Cyber Crime

Question 1

Malicious Communications 1988

Answer 1

A message which is indecent or grossly offensive
A threat
Information which is false and known / believed by the sender to be false

Question 2

S1 (2) – Defence to making a threat

Answer 2

(a)that the threat was used to reinforce a demandmade by him on reasonable grounds; and
(b)that he believed, and had reasonable grounds for believing,that the use of the threat was a proper means of reinforcing the demand.

Question 3

S1 -Unauthorised Access to Computer Material (Hacking)

Answer 3

Causing a computer to proform a function.
With intent to secure access to any program / data any computer
access is unauthorised
they know it is unauthorised.

An offence under section 1 can be committed by an employee who has authorised access to a computer but exceeds the authority or terms of access given by their employer. At this point the access becomes unauthorised. Regina v. Bow Street Magistrates Court and Allison (A.P.) Ex Parte Government of the United States of America [2002]

Question 4

Definition of secure access

Answer 4

Under section 17 securing access includes
Altering or erasing a program or data;
Copying or moving a program or data to a new storage medium;
Using data or having it displayed or ‘output’ in any form from the computer in which it is held.

Question 5

Unauthorised Access to Computer Materials with intent to commit an offence

Answer 5

commits an offence under section 1 above (“the unauthorised access offence”)
with intent
(a)to commit an offence to which this section applies; or
(b)to facilitate the commission of such an offence

Question 6

Unauthorised Acts with intent to impair operation of a computer

Answer 6

A person is guilty of an offence if—
(a) he does any unauthorised act in relation to a computer;
(b) at the time when he does the act he knows that it is unauthorised;
And he intends
To impair the operation of any computer
to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer
To impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data
To enable any of the things above to be done

Question 7

Unauthorised Acts causing or creating serious risk of serious damage

Answer 7

A person is guilty of an offence if—
(a)the person does any unauthorised act in relation to a computer;
(b)at the time of doing the act the person knows that it is unauthorised;
(c)the act causes, or creates a significant risk of, serious damage of a material kind; and
(d)the person intends by doing the act to cause serious damage of a material kind or is reckless as to whether such damage is caused.

Question 8

Damage is of a “material kind” for the purposes of this section if it is—

Answer 8

damage to human welfare in any place;
damage to the environment of any place;
damage to the economy of any country; or
damage to the national security of any country.

Question 9

An act that causes damage to human welfare is only if it causes—

Answer 9

loss to human life;
human illness or injury;
disruption of a supply of money, food, water, energy or fuel;
disruption of a system of communication;
disruption of facilities for transport; or
disruption of services relating to health.

Question 10

Making, supplying or Obtaining Articles

Answer 10

Make, Adapt, Supply or Offer to supply
Any article
Intending it to be used to commit or assist in the commission of an offence
Or
Supplies or offers to supply any article believing that it is likely to be used to commit or assist in the commission of an offence
Or
Obtains an article intending to use it to commit or assist in the commission of an offence

Question 11

Seizing Digital Devices – ACPO Good Practice Guide for Digital Evidence (Principles)

Answer 11

Principle 1 – No action taken by law enforcement agencies, persons employed within those agencies or their agents should change data which may subsequently be relied upon in court

Principle 2 - In circumstances where a person finds it necessary to access original data, that person must be competent to do so and be able to give evidence explaining the relevance and the implications of their actions.

Principle 3 - An audit trail or other record of all processes applied to digital evidence should be created and preserved. An independent third party should be able to examine those processes and achieve the same result.

Principle 4 – The person in charge of the investigation has overall responsibility for ensuring that the law and these principles are adhered to.