| No hacking please, we are British |
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| Written by Roberto Preatoni (SyS64738) | |||||
| Thursday, 22 June 2006 | |||||
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According to Lord Northesk , the Bill that was first approved in 1990, is now worth an update, but the proposals that are up to be debated by the Chamber of Lords are likely to represent a restriction not only for potential cyber criminals, but also for those who have to prevent their damages. What concerns the opponents to the new measures is the Section 41 of the Bill that would amend the CMA to include a new offence of "making, supplying or obtaining articles for use in computer misuse offences"... It reads: A person is guilty of an offence if he makes, adapts, supplies or offers to supply any article --
(a) intending it to be used to commit, or to assist in the commission
of, an offence under section 1 or 3 [of the Computer Misuse Act]; or
(b) believing that it is likely to be so used.
Part (b) was particularly criticized because it doesn’t focus on the intention that stands behind the use of a digital tool, but it considers the potential misuse of the tool itself... For instance those software used to check the reliance of security systems can both be used to gain unauthorised access to computers… Will they be considered illegal? But if they will be banned the reliability of these Systems will be jeopardized. There’s no way out in this vicious circle. Therefore, the proposal by Lord Northesk is to cancel that paragraph, and to introduce the concept of recklessness in launching the attacks.This annotation would safeguard police interventions such as forensic investigations on computers, and will allow each activity aimed to detect or prevent cyber crime.
Moreover he is promoting a change in the Clause 39 as well, asserting that Trojan horses should be covered by the law. This way , those worms which can self insert onto OS will be a weapon in the hand of police, a legal weapon. Doesn’t it sound illogic? Doesn’t it sound strange? The war to cyber crime has to be hard, but can people justify the free use of malicious tools by governmental institutions? We feel uncomfortably worried… especially considering that the same topics will be soon debated by the European Commission as well. Indeed according to the official text of the CMA, European Officers are planning to “implement a new directive on attacks against information systems”.
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The borders of war to computer crime are getting wider and wider: yesterday the online magazine ZDnet UK 
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