IT Security Lang, David. A Term Paper

This makes it easier for investigators to identify connections by clicking on a particular item in the three-dimensional link.

The difficulties of this process of proving such a chain indicates the importance of creating steps that can help companies simplify the task of conducting a computer forensic investigation, should one ever be required. The article stresses that the most important step is to ensure that network logging devices are turned on, even though these devices use disk space and processor time. If they are turned off, investigations can become impossible. Closing any unneeded ports on the company firewall and patching systems regularly, are also helpful.

This article paints an overall benign portrait of law enforcement, zealously protecting user privacy and safety. It demonstrates how an apparently invisible crime can be rendered visible through the use of technology, and both the law and law enforcement's attempts to stay one step ahead of potential hackers. Of course, when the proofs needed to obtain search warrants can be given without observable evidence, as is traditional with intellectual property cases, some legal scholars may grow antsy. But ultimately, one must agree with the author that the Internet's ability to facilitate identity theft, and the nature of identity theft as a computer-based crime requires new law, such as the allowance for a search warrant based on unobserved evidence, so an Internet provider may give access to an owner whose computer has been hijacked without his or her awareness, as transpired in the article.

As noted by legal scholar of intellectual property Daniel Burke in his article "Transborder Intellectual Property Issues on the Electronic Frontier, the fluid electronic environment of the Internet "magnifies and intensifies" the dangers and abuses associated with identity and intellectual property theft. (Burke, 1994)

The Internet, as it is indeed a swift information superhighway for both legal and legitimate commerce but also the illegitimate transfer of identity has a dark side arising from the incentives associated with the illegal access to valuable information, incentives that only seem greater given that the crimes are so difficult to detect. Thus, Burke suggests, additional legal powers must be granted to investigators, as demonstrated in Lang's article as well. When the hacker's identity can be hidden with technological devises, investigators must possess similar tools to be able to penetrate these shields. Also, given that the tools of the hackers are facilitated by the swift pace of technological innovation, investigators must have the same tools at their disposal to discover how hackers and hijackers are developing new, creative, and potentially untraceable ways to illegally access consumer's identity, especially though uniquely permeable wireless sources.

Works Cited

Burke, Dan. "Transborder Intellectual Property Issues on the Electronic Frontier." Volume 5. Stanford Law & Policy Review

http://www.ifla.org/documents/infopol/copyright/dburk2.txt

Lang, David. "A Graphic Picture of Crime." ASIS. Sept 2002.