Professional Issues in Information Technology, 2nd Edition

15 COMPUTER MISUSE

After stuyding this short chapter, you should:

• understand the legal position regarding the misuse of computers and how common offences are handled under the law;
• appreciate why the law has had only a limited effect on the extent of computer misuse.

15.1 THE PROBLEM

In recent years, the public (or, at least, the media) has been much more concerned about the misuse of the internet than about the more general misuse of computers. Nevertheless, crimes committed using computers form a significant proportion of so-called white collar crime and it has been necessary to introduce legislation specifically aimed at such activities. Until 1990, when the Computer Misuse Act was passed, hacking, that is, gaining unauthorised access or ...