Coursework 1 - Computer Misuse Act
Introduction
During a trade show in 1984 Robert Schifreen observed a Prestel engineer entering the username 22222222 and the password 1234 on the BT Mailbox System admin login. He was using a method called shoulder surfing, which is the process of directly observing someone without them knowing. Schifreen told his friend Stephen gold about this, together using their own home computers and modems they started to browse through the BT Mailbox system this peaked when they reached Price Phillips private email inbox. This attack was very significant, firstly because this was the first high profile computer attack in the UK. The other significant factor was that this attack was not malicious and they were doing it simply because they could.…show more content… They were intact charged under the Forgery and Counterfeiting act 1981 under Section 1, Fraud, and convicted on specimen charges with a £750 and £600 fine respectively. Shortly after this announcement they appealed through the Court of Appeal and a lack of evidence that they had committed the crimes meant that they were acquitted.
It was clear then that the UK needed a law to stop computer misuse happening in the future, a private members bill from the conservatives was passed by the government and came into effect in 1990, it was called the Computer Misuse Act, and it had three main sections as outlined below (Computer Misuse Act 1990, 20 Oct. 2015):
1. Unauthorised access to computer material; 2. Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate further
