Computer Law Commons^™

Legal Phantoms In Cyberspace: The Problematic Status Of Information As A Weapon And A Target Under International Humanitarian Law, Jack M. Beard

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Reports of state-sponsored harmful cyber intrusions abound. The prevailing view among academics holds that if the effects or consequences of such intrusions are sufficiently damaging, international humanitarian law (IHL) should generally govern them--and recourse to armed force may also be justified against states responsible for these actions under the jus ad bellum. This Article argues, however, that there are serious problems and perils in relying on analogies with physical armed force to extend these legal regimes to most events in cyberspace. Armed conflict models applied to the use of information as a weapon and a target are instead likely to …

More Than The Sum Of All Parts: Taking On Ip And It Theft Through A Global Partnership, Andrew F. Popper

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The core of this Article describes some of the efforts, both within and outside the United States, to control the epidemic of intellectual property and information technology (IP and IT) theft. Those engaged in the battle include prosecutors and judges, individuals and trade associations, and politicians and policymakers from all points on the political spectrum. And yet, even with so many forces working to stem the tide, the losses are staggering.

An innovator with the potential to change his or her future as well as the prosperity of the surrounding economy, whether in Kentucky or Kinshasa, will be dissuaded from …

Maryland Personal Jurisdiction Law In The Cyberspace Content, Saad Gul

University of Baltimore Law Forum

A century ago, personal jurisdiction largely hinged on a simple litmus test: the defendant’s presence in the forum state. The issue of personal jurisdiction gained prevalence as the nation evolved from its earlier days of detached, semi-sovereign entities, whose citizens rarely interacted, to a nation where interstate commerce had increased, with interstate litigation growing correspondingly. In Pennoyer v. Neff, the Supreme Court of the United States effectively limited a state’s jurisdiction to persons physically present within its territorial borders. However, in today’s increasingly interconnected world, physical presence appears to represent an anachronism set in the post-Civil War, horse-and-buggy America of …

Rethinking Online Privacy In Canada: Commentary On Voltage Pictures V. John And Jane Doe, Ngozi Okidegbe

Faculty Scholarship

This article problematizes the use of the bona fide case standard as the legal standard for a court to order a third party Internet Service Provider ("ISP") to disclose subscriber information to a copyright owner in online piracy cases. It argues that ISP account holders have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their subscriber information. It contends that the current bona fide case standard affords a relatively low threshold of protection for Internet users’ subscriber information. The reason for which the article takes this position is that the bona fide case standard can be met solely by IP address evidence, …

Code Is Law, But Law Is Increasingly Determining The Ethics Of Code: A Comment, Jonathon Penney

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

“Code is Law”, the aphorism Larry Lessig popularized, spoke to the importance of computer code as a central regulating force in the Internet age. That remains true, but today, overreaching laws are also increasingly subjugating important social and ethics questions raised by code to the domain of law. Those laws — like the CFAA and DMCA — need to be curtailed or their zealous enforcement reigned; they deter not only legitimate research but also important related social and ethics questions. But researchers must act too: to re-assert control over the social, legal, and ethical direction of their fields. Otherwise, law …

Book Review: The Basics Of Digital Forensics: The Primer For Getting Started In Digital Forensics, Stephen Larson

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Basics of Digital Forensics: The Primer for Getting Started in Digital Forensics is well-named–it really is very basic. And it should be, as the book’s intended audience includes entry-level digital forensics professionals and complimentary fields such as law enforcement, legal, and general information security. Though the copyright is 2012, some of the data is from 2009, and there is mention of estimates for 2010.

“Time For Some Traffic Problems”: Enhancing E-Discovery And Big Data Processing Tools With Linguistic Methods For Deception Detection, Erin S. Crabb

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Linguistic deception theory provides methods to discover potentially deceptive texts to make them accessible to clerical review. This paper proposes the integration of these linguistic methods with traditional e-discovery techniques to identify deceptive texts within a given author’s larger body of written work, such as their sent email box. First, a set of linguistic features associated with deception are identified and a prototype classifier is constructed to analyze texts and describe the features’ distributions, while avoiding topic-specific features to improve recall of relevant documents. The tool is then applied to a portion of the Enron Email Dataset to illustrate how …

Hot Zone Identification: Analyzing Effects Of Data Sampling On Spam Clustering, Rasib Khan, Mainul Mizan, Ragib Hasan, Alan Sprague

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Email is the most common and comparatively the most efficient means of exchanging information in today's world. However, given the widespread use of emails in all sectors, they have been the target of spammers since the beginning. Filtering spam emails has now led to critical actions such as forensic activities based on mining spam email. The data mine for spam emails at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is considered to be one of the most prominent resources for mining and identifying spam sources. It is a widely researched repository used by researchers from different global organizations. The usual process …

Accurate Modeling Of The Siemens S7 Scada Protocol For Intrusion Detection And Digital Forensics, Amit Kleinmann, Avishai Wool

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Siemens S7 protocol is commonly used in SCADA systems for communications between a Human Machine Interface (HMI) and the Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). This paper presents a model-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) designed for S7 networks. The approach is based on the key observation that S7 traffic to and from a specific PLC is highly periodic; as a result, each HMI-PLC channel can be modeled using its own unique Deterministic Finite Automaton (DFA). The resulting DFA-based IDS is very sensitive and is able to flag anomalies such as a message appearing out of its position in the normal sequence …

From The Editor-In-Chief, Ibrahim Baggili

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Welcome to JDFSL’s fourth and final issue for 2014! First, I would like to thank our editorial board, reviewers, and the JDFSL team for bringing this issue to life. It has been a big year for JDFSL as the journal continues to progress. I would like to highlight our critical achievements for 2014 before touching on the papers that were accepted in this issue: 1. JDFSL has gone to a fully open access model without author payment through support from academic institutions. 2. JDFSL has formed and continues to form partnerships with various conferences that relate to cyber security and …

Book Review: Judiciary-Friendly Forensics Of Software Copyright Infringement (Vinod Polpaya Bhattathiripad), Pedro L. P. Sanchez

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Judiciary-Friendly Forensics of Software Copyright Infringement is a book by Dr. Vinod Polpaya Bhattathiripad, published by IGI-Global as part of its Research Essentials series. The book discusses the forensics of software copyright infringement and highlights theoretical, functional, and procedural matters in the investigation of copyright infringement of software products, as well as the development of forensic technologies to detect and avoid software piracy. It is of interest to software forensic experts, lawyers in the field of copyright infringement, judges, software professionals, and students.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Personal Denial Of Service (Pdos) Attacks: A Discussion And Exploration Of A New Category Of Cyber Crime, Michael R. Bartolacci, Larry J. Leblanc, Ashley Podhradsky

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The growth of the Internet has created a corresponding growth in Internet-based crimes and online misbehavior, particularly among younger computer-savvy people. Younger generations have grown up in a world where internet access, social networking, e-commerce and smartphones are commonplace. Given this fact, they have learned how to use, and how to abuse, technology. This leads us to define a new category of cybercrime called a Personal Denial of Service attack (PDOS). A PDOS is a cyber-crime in which an individual deliberately prevents the access of another individual or small group to online services such as email or banking. Due to …

File Detection On Network Traffic Using Approximate Matching, Frank Breitinger, Ibrahim Baggili

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In recent years, Internet technologies changed enormously and allow faster Internet connections, higher data rates and mobile usage. Hence, it is possible to send huge amounts of data / files easily which is often used by insiders or attackers to steal intellectual property. As a consequence, data leakage prevention systems (DLPS) have been developed which analyze network traffic and alert in case of a data leak. Although the overall concepts of the detection techniques are known, the systems are mostly closed and commercial. Within this paper we present a new technique for network traffic analysis based on approximate matching (a.k.a …

Fast Rtp Detection And Codecs Classification In Internet Traffic, Petr Matousek, Ondrej Rysavy, Martin Kmet

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper presents a fast multi-stage method for on-line detection of RTP streams and codec identification of transmitted voice or video traffic. The method includes an RTP detector that filters packets based on specific values from UDP and RTP headers. When an RTP stream is successfully detected, codec identification is applied using codec feature sets. The paper shows advantages and limitations of the method and its comparison with other approaches. The method was implemented as a part of network forensics framework NetFox developed in project SEC6NET. Results show that the method can be successfully used for Lawful Interception as well …

Relating Admissibility Standards For Digital Evidence To Attack Scenario Reconstruction, Changwei Liu, Anoop Singhal, Duminda Wijesekera

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Attackers tend to use complex techniques such as combining multi-step, multi-stage attack with anti-forensic tools to make it difficult to find incriminating evidence and reconstruct attack scenarios that can stand up to the expected level of evidence admissibility in a court of law. As a solution, we propose to integrate the legal aspects of evidence correlation into a Prolog based reasoner to address the admissibility requirements by creating most probable attack scenarios that satisfy admissibility standards for substantiating evidence. Using a prototype implementation, we show how evidence extracted by using forensic tools can be integrated with legal reasoning to reconstruct …

Audit: Automated Disk Investigation Toolkit, Umit Karabiyik, Sudhir Aggarwal

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Software tools designed for disk analysis play a critical role today in forensics investigations. However, these digital forensics tools are often difficult to use, usually task specific, and generally require professionally trained users with IT backgrounds. The relevant tools are also often open source requiring additional technical knowledge and proper configuration. This makes it difficult for investigators without some computer science background to easily conduct the needed disk analysis. In this paper, we present AUDIT, a novel automated disk investigation toolkit that supports investigations conducted by non-expert (in IT and disk technology) and expert investigators. Our proof of concept design …

Evidentiary Power And Propriety Of Digital Identifiers And The Impact On Privacy Rights In The United States, Michael Losavio, Deborah Keeling

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Media and network systems capture and store data about electronic activity in new, sometimes unprecedented ways; computational systems make for new means of analysis and knowledge development. These new forms offer new, powerful tactical tools for investigations of electronic malfeasance under traditional legal regulation of state power, particular that of Fourth Amendment limitations on police searches and seizures under the U.S. Constitution. But autonomy, identity and authenticity concerns with electronic data raise issues of public policy, privacy and proper police oversight of civil society. We examine those issues and their implications for digital and computational forensics

Effects Of The Factory Reset On Mobile Devices, Riqui Schwamm, Neil C. Rowe

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Mobile devices usually provide a “factory-reset” tool to erase user-specific data from the main secondary storage. 9 Apple iPhones, 10 Android devices, and 2 BlackBerry devices were tested in the first systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of factory resets. Tests used the Cellebrite UME-36 Pro with the UFED Physical Analyzer, the Bulk Extractor open-source tool, and our own programs for extracting metadata, classifying file paths, and comparing them between images. Two phones were subjected to more detailed analysis. Results showed that many kinds of data were removed by the resets, but much user-specific configuration data was left. Android devices did …

Testing Framework For Mobile Device Forensics Tools, Maxwell Anobah, Shahzad Saleem, Oliver Popov

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The proliferation of mobile communication and computing devices, in particular smart mobile phones, is almost paralleled with the increasing number of mobile device forensics tools in the market. Each mobile forensics tool vendor, on one hand claims to have a tool that is best in terms of performance, while on the other hand each tool vendor seems to be using different standards for testing their tools and thereby defining what support means differently. To overcome this problem, a testing framework based on a series of tests ranging from basic forensics tasks such as file system reconstruction up to more complex …

Technical Soddi Defenses: The Trojan Horse Defense Revisited, Chad M. Steel

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In 2004, the Trojan horse defense was at a crossroads, having been successfully employed in two child pornography cases in the United Kingdom, resulting in acquittals. Despite the early successes, the Trojan horse defense has failed to become a regularly employed strategy. The original Trojan horse defense has now become part of the more general technical SODDI (Some Other Dude Did It) defense, which includes the possibility of unknown actors using unsecured Wi-Fi connections or having physical access to a computer to perform criminal acts. In the past ten years, it has not been effective in the United States for …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

A State-Of-The-Art Review Of Cloud Forensics, Sameera Almulla, Youssef Iraqi, Andrew Jones

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cloud computing and digital forensics are emerging fields of technology. Unlike traditional digital forensics where the target environment can be almost completely isolated, acquired and can be under the investigators control; in cloud environments, the distribution of computation and storage poses unique and complex challenges to the investigators. Recently, the term “cloud forensics” has an increasing presence in the field of digital forensics. In this state-of-the-art review, we included the most recent research efforts that used “cloud forensics” as a keyword and then classify the literature into three dimensions: (1) survey-based, (2) technology-based and (3) forensics-procedural-based. We discuss widely accepted …

Understanding Computer Forensics Requirements In China Via The “Panda Burning Incense” Virus Case, Frank Law, K. P. Chow, Y. H. Mai

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In March 2012, Mainland China has amended its Criminal Procedure Law, which includes the introduction of a new type of evidence, i.e., digital evidence, to the court of law. To better understand the development of computer forensics and digital evidence in Mainland China, this paper discusses the Chinese legal system in relation to digital investigation and how the current legal requirements affect the existing legal and technical usage of digital evidence at legal proceedings. Through studying the famous “Panda Burning Incense (Worm.WhBoy.cw)” virus case that happened in 2007, this paper aims to provide a better understanding of how to properly …

Forensics Of Software Copyright Infringement Crimes: The Modern Posar Test Juxtaposed With The Dated Afc Test, Vinod P. Bhattathiripad

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper presents a new development in the forensics of software copyright through a juxtaposed comparison between the proven AFC test and the recent POSAR test, the two forensic procedures for establishing software copyright infringement cases. First, the paper separately overviews the 3-stage, linear sequential AFC test and then the 5-phase, cyclic POSAR test (as AFC’s logical extension). The paper then compares the processes involved in each of the 5 phases of the POSAR test with the processes involved in the 3 stages in the AFC test, for the benefit of forensic practitioners and researchers. Finally, the paper discusses some …

Fighting Child Pornography: A Review Of Legal And Technological Developments, Jasmine V. Eggestein, Kenneth J. Knapp

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In our digitally connected world, the law is arguably behind the technological developments of the Internet age. While this causes many issues for law enforcement, it is of particular concern in the area of child pornography in the United States. With the wide availability of technologies such as digital cameras, peer-to-peer file sharing, strong encryption, Internet anonymizers and cloud computing, the creation and distribution of child pornography has become more widespread. Simultaneously, fighting the growth of this crime has become more difficult. This paper explores the development of both the legal and technological environments surrounding digital child pornography. In doing …

A Study Of Forensic Imaging In The Absence Of Write-Blockers, Gary C. Kessler, Gregory H. Carlton

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Best practices in digital forensics demand the use of write-blockers when creating forensic images of digital media, and this has been a core tenet of computer forensics training for decades. The practice is so ingrained that the integrity of images created without a write-blocker are immediately suspect. This paper describes a research framework that compares forensic images acquired with and without utilizing write-blockers in order to understand the extent of the differences, if any, in the resultant forensic copies. We specifically address whether differences are superficial or evidentiary, and we discuss the impact of admitting evidence acquired without write blocking. …

Fan Fiction And Canadian Copyright Law: Defending Fan Narratives In The Wake Of Canada's Copyright Reforms, Rebecca Katz

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Amateur, non-commercial writing based on contemporary copyrighted works — “fan fiction” — is a practice that is worth defending despite its unclear status vis a vis copyright law. In this article, I assess how Canadian fan authors may defend their works using Canadian copyright law. I argue that the recent copyright reforms are promising for fan and other second generation creators. The new fair dealing categories of parody and satire are positive steps, though the broad and technologically neutral non-commercial user-generated content provi-sion may be the most promising reform of all. I begin with an exploration of the benefits of …

Atteinte À La Vie Privée Et Publicité Comportementale, Virginie Blanchette-Séguin

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Le présent texte aura pour objet les questions relatives à la vie privée que soulève la publicité comportementale et le suivi des activités des individus qu’elle implique par définition. Pour ce faire, nous délimiterons d’abord le spectre du droit à la vie privée en droit québécois dans ce contexte (I.) et nous poursuivrons selon une approche plus critique en nous prononçant sur les différents arguments pouvant être soulevés quant à l’absence d’une perception humaine dans une violation potentielle du droit à la vie privée (II.)

Back Matter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.