Lecture on Internet
Issues and Laws
Topics
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What is Open source ?
What are the Copyright Issues?
What are Cyber Crimes?
Laws dealing with Cyber Crimes
What is Hacking?
Commercial Software
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Most software that you buy or download only
comes in the compiled ready-to-run version.
It is extremely difficult to modify the compiled
version of most applications and nearly
impossible to see exactly how the developer
created different parts of the program.
Most commercial software manufacturers see
this as an advantage that keeps other companies
from copying their code and using it in a
competing product.
What does Open source mean?
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Open source software is at the opposite end of
the spectrum.
The source code is included with the compiled
version and modification or customization is
actually encouraged
The software developers who support the open
source concept believe that by allowing anyone
who's interested to modify the source code, the
application will be more useful and error-free
Criteria for Open source
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The program must be freely distributed (It can be
part of a package that is sold though, such as Red
Hat has done with Linux)
Source code must be included.
Anyone must be allowed to modify the source code.
Modified versions can be redistributed.
The license must not require the exclusion of other
software or interfere with the operation of other
software.
Example
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Let's take a look at a real world example of open source
software. In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a student at the University of
Helsinki in Finland, developed a new operating system based on
Minix, a derivative of Unix, which he dubbed Linux. Torvalds
released version 0.02 of Linux under the GNU General Public
License, which provides a good legal definition of open source
software. A lot of people around the world downloaded Linux
and began working with it. Many of these users were
programmers in their own right and made modifications to the
source code that Torvalds had included. Over the next three
years, Torvalds received these modified versions from the other
programmers and incorporated many of the changes into the
baseline version and released Linux version 1.0 in 1994.
What is Copyright?
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Copyright is a type of property that is founded
on a person's creative skill and labour. It is
designed to prevent the unauthorised use by
others of a work, that is, the original form in
which an idea or information has been
expressed by the creator.
Copyright for Computer
Programs in Pakistan
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Under the provisions of the Copyright
Ordinance, 1962 ("the Ordinance") copyright
protection is only available for `works' which fit
within one of the categories of works or subject
matters specified in the Ordinance.
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Section 10 of the Ordinance provides that
copyright in original, literary, dramatic, musical
and artistic works.
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As regard to the computer programmes, the
definition of `literary work' is amended by the
Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1992 to include
computer programs.
Programs recorded on any disc, tape, perforated
media or other information storage devices,
which, if fed into or located in a computer or
computer based equipment is capable of
reproducing any information.
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Even the purchasers of computer programs may
not copy, adapt or make copies of adaption of
the programs in connection with their use by
themselves or their employees.
The unauthorized use is infringement of the
copyright. Accordingly, if a duplicate of a
computer program is acquired by someone who
has no license to use it, the copyright owner has
the right to prevent him using it.
Remedies for Copyright
Violations
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Civil Proceedings
Criminal Proceedings
Accordingly, a person whose copyright has been
violated is able to sue for damages
If a person is convicted then imprisonment
which may extend to 3 years, or with fine which
may extent to one hundred thousand rupees
(one US dollars nearly equals twenty five
rupees), or with both are possible
Cyber Crimes
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Cyber crime encompasses any criminal act
dealing with computers and networks (called
hacking).
Hate crimes, telemarketing and Internet fraud,
identity theft, and credit card account thefts are
considered to be cyber crimes when the illegal
activities are committed through the use of a
computer and the Internet.
Laws yet have to be passed by the parliament
What is Hacking?
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It is defined as the unauthorized use of a
computer - especially when it involves
attempting to circumvent the security measures
of that computer, or of a network.
There are two basic types of hacking. Some only
hack because they want to see if they can do it it is a challenge to them. For others, however, it
becomes an attack, and they use their
unauthorized access for destructive purposes
History
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Term invented by students of MIT
Getting their laughs and skills from hacking and
cracking into primitive computers and exploiting
the Arpanet (predecessor to the internet), they
created a novelty that would become the target
of federal crackdown in years to come.
Hacking is an artistic criminal offense of
breaking into another remote system without the
owner's consent for the purpose of stealing
information
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However, the act of hacking started out
innocently, and was basically a method of trying
to figure out how computer systems worked.
The 1970s saw the rise in "phreaking," or phone
hacking, headed by John Draper. He devised a
method of making free long distance calls
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In 1984 American Congress launched Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act
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Over the years, there was a series of noticeable
occurrences as the worst consequential effect of
computer hacking on more high profile cases,
such as the Morris Worm, responsible for
infecting government and university systems,
and the Mitnick case in 1995, which captured
Kevin Mitnick, steeling as many as 20000 credit
card numbers.
In 1999, security software became widely known
by the public
Detecting Hackers
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Lights showing hard drive activity being busier
than what your own activities call for
Suspicious files left on your computer - often in
the Windows Temp directory with a tmp. suffix
Obvious tampering - destroyed files, missing
files, etc.
Your firewall keeps receives multiple packets
from a single web address and notifies you.
Case Study
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Harvard Business School
Yahoo hacked