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bugshaw at 01:23pm on 09/03/2007
bugshaw at 01:23pm on 09/03/2007My supervisor mentioned, on Thursday morning, that the BCS was giving a lecture that evening on "Fifty Years of Computer Crime", and Simon and I decided to go. After some discussion of early computers and ARPANET, and the original "hacker ethic" of exploring the possibilities and limitations of a system as an intellectual game, the talk turned to how these techniques were then used maliciously, either for profit (phreaking free international phone calls) or to cause mischief (putting an "amusing" note on a company's start-up screen). The mischief does of course cost money, as the company has to put resources into cleaning it up.
The law did not keep up with these new activities.
Someone has hacked in and changed the data on your disk? Do them for damage to prerty, and argue that they had damaged the magnetism you had left on the disk.
Someone has hacked in and got your computer to do something with no tangible damage? They did make your computer do work that it would not otherwise have done, and that would use electricity, and hey - there's a law prohibiting stealing someone's electricity! So we'll prosecute under that. [That one got laughed out of court; the electricity was valued at 0.001p]
Someone guessed an access code to BT's Prestel system, and found their way to Prince Philip's e-mail account! BT didn't believe them, and set them a task to change the spelling of a word on the Prestel menu. The non-malicious hackers did this, and the cops came round instantly...
The Computer Misuse Act [1990] came into force very shortly after that incident.
Things are still changing faster than the law. How would you prosecute a DDOS attack?
Then a lateish dinner at Cafe Adriatic on Mill Road. It used to be a very nice Italian restaurant, which looked unfortunately like a cheap takeaway - big counter at the front so you couldn't see through to the seating behind; red and green plastic frontage. We were disappointed when it closed, but this new place has the same good, interesting food, just with more sophisticated branding. Mixed seafood and tagliatelle with chilli sauce, yum! Nice tender squid. Simon's pizza was slim and crispy, with puddles of real mozzarella and what was the meat - bresaola? Prosciutto? Something nice. Not like the squidgy dough with a layer of plastic cheese that I often see.
Tonight we're off out again, to see Copenhagen at the ADC. We might have the quiet night in next Wednesday...
The law did not keep up with these new activities.
Someone has hacked in and changed the data on your disk? Do them for damage to prerty, and argue that they had damaged the magnetism you had left on the disk.
Someone has hacked in and got your computer to do something with no tangible damage? They did make your computer do work that it would not otherwise have done, and that would use electricity, and hey - there's a law prohibiting stealing someone's electricity! So we'll prosecute under that. [That one got laughed out of court; the electricity was valued at 0.001p]
Someone guessed an access code to BT's Prestel system, and found their way to Prince Philip's e-mail account! BT didn't believe them, and set them a task to change the spelling of a word on the Prestel menu. The non-malicious hackers did this, and the cops came round instantly...
The Computer Misuse Act [1990] came into force very shortly after that incident.
Things are still changing faster than the law. How would you prosecute a DDOS attack?
Then a lateish dinner at Cafe Adriatic on Mill Road. It used to be a very nice Italian restaurant, which looked unfortunately like a cheap takeaway - big counter at the front so you couldn't see through to the seating behind; red and green plastic frontage. We were disappointed when it closed, but this new place has the same good, interesting food, just with more sophisticated branding. Mixed seafood and tagliatelle with chilli sauce, yum! Nice tender squid. Simon's pizza was slim and crispy, with puddles of real mozzarella and what was the meat - bresaola? Prosciutto? Something nice. Not like the squidgy dough with a layer of plastic cheese that I often see.
Tonight we're off out again, to see Copenhagen at the ADC. We might have the quiet night in next Wednesday...