Ed Richardson
COMPANIES HAVE been warned that the Internet is, essentially, a lawless frontier, with only a small percentage of countries having passed laws to prosecute computer crimes.
A study by consulting firm McConnell International found that of the 52 countries surveyed, only nine had adapted their legal system to cover even half of the computer crimes most prevalent on the Internet.
Existing terrestrial laws against physical acts of trespass or breaking and entering often do not cover their 'virtual' counterparts, said the study's author, Bruce McConnell, former director of the International Y2K Cooperation Centre.
Web pages such as the e-commerce sites recently hit by widespread, distributed denial of service attacks may not be covered by outdated laws as protected forms of property, he warns.
Those surveyed were asked to supply examples of recent legislation specifically addressing ten common offences in four categories of cyber crime: data-related theft and interception; network intrusion and sabotage; hacking and virus distribution; and other crimes, including fraud and forgery.
Thirty-three countries had not yet updated their laws to address any type of computer crime. Ten countries had enacted legislation to address at least half of the categories, and only nine had updated statutes addressing six out of ten of the most common computer crimes.
The study notes that the only country surveyed that had changed its laws to cover all 10 most common cyber crimes was the Philippines, the nation that recently found itself without the legal statutes to prosecute the young Filipino resident who authored the I Love You virus that caused billions of dollars in damages.
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