A computer virus is program that is designed, such as corrupting the system or destroying data. It makes copies of itself first and then infects the program files or key areas of the system hard disks and floppy disks. A virus is spread usually without the knowledge of the user. A worm is also like a virus but it spreads by exploiting vulnerabilities in operating system or program. This can affect other computers by sharing or copying a file from an infected computer to another computer. The virus effect depends on how it is programmed as these virus and worms are software programs. There are certain anti-viruses that deal with these types of virus and worms and it is necessary to keep them updated. Due to these viruses in the system, the cyber-crimes related offences have been reported and the government had made many laws to prevent these types of crimes. In this report, it will discuss the legal implications of the offence relating to the virus and worms in Australia.
The virus and worms that affect the computer operating system is the software program. The virus effect actually depends that how the virus has been programmed by the person. There are certain types of viruses that are designed with the operation of the computer to overwrite the boot sectors. Few viruses damage the computer memory and spread themselves to the computer, which results in picking up e-mail addresses and network addresses. Some viruses come through web source such as e-mail. The virus does not enter just by reading the plain text message. It has an encoded message containing embedded executable code or an attachment that include an executable file attachment. There are some types of viruses is the big threat for the societies these days such as ransomware. This encrypts the data by which the user cannot access the data. There are some other destructive programs such as Trojan horses and the network worms (Balthrop, Forrest, Newman, and Williamson, 2004). These types of programs have the main purpose is to masquerade as these programs induced the user to copy and share them with the friends. These are sometimes referred to as malicious software. These unauthorised users or malicious software system has gained access to the system through inadequate systems or security mechanism. These can also come through the holes in the application or the system and through the weak computer management (Cashell, Jackson, Jickling, Webel, 2004).
The computer virus has spread throughout Australia. In many countries like the USA and UK from a decade has a comprehensive jurisdiction for the computer crime legislation. In Australia, there is a very slow realisation of the danger of the computer crimes. In jurisdiction, there are very few legislation in relation to criminal offences, although there is legislation that deals with hacking related to unauthorised access (Mehta, Bartzis, Zhu, Clarke and Wing, 2006). The creation and distribution of virus in Australia has covered under several provisions of State legislation and the provision of Commonwealth. In Crimes Act 1914, Part VIA, an offence relating to the computers had been inserted. There are only limited areas in Part VIA over which the Commonwealth has constitutional powers. Commonwealth provides section like 76D and 76E to operate or to create certain offences. These related to unauthorised access and damaging data in a commonwealth or computer. These provisions are applicable especially for those offences that deliberately spread the computer virus via email over the internet. It will be liable for the imprisonment up to 10 years or the fine of 1000 penalty units. New South Wales, the Crimes Act 1900 states under section 310 that whoever intentionally or deliberately introduced the virus into the circulation will be held liable for the act (Mishra, and Ansari, 2012).
Few legal prosecutions are executed for spreading a computer virus in Australia. In Lynn v Barylak case, the defendant Barylak was the student of the Swinbourne Institute of Technology. The virus took place in the network of the computers in the laboratory. It has executed that the defendant has breached the policy of using in a rapid succession in a non-standard boot at four terminals. Under the Victorian legislation, the Barylak had been charged with two offences. The first offence he is charged with the computer trespass of the Summary Offence Act. This act states that without any lawful authority no one can gain access to the computer system or any part of the computer system. The second offence is the malicious damage under the Crimes Act occurs when a property of tangible nature belonging to another has been damaged by a person without any lawful excuse. The charged of computer trespass requires a necessary intention that had not been met and this was failed on this basis and the charge of malicious damage is not applicable as the defendant had given very innocent explanations for the behaviour (Alkaabi, Mohay, and Chantler, 2010).
The Victorian Parliament who does not believes and thinks it is necessary to have a specific legislation for the computer virus and they believe that criminal damage is enough to deal with these types of situation. Tasmania and the New South Wales had the same provision related to the computer viruses. In Western Australia and South Australia has the provisions related to the illegal operation of a computer system. However, in the Northern Territory, there are no laws related to the computer-related offences (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), 2009).
The Attorney general in the year 1987 found that it is required for the uniform legislation for the computer crime. There had been many proposals by the committee members for the offence of the computer crime as part of the criminal code. In all the states and the territories, it has the main aim is to standardise the criminal legislation. The mainly proposed offences are mainly grounded from the UK Act or the UK Misuse Act 1990. There is a slight difference between the UK Act and the code in a relation to the intention. In the UK Act, the damage had done requires an intention whereas in Australia the liability of the accused act recklessly (Szor, 2005).
In the digital world, the use of technology has increased and market is becoming more digitalized. This is resulting in increase in the risk of threats. These threats become the headache for the companies. The business either it is a small business or the medium business has the target to deal with the criminal’s hackers and scammers (James Cook University, 2018). The IT professionals in the companies are responsible to keep all the data, system and the networks to keep them safe. To deal with these types of threats that have mentioned above it is necessary for the companies to review their security measures and the procedures. The companies must adjust their policies and make strategies to deal with these types of situations. Here is a list of advice from that the companies can protect their business:
Due to an increased number of cases of the cybercrimes the government has taken many steps to protect the society from these threats. There are certain laws that had been implemented by the government for those who do computer-related offences. In the year, 2001 the Cybercrime Act model had been diversified by the government to bring the uniformity in the law system (Hemidal Security, 2018). The governments had made many policies related to the computer virus and worms. They are educating the society about these types of threats in the society. The governments have also implemented and made compulsory for the companies to use the standard anti-virus and anti-malware software to protect the system from these threats (Australian Cyber Security Centre, 2018). The cybersecurity department of the country had already mentioned that the cybersecurity is the key for any company to function. The anti-virus companies with the good ratings had been allowed by the governments. To fight with computer viruses and worms the government had implicated certain rules and guidelines (Sprinkle, 2001). The government had worked with the private sector for the better understanding the impact of the Computer virus and worms. The Computer virus and worms had a wide impact on the economy for that the government is working to stop these threats. The government in a recent case had imposed with penalties and imprisonment for the offenders. The governments had imposed many Acts that are been successful to implement and had a wide legal implication on those who try to do unlawful acts or intentionally or deliberately insert a virus into the system.
Conclusion
It had been concluded that the computer virus and worms have increased widely due to that various threats had been increased. These threats had a high impact on the societies as it caused a lot of damage to the user. To stop these types of threats it becomes necessary for the individual and the companies to take proper measures and implications. It is necessary to keep an updated anti-virus and to keep a regular check of the system to be protected. There are certain laws that had been made to prevent these types of risks, but the risk has increased and it is required to make amendments and make a strong law to punish the criminals. The governments had made certain laws and guidelines to prevent the user to be prevented from these risks. In the end, it has been concluded that the risk of computer virus cannot be ignored and for the individuals, government and the companies are required to imply certain measures to prevent these risks.
References
Australian Cyber Securit Centre (2018) ASIC program and advice. [Online] ASIC. Available from: https://www.acsc.gov.au/ [Accessed 29/08/2018]
Cashell, B., Jackson, W., Jickling, M., Webel, B. (2004). “The Economic Impact of Cyber-Attacks.” CRS Report for Congress. The Library of Congress. Retrieved from https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/14999/2/Infosec_ISR_Congress.pdf.
Hemidal Security (2018) Cyber Security- guide to learn [Online] Hemidal Security. Available from: [Accessed 29/08/2018]
James Cook University (2018). Computer Virus Guide [Online]. James Cook University. Available from: https://www.jcu.edu.au/information-and-communications-technology/secure-it/computer-virus-guide [Accessed 29/08/2018]
Mishra, B.K. and Ansari, G.M. (2012) Differential Epidemic Model of Virus and Worms in Computer Network. IJ Network security, 14(3), pp.149-155.
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). (2009). “Computer Viruses and Other Malicious Software: A Threat to the Internet Economy.” Retrieved from: DOI:10.1787/9789264056510-en.
Balthrop, J., Forrest, S., Newman, M.E. and Williamson, M.M., (2004). Technological networks and the spread of computer viruses. Science, 304(5670), pp.527-529.
Szor, P. (2005) The art of computer virus research and defense. Pearson Education.
Mehta, V., Bartzis, C., Zhu, H., Clarke, E. and Wing, J., (2006) Ranking attack graphs. In International Workshop on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection (pp. 127-144). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Sprinkel, S.C. (2001) Global Internet Regulation: The Residual Effects of the ILoveYou Computer Virus and the Draft Convention on Cyber-Crime. Suffolk Transnat’l L. Rev., 25, p.491.
Geer, D. (2006). Security of critical control systems sparks concern. Computer, 39(1), pp.20-23.
Alkaabi, A., Mohay,. and Chantler, N. (2010) Dealing with the problem of cybercrime. In International Conference on Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime (pp. 1-18). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
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