Digital Forensics and Incident Response

Laws and regulations

In the middle of the 1980s, as computer crime started to become more prevalent, jurisdictions began crafting laws to address the ever-increasing instances of cyber-crime. In the United States, for example, federal criminal law has specific statutes that deal directly with criminal activity utilizing a computer:

• 18 USC § 1029: Fraud and related activity in connection with access devices. This statute addresses the use of a computer to commit fraud. This is most often utilized by prosecutors in connection with cases where cyber criminals use a computer or computers to commit identify theft or other fraud-related activities.
• 18 USC § 1030 - Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Among the number of provisions within this law, the ...