Is password-lending a cybercrime?

Is password-lending a cybercrime?
Mark Rasch, 2004-03-01

A judge's wrongheaded interpretation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act illustrates the problems of allowing civil enforcement of a criminal law.

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Is password-lending a cybercrime? 2004-03-01
Deven Phillips, CISSP

This is an interesting and insightful piece, but it fails to push the envelope. There are so many other situations where the laws that affect knowledge industries and knowledge workers are unfairly ambiguous. There needs to be a set of technology advisers for lawmakers and judges who can properly in...

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Is password-lending a cybercrime? 2004-03-02
Anonymous

Computer related crime is a joke to begin with... Some kid who cracks a password is subject to decades of no-parole time in Federal prision while rapists and molesters get 5-7 with parole in two years.

I imagine now that "homeland security" is the current trend, politically ambitious us attorneys...

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Is password-lending a cybercrime? 2004-03-02
Anonymous

The question shouldn't be "Is Password-Lending A Cybercrime?" but "Who Should Be Responsible For Their Own Actions." If the actions themselves are can be considered malicious, as this obviously was, I don't see there being a problem a crime was commited. Who's at fault? Why not both parties?

T...

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Is password-lending a cybercrime? 2004-03-02
EthanTen

"...the customer himself could have logged in with his or her password...and this would have been a simple breach of contract, not a crime"

It could potentially be a crime, if authorisation is interpreted narrowly to mean only that which is acceptable to the authorisor. Breaching or exceeding au...

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Is password-lending a cybercrime? 2004-03-02
IT Security Consultant

Surely the point here is if you share your userid and password you're potentially committing or facilitating a felony, only if the person using your userid and password does so in order to gain some benefit from the action or cause loss or damage to the system which they access.

In this case I a...

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Yes, in this case, password-lending is a cybercrime. 2004-03-03
Michael Carr, JD, CISSP

Theft is actionable as both a crime and as a civil matter.

(a) The statute says that someone can be cited if s/he: "...intentionally accesses a protected computer without authorization," -- Bershire did this--they intentionally accessed IMS' database without IMS' authorization.

(b) The statute...

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Is password-lending a cybercrime? 2004-03-07
ceo / AdministratorX

Great article! This is what always seems to happen when you have non technical people making technical decisions. It does not matter if it is in the corporate or judicial world.

The fact is non technical people should not be making technical decisions. Technical decisions should be made by peop...

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Is password-lending a cybercrime? 2004-03-08
Anonymous (1 replies)

I just need some clarification. Are we talking about the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act? If we are, doesn't that only pertain to Federal organizations not private?
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Yes--see 18USC1030. Here, password-lending is a cybercrime. 2004-03-11
M.Carr, JD, CISSP

The Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act covers a lot more than just federal govt computers. And it is both a criminal statute and a law that creates a civil remedy. The federal statute can be found at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html

Insofar as applicability, it is difficult to ...

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Is password-lending a cybercrime? 2004-03-09
Anonymous

I spent 20 years in the military working in the computer center and as an administrator. If I lent my password to someone else or handled my password in a negligent way (written or oral), then I'm responsible for what it is used for. And everyone who had access to their systems knew this.

Why no...

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Relevant law review articles-- links provided 2004-03-09
Anonymous

Two law review articles that make these same points can be found here:

On the interptretion of "access" and "authorization":
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=399740

On how civil cases distort criminal laws:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=374282...

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The exploit of the EULA and IMS's confidentiality is a reminder that ethics like freedom requires vigilance! 2004-03-10
Edtelecommuter

For all of the ethically challenged, its time to grow a clue.
Unfortunately ethics is like a personal extremity. One you have cut the limb off you can?t make the claim of ownership to it.
According to the limited data in the article, the court did the right thing.
Amen
...

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