AS Level ICT - Topic 10 Social Issues

The Data Protection Act 1998

- Protects someone from having their data misused

 - All Member States in the European Economic Area (EEA) had data protection laws so the UK had to have them as well and this would enable personal data to flow from one Member State to another

 - Act allows the person to find the information stored about them and to check whether it's correct -> If it is wrong, they can have it changed and may be able to claim damages if they have suffered loss resulting from this information

What is Classed as Personal Data?

- Data about an identifiable person who is alive and data that is specific to that person

 - Data specific to somebody includes medical history, credit history, qualifications, religious beliefs and criminal records

Eight Data Protection Principles

1 - Fairly and lawfully processed

2 - Processed for limited purposes

3 - Adequate, relevant and not excessive

4 - Accurate

5 - Not kept longer than necessary

6 - Processed in accordance with the data subjects' rights

7 - Secure

8 - Not transferred to countries outside the EU without adequate protection

The Computer Misuse Act 1990

- Passed to deal with lots of misuses because the use of computers became widespread

 - Act makes it an offence to deliberately plant or transfer viruses to a computer system to cause damage to programs and data, to use an organisation's computer to carry out unauthorised work, to hack into someone else's computer system with a view to seeing the information or changing it and to use computers to commit different frauds

Problems with Gaining Prosecutions Under the CMA 1990

 - Police would need to prove that someone did the misuse deliberately for them to be prosecuted

 - Proving intent is very difficult e.g. if you had a virus on your flash drive from home and took it to work and put it into a computer and it transferred a virus, this is easy to do

 - Some businesses don't want others to know that their security has been compromised, so lots of cases go unreported and unpunished

Offences Under the Misuse Act 1990 (There are 3 Sections)

Section 1 -> Person is guilty if they cause a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer, if the access they intend to secure is unauthorised and if they know at the time that it is unauthorised (SIX MONTHS)

Section 2 -> Person is guilty if they commit an offence under Section 1 of the Act with the intent of committing a further offence such as blackmail which has a penalty of at least 5 years' imprisonment and they will also be guilty if they get someone else to do this further offence -> Maximum sentence is 5 YEARS' IMPRISONMENT

Section 3 -> Person is guilty if they do any act which causes an unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer and at the time they know that the change is unauthorised and they have the requisite intent -> Maximum sentence is 5 YEARS' IMPRISONMENT

Copyright and Licensing

- Problems with computer software include that it's easy to copy, it's easy to transfer files over the Internet and people don't view copying software as stealing goods from a supermarket

 - Problems with copied software include that it's not entitled to technical support, it doesn't qualify for upgrades, it may be incomplete and it may have viruses

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

- Act makes it a criminal offence to copy or steal software and you are also depriving the owner of their income / profits and they will be able to sue you

 - The act allows the software owner to copy the software and also allows someone else to copy the software provided they have the owner's consent

 - Under the Act it is a criminal offence to copy or distribute software or manuals without the permission or licence from the copyright owner, run purchased software covered by copyright on two or more machines at the same time unless there is a software licence which allows it and compel employees to make or distribute illegal software for use by the company

Consequences of Breaking this Law

- Unlimited fines and up to 10 years' imprisonment

 - You could lose your reputation, promotion prospects and even your job

 - You could be sued for damages by the software owner

Software Piracy

 - Illegal copying of software and data

 - Just like software, data has a value and many companies would love to get their hands on their competitors' data

The Consequences of Malpractice and Crime on Info Systems

- Include loss of data, loss of money due to fraud, loss of ICT facilities while problem is sorted out, loss of customer confidence, bad publicity in press, etc.