Exploitation, Stalking, and Obscenity on the WWW

1. Taylor Chapter 7 Exploitation, Stalking, and Obscenity on the WWW

2. Exploitation • Sexual Exploitation • Primary targets are women and children • Predators victimize by enticing people through online contact for the purpose of engaging them in sexual acts • Using the Internet to expose youth to child porn and encouraging exchange of child pornography • Enticing and exploiting women and children for the purpose of sexual tourism for commercial gain and/or personal gratification

3. Youth Internet Safety Survey • Youth being exposed to the following: • Sexual solicitations and approaches • Aggressive sexual solicitation • Unwanted exposure to sexual material • Harassment • Distressing incidents

4. Youth Internet Safety Survey2000 vs 2005 • 2000 • 1 in 5 reported solicitation • 1 in 4 reported unwanted exposure to sexually explicit pictures • 1 in 17 reported being threatened and harassed • 1 in 10 reporting making rude remarks to others • 2005 • 1 in 7 reported solicitation • 1 in 3 reported unwanted exposure to sexually explicit pictures • 1 in 11 reported being threatened and harassed • 1 in 10 reporting making rude remarks to others

5. Youth Internet Safety Survey • 1 in 25 youth in one year received an online sexual solicitation where the solicitor tried to make offline contact. • Internet offenders manipulate young people into criminal sexual relationships by appealing to young people’s desire to be appreciated, understood, take risks, and find out about sex. • Internet offenders target teens who are willing to talk online about sex. • Although most victims go voluntarily to meet and have sex with Internet offenders, these are nonetheless serious sex crimes that take advantage of inexperienced and vulnerable young people.

6. As a Security Officer • Block access to Social Networking sites. • If not blocked monitor volume of traffic to these sites • Be sure traffic to ”sensitive” sites is monitored • Your goal is to prevent the use of the organization site as an access point for a predator. • The last thing you would want to do is a forensic study of this guy’s laptop!!!

7. Stalking • Many states have adopted a “general intent” requirement that allows prosecutions for implied threats and threats that may or may not be considered credible. • Most stalkers are typically • Male, white, between 18 &35 yrs, avg intelligence, and earn above avg incomes. • Most stalking victims • Women, white, between the ages of 18 and 39 and married.

8. Stalking • As an InfoSec professional we could get involved in two ways: • The stalker may be using the organizations computers as a means or facility to stalk, • The victim may be receiving the threats or harassment via the organization network. • From an InfoSec perspective it is hard to defend against either of these

9. Categories of Stalkers • Simple obsessive stalkers (47-60%) • Love obsession stalkers (43%) • No prior relationship between perp and victim • Seek to establish personal relationship contrary to victim’s wishes • Have low self esteem and seek those with high social standing

10. Categories • Erotomaniacs (10%) • Stalker believes the victim is in love with him or her • More likely for female to be stalking male • Vengeance/terrorist stalker • Attempt to elicit response or change of behavior form victims… not a personal relationship

11. Stalking • The text assumes the stalking has a “love” interest in the victim. • It can also be a stalking incident based on HATE.

12. Stalking • A cyberstalker may assume the identity of his or her victim by posting information (fictitious or not) • Their motive may be revenge for personal or business reasons. • This is typically the kind of activity that would occur within organizations

13. Laws • California was the first state to enact stalking legislation (1990) • Today all 50 states and the federal gov. have statutes. • Unfortunately only one third include ”cyperstalking”. • Many are changing and including Cyber Bullying.

14. Stalking, harassment and Bullying • Cyberstalking.  Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet, email or other electronic communications to stalk, and generally refers to a pattern of threatening or malicious behaviors. Cyberstalking may be considered the most dangerous of the three types of Internet harassment, based on a posing credible threat of harm. Sanctions range from misdemeanors to felonies

15. Stalking, harassment and Bullying • Cyberharassment. Differs from cyberstalking in that it may generally be defined as not involving a credible threat. Cyberharassment usually pertains to threatening or harassing email messages, instant messages, or to blog entries or websites dedicated solely to tormenting an individual. Some states approach cyberharrassment by including language addressing electronic communications in general harassment statutes, while others have created stand-alone cyberharassment statutes.

16. Stalking, harassment and Bullying • Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are sometimes used interchangeably, but cyberbullying generally refers to electronic harassment or bullying among minors within a school context. 

17. Bullying in PA Law: HB 1067 • Defined as: An intentional electronic, written, verbal or physical act, or a series of acts: • Directed at another student or students; • Which occurs in a school setting; • That is severe, persistent or perversive; and • That has the effect of doing any of the following; • Substantially interfering with a student’s edu.; • Creating a threatening environment; or • Substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school; and

18. Bullying in PA Law: HB 1067 • School setting is defined as: • In the school • In school vehicles • At a designated bus stop • Or at an activity sponsored, supervised or sanctioned by the school

19. QUESTION ? • If 16 year old Mary constantly texts, from home, to 15 year old Joan that she is fat and ugly is that cyber-bullying? • Can an adult be charged with cyber bullying of another adult?

20. Laws • Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act of 1998 • Child Online Protection Act (COPA) • Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998 (PCSPA) • Prosecuting Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003 (PROTECT Act)

21. Laws • Cyber stalking and Cyber Bullying suffer from • Lack of reporting • A law enforcement population that lacks the training to deal with it. • However the PA hb 1067 forces schools to create policy and report annually • What do you do with a 15 year old who sends physical threats to someone he doesn’t like!

22. Obscenity in WWW Land • Before Facebook it was the largest use of the web.

23. Obscenity - Definition • An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious. The term is also applied to an object that incorporates such a statement or displays such an act. • In a legal context, the term obscenity is most often used to describe expressions (words, images, actions) of an explicitly sexual nature. The word can be used to indicate a strong moral repugnance, in expressions such as "obscene profits", "the obscenity of war", etc. It is often replaced by the word salaciousness. • According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, that which is obscene (i.e.: an obscenity) is quite simply defined as repulsive, or disgusting to the senses • From Wikipedia

24. Obscenity defined by a Supreme Court Justice • Justice Potter Stewart wrote the most famous definition: • “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.”

25. Obscenity • In our society total frontal nudity is considered obscene.

26. I can assure you, only the most fundamental religious sects or repressed Victorians would consider this obscene.

27. Obscenity in the workplace • Usually organizations take a very conservative view on this topic. • Jokes, pictures , etc. that are claimed to be obscene by a single person must be dealt with. • There have been cases were employees have been asked to remove the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit calendar from their wall because someone deemed it offensive!

28. Obscenity in the workplace • As an InfoSec professional you may be involved. • Most organizations have policies on obscenity in the workplace but there is a broad gray line that causes a lot of trouble in mixed culture organization.

29. Sex Tourism • Loosely defined practice that encompasses several sexually related practices • Often, sex tourism is the practice of men from western countries visiting developing nations or third world nations for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity that is illegal in their home country. • Internet is primary facilitator.

30. Challenges to effective enforcement • Numerous, overlapping, law enforcement initiatives • Cybercriminals are elusive, anonymous, and operating in a jurisdiction outside of the US • Several evidentiary issues in the prosecution of these types of crimes that make it more difficult to gain a conviction.

31. Challenges to effective enforcement • Multiple use machines such as in Universities or cyber cafes. Termed Commingling. • Computer data can be easily destroyed, deleted or modified • Services exist that provide annonymity on the web

32. Challenges to effective enforcement • The technical ability to collect, preserve, and analyze cyber evidence is not widely distributed. • But we will take on the task of Forensics in chapters 11 & 12.

33. Chapter 8 ANARCHY and haTE

34. Objectives • Legally define a hate crime. • Describe the relationship between left –wing groups and “special interest” or single issue groups. • Describe ALF and ELF • Describe techniques of right wing groups • The primary issues of PATRIOT ACT • Investigation vs. intelligence within law enforcement

35. The internet • From our home with a few keystrokes we can access: • Pornography • Bomb making instructions • Poison recipes • Radical religious groups • Extremist political groups

36. No Place in the Office • As a Security Professional you may be confronted with this in the office!!! • Do we know it when we see it?

37. Digital Hate • A Hate Crime – is a crime that targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, AGE, gender, gender identity, social status or political affiliation.

38. Digital Hate • Most states have hate crime statutes that call for enhanced penalties for crimes where the victim is selected because of a bias of the perpetrator • The federal government also has hate crime statutes.

39. Hate close to home • Shenandoah, PA July 12, 2008 Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, 25, an illegal immigrant who had been living in the U.S. for six years was killed. He allegedly was pummeled near a local park after a confrontation with at least four teenage boys. • On Friday, May 1, 2009, a jury in Schuylkill County found two of the defendants accused of beating the 25-year-old, father of two, guilty of simple assault. Despite the mounting evidence of a hate-driven and violent attack, the jury acquitted the defendants of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation. • Mr. Donchak and Mr. Piekarsky were then charged under the hate crimes statute in federal court. They were found guilty and on Feb 23, 2011 and were given sentences of 9 years in federal prison.

40. Hate and the Internet • Used for: • Recruitment • Spread their message

42. Right Wing • Racial Supremacists - You pick the color. It’s a rainbow. • Extreme religious groups - Usually grouped with the right because of their conservative politics.

43. Left Wing • Anarchist – fewer violent acts than during the 60’s but there has been a resurgence since 9/11 an the Patriot Act. • Ecoterroists – single issue groups. “Green Peace, et. al.” Often enjoy a sympathetic reception by liberal affluent Americans.

44. Terrorists in Cyberspace • Allows broader communications • Wider recruitment • Dehumanize with music and games • Cartoon depictions • Used for fundraising

45. Right vs. Left • Right wing racist information is more likely to be specific and graphic with the hate. • Left wing single purpose groups are appealing to a different audience and tend to more “politically correct”.

46. Nuremburg Files • No not the Nuremburg TRIALs of post World War II • This is a group of anti-abortionists that have published list of abortion providers. • The courts have found this list and the way it is depicted, “constitutes a threat to people on the list”.

47. SHACStop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty • This group targets a single company. • A visit to their website failed to find the map with info on people who do business with the company. It could not be found. • They may have cleaned up their act. • The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) was also involved in this activity

48. ALF Not this ALF!!

49. ALF • Alf is a leaderless group of animal rights activists that operate in over 40 countries. • They use violent tactics but have never resorted to murder.

50. ELF Not This One!!