Class 14: Security and Computer Crime

Held Tuesday, February 15, 2000

Overview

Today we consider issues of security. Most of our discussion will be based on the book.

Question 14 for today's class: How would you classify the recent Web denial-of-service attacks? What techniques might have been used to avoid them?

Question 15 for Wednesday's class: Describe a technique we can use to conceal information.

Notes

• On Wednesday and Friday, we'll consider algorithms that can provide some security and implications of security systems. We'll also continue our discussion of this chapter.
• There is no reading for Wednesday. (Other than Chapter 2 if you haven't read it yet. :-)
• This Thursday's convocation is Mathematics 4,000 Years Ago and will be given by Noyce Visiting Professor Richard Guy. I expect that it will be a lot of fun.

Contents

• Issues
• Security Questions
  • Interpreting the Security Readings
  • What is Theft?
  • Generalizing the Security Readings

Summary

• Computer crime

Issues

There are no preliminary notes for today's class.

Security Questions

Interpreting the Security Readings

• Why do Forester & Morrison classify some kinds of computer crime as ``new twists on old crimes'' and others as ``entirely new kinds of crime''? What distinguishes the two?
• Do you consider some of Forester & Morrison's language biased? Does that affect the underlying principles?
• How do you measure the ``costs'' of these various crimes?
• How many of the crimes described are really ``computer crimes''?

What is Theft?

• Some claim that the World Wide Web is leading to some new questions about how to classify uses of information.
• Here's a simple example. I can read last week's ``One Big Happy'' at http://www.creators.com/comics/compage/obh.asp. I can also read this coming Thursday's ``One Big Happy'' at link http://www.creators.com/comics/compage/obh/obh21700.gif. The site that provides this strip does not include a link to the strip; I found it by mistyping a URL.
  • Is it wrong for me to read it?
  • Is it wrong for me to tell you about it?
  • Would it be wrong for me to email you a copy?
• Some have claimed that it's theft to download any copyrighted document into a computer.
  • But reading something on the Web involves downloading it.

Generalizing the Security Readings

• We often place some blame on the victims of crimes for providing an environment in which the crime is easier.
  • We might be less sympathetic to a robbed bank if we learned that they left all their doors open overnight.
• Are there ways in which the victims of these computer crimes are at least partially responsible because they did not take ``appropriate measures''.
  • If so, what measures are appropriate?