscenity?

Answer 14

an article is obscene if it is likely to deprave and corrupt those who are likely to view it. it will be for the jury to decide on a case-by-case basis whether an article meets this criterion

Question 15

what is a defence to obscenity?

Answer 15

no reasonable cause to believe an article is obscene
D will not have committed an offence if they can prove that:
- they had not examined the article they are alleged to have published; and
- they had no reasonable cause to suspect publishing the article would amount to an offence under s2 OPA

Question 16

another defence to obscenity?

Answer 16

public good defence
if they can prove that the publication is justified as being for the good on the ground that it is in the interests of the science, literature, art or learning