Thursday, May 03, 2007

Expert Witnesses in Computer Crimes / Hacking Explode [blog], 2 May 2007
http://digbig.com/4stqd
James Walsh
"In February 2007, Gene Morrison was given a five-year prison term for masquerading as a forensic scientist. The B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees he had cited were from a university that existed only on the internet, and Morrison was found guilty of 22 counts of perjury by a Manchester court. When it comes to computer related crimes, the role of a witness is even more crucial, and a conman could doom the entire security of a nation. The role of computers in crime can not be undermined in any way. For those who still labour under the impression that computer related crimes refer to a far-fetched specialised matter affecting only a remote community of geeks - the truth can not be harsher. Almost all crimes reported in the UK , from theft, murder, rape, robbery to corporate horrors may be endangered - computers are being misused everywhere. The cases of hacking company or government (specially in the areas of security and finance) records, hate mails, blackmail using photographs or malicious information, child pornography are snowballing the courts across nation. February 2007 saw another important eye opener for the less informed - Jim Gamble, Head, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre admitted that the government resources were inadequate to deal with the downpour of paedophile leads submitted to their department. A stunningly small number of areas in UK's legal texts explicitly define the role of computers in criminal acts."