28. Computer misuse (additional chapter)

The impact of computer technology on society has been profound and this chapter examines the offences in the Computer Misuse Act 1990 as amended in the Police and Justice Act 2006 and in the Serious Crime Act 2015. The focus is on offences related to computer misuse, including unauthorized access to computer material, unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate further offences, unauthorized acts with intent to impair or recklessness as to impairment of a computer, impairing a computer such as to cause serious damage and making, supplying or obtaining articles for use in such offences.

Appraising the Impact of Kenya’s Cyber-Harassment Law on the Freedom of Expression

Kenya’s Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act makes it an offence, in Section 27, for a person to communicate with another a message that they know or ought to know would cause the recipient fear; is indecent or offensive in nature; or would detrimentally affect the recipient. This offence carries a penalty of either a 20 million shilling fine or a 10-year term of imprisonment or—discretionarily—both. While the offence is termed ‘cyber-harassment’, its wording appears to exclude a number of offences that would count as cyber-harassment such as cyber-stalking, doxing or impersonation. In fact, its wording is vague and overbroad, using undefined terms such as ‘detrimentally affect’ which require subjective interpretation. Cyber-harassment laws constitute a limitation on the freedom of expression and as such, ought to conform to the limitations of human rights test as provided in Article 24 of the Constitution. Where the aim sought is legitimate in a democratic society and other conditions such as legality are met, this limitation is valid. This paper reviews Kenya’s law that was recently upheld by the High Court in Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) v Attorney General & Three others; Article 19 East Africa & another and finds that it fails to meet the limitations test prescribed under Article 24 of the Constitution. It argues that Section 27 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act is therefore overbroad and has the potential to be used as a tool for the unconstitutional suppression of legitimate criticism.

Vulnerability and Repeat Victimisation in a Digital World: A Study of Computer Misuse and Fraud Reported in Wales

While the estimated volume and cost of fraud and computer misuse (F&CM) is astoundingly high, much remains unknown about patterns of victimisation, especially in relation to repeat, ‘chronic’ and/or ‘vulnerable’ victims. These ‘unknowns’ have both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, understandings of repeat victimisation (RV) and vulnerability remain under-developed and under-studied, particularly with respect to F&CM victims. In practice, the ways in which victim vulnerability is defined and assessed have a direct impact on what response victims of F&CM get from the Criminal Justice System. Too often, however, such policies appear to reproduce idealised notions of ‘the victim’ or assumptions of what kinds of victims and vulnerability ought to be recognised – rather than being driven by evidence.This work is a study of F&CM victimisation. It draws on a sample of crime reports (n = 17,049), made within Wales to the UK’s National Fraud and Cybercrime Reporting Centre Action Fraud, between October 1st 2014 and September 30th 2016. A mixed-methods approach is used, encompassing descriptive and bivariate statistics, generalised linear models, deterministic and probabilistic data linkage, as well as qualitative thematic analysis. Throughout, the socially constructed nature of crime categories and the concepts of ‘the victim’ and vulnerability are recognised, while remaining committed to empirically grounded discussion of findings and (where applicable) the replicability of the analysis.The analysis in this thesis highlights flaws in the reporting system that negatively impact on analysis and police response. These include data quality issues and the lack of a robust system to identify vulnerable and repeat victims. It also demonstrates the unsustainability of an online/offline distinction with respect to recorded F&CM crimes, identifies patterns of RV and their implications for crime prevention. Finally, this thesis advances an original framework for understanding vulnerability in the context of F&CM victimisation and better target a victim response.

11. Criminal Damage

This chapter discusses the law and theory on criminal damage. Criminal damage involves the defendant intentionally or recklessly destroying or damaging property belonging to another. The defendant will have a defence if he or she was acting with a lawful excuse. Four criminal damage offences are found in the Criminal Damage Act 1971: basic criminal damage, arson, aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated arson. There is also an offence of racially aggravated criminal damage. The chapter also considers the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which was designed to protect information kept on computers.

Impact of Computer Misuse in the Workplace

Computer misuse leads to computer-related injuries. The incidence of computer-related injuries (CRIs) is reported having a high incidence among office personnel who works routinely with the computer. The purpose of this research is to figure out the incidence of computer-related injuries in an organization with a majority of employees using technology such as a computer. This research is a survey of 120 office personnel selected with a simple random sampling method. The data was collected by distributing a self-administered questionnaire. The results showed that the office personnel experienced computer-related injuries such as computer vision syndrome (eye strain, blurred vision, watery eyes, and headache) and musculoskeletal disorders such as neck pain, shoulder and, waist pain. Ergonomic training is highly recommended to be conducted routinely by the organization to reduce the incidence of CRIs among office personnel. Keywords: computer misuse; computer vision syndrome; musculoskeletal disorder; office personnel.

A Victim-Focused Response to Repeat Fraud and Computer Misuse Crimes: Challenges and Opportunities through Admin Data Linkage

Background with rationaleThe volume of Fraud and Computer Misuse victimisation in the UK is estimated to be nearly equivalent to all other crime types combined. Alongside this, the Victims’ Charter establishes enhanced rights for vulnerable victims, a category which includes repeat victims, placing a responsibility on criminal justice agencies to assess vulnerability and respond accordingly. However, identifying repeat victimisation is challenging and the relationship between reported repeat victimisation and vulnerability requires empirical scrutiny. Main aimThis presentation draws on PhD research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and conducted in collaboration with the Southern Wales Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU), to profile victims of fraud and computer misuse in Wales. It presents the methodological challenges and lessons learnt from linking administrative crime records to identify and profile repeat victims of fraud and computer misuse across the four Welsh police forces. Methods/ApproachThis research utilised a sample of all incidents reported within the Welsh police force areas over a period of two years (1st October 2014 to 30th September 2016). A mixture of exact and probabilistic matching was used to match records relating to the same victim, leveraging R’s RecordLinkage package in conjunction with Tidyverse. A variety of descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarise key relationships within the resulting linked dataset. Results & ConclusionLinking crime records presents considerable methodological challenges related to data quality and the availability and accessibility of linkage tools. These difficulties impair the assessment of vulnerability which is demanded of criminal justice agencies. Despite their limitations however, crime records can be used to provide new insights into the nature of repeat victimisation and the characteristics of victims who report being repeatedly victimised.