US vs. AOL: A Criminal Case Study

at Schwab and that Castro acted upon protected company data lists to gain an unfair competitive

In the second quarter of 2000, AOL settled with the SEC with regard to its’ previously discussed controversial accounting policies. AOL agreed to pay a $3.5 million fine and to reissue earnings statements for years 1995 and 1996. By so doing, it wiped out all the profits the company had made. In the 4th quarter of 2002, AOL registered its’ first decrease in subscriptions with a loss of 200,000 members. Every quarter after that showed additional losses, until at the spin off in December

AOL moved to have the suit dismissed, stating that each member signed an agreement to a forum selection clause, which states that any disputes between AOL and its members, would be heard in the federal courts of Virginia. ” AOL moved to dismiss the action for improper venue pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(3), on the basis of the parties' forum selection clause. AOL

Internet: Lack of Credibility, bad news, has become a big problem for privacy and often used for criminal acts.

On March 15, 2005 former CEO of WorldCom, Bernard Ebbers sat in a federal courtroom waiting for the verdict. As the former CEO of WorldCom, Ebbers was accused of being personally responsible for the financial destruction of the communications giant. An internal investigation had uncovered $11 billion dollars in fraudulent accounting practices. Later a second report in 2003 found that during Ebber’s 2001 tenure as CEO, the company had over-reported earnings and understated expenses by an astonishing $74.5 billion dollars (Martin, 2005, para 3). This report included the mismanagement of funds, unethical lending practices among its top executives, and false bookkeeping which led to loss of tens of thousands of its employees.

The main difficulties that the police agencies face during the online crime investigation include the multi jurisdictions, obtaining the warrant for search and seize, anonymity, significant amount of data, and consistently evolving technologies and techniques(Wall, 2012). Specifically in the online predators crime, the idea of obtaining a warrant is the most critical difficulty the police agencies have. Similarly to other actual physical criminal cases such as murder or assault, the key component in conducting the successful investigation is to identify and obtain the actual evidences that can prove the offense(Power, 2013). However in terms of the cyber crimes, most evidences are contained in the actual computer itself, which, it explains that the

Security and privacy concerns present challenges for law enforcement combating deep web criminal activity. Crimes committed on or with the Internet are relatively new. Those crimes include illicit trade in drugs, weapons, wildlife, stolen goods, or people; illegal gambling; sex trafficking; child pornography; terrorism and anarchy; corporate and sovereign espionage; and financial crimes. Police agencies have been fighting an uphill battle always one step behind an ever evolving digital landscape and the criminals who exploit it. The novelty of the Internet begets jurisdictional and legal issues law enforcement must address while remaining ethical and holding to the code of law. Due to the anonymous nature of deep web criminal activity and the means for uncovering perpetrators, privacy concerns of citizens legally using the same software or websites are now a hot topic.

The Internet crimes can often overlap between fraud and other crimes. Because of these overlapping crimes it is important the there is communication and cooperation between our own agencies and international agencies.

The agencies employed by governments to police the web in order to protect the vulnerable have seen an increase in child pornography and online fraud. The speed at which information can be distributed and the number of people that can be reached attracts those that are intent on causing harm. The term “cybercrime” is becoming more widely used. The financial gains that can be made and the anonymity the internet can provide, make the virtual world of cyberspace a haven for criminals. Although the internet has huge benefits for information gathering and social networking, in the wrong hands it can cause harm to the vulnerable and criminals are able to vanish into the underground with the use of false identities that are hard to track online.

The internet has brought upon a new revolution of global interconnection where contacting someone on the other side of the world is just a click away, but with this international phenomenon comes an increased susceptibility with unfamiliar technology. Internet crime is compiled of all non-physical crime with the aid of a computer. Although broad in definition internet crimes are largely composed of acts such as cyber fraud, ‘phishing’ (username and password hacking), cyber stalking and hacking. Internet crime does not pose an overwhelming issue in society in terms of its

Internet privacy is the security of a user’s personal data that is stored or published on the internet. The internet is an important part of every individual’s daily life. In today’s society, the internet is used by many different people for many reasons. It can be used for research, communication, and purchasing items. Without the internet, many things that are completed during the course of a day would be impossible or take time to complete. As people use the internet, everything is stored in a database that tracks and keeps any personal information that is entered by users. As users continue to use the internet to complete important tasks such as purchasing items and paying bills, their privacy and security become at risk. Although the internet can be seen to have a positive impact on society, it does have a negative impact. Since the internet can be accessed by anybody it can cause a lot of damage. Examples of internet risk include identity thieves, phasing, and scams. Due to things such as online shopping, banking and other e-commerce options, personal information is stored in the internet enabling many cybercrimes to occur. Cybercrimes are very similar to any regular crime; the crime just happens to take place on websites for criminals to hack and steal user’s information for their own personal benefit. Cybercriminals tend to attack users based on their emails, social media accounts, and web history because the most history about an individual is stored in those sites.

Internet could be used by rivals or criminals just as a mean to access such information. If consider such fact that almost any organization today uses Internet as it uses telephone, the scales of the issue become global.

In accordance with many decades of cyber evolution, a cybercrime is shown in different ranges of crimes, which depend on the spread of technology and law. From the introduction of computer in the 1960s to the rise of personal computer in 1980s, cybercrime began to appear. The crimes can vary from piracy of software to patent-related crimes. This caused a surge in the introduction of relevant legislation in many countries and international organizations involved. In late 1990s, when Internet and transnational crimes were born, the international community cooperated in many instances such as the passing of the UN General Assembly Resolution 45/121 in 1990 and the manual for the prevention and control of computer-related crimes issued in 1994. Despite all the

In this crimes, the cyber-criminal use different technology in computers to have access to the personal data, use the exploitative or malicious web purposes.

The Internet is a connection of computers across the world through a network. Its origin dates back to the 1960s when the U.S Military used it for research, but it became more available to the public from the late 1980s. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 and browsers began appearing in the early 1990s. Over the last 24 years, the Internet has enabled people to shop, play, do research, communicate and conduct business online. It has also become cheaper and faster in performing different tasks. As much as the Internet has done immeasurable good to society, it has also dominated people’s lives and brought with it an array of cybercrimes. According to Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way we Think,