Purpose
This assignment is intended to help you learn to do the following:
- Examine digital threats in the context of information security and compliance.
- List the applicable laws and policies related to cyber defense and describe the major components of each pertaining to the storage and transmission of data.
- Describe their responsibilities related to the handling of data as it pertains to legal, ethical and/or agency auditing issues.
- Interpret jurisdictional laws and regulations as they relate to intellectual property, privacy, and criminal proceedings.
- Describe how the type of legal dispute (civil, criminal, private) affects the evidence used to resolve it.
- Assess an organization’s compliance with regulatory requirements and ethical standards.
- Integrate ethical practices in real world business scenarios.
Overview
Bjorn Daniel Sundin and Shaileshkumar P. Jain, along with others, owned and operated Innovative Marketing, Inc. (IM), a company that sold antivirus and related software to customers in 60 countries. The headquarters was based in Belize with another location in Kiev, Ukraine. IM quickly grew in response to the great demand by customers who contacted IM because their computer had shown a message indicating a malware infection. Between 2006 and 2008, IM made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits and continually grew its organization and number of employees. In 2008, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating IM after having received more than 1,000 complaints from customers. To their surprise, IM’s computers were not password protected. The investigation showed that the customers of IM were in fact their victims, as IM itself had infected the computers with a malware. The malware showed a fake warning message about a virus infection and then prompted the victims to click on a link to IM to buy virus removal software for $30 to $70. The computers never had a virus, and the sole purpose of the company was the development and use of “scareware” as a means of defrauding individuals and companies. In 2008, the FBI indicted Sundin and Jain on 24 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and computer fraud. They are on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. They continue to be fugitives, hiding in countries that do not pursue cybercriminals.
Action Items
- Refer to Project Overview for an overall picture of the project.
- Create a report (between 1500–2000 words and 1.5 spacing) that addresses the following questions:
- Discuss the role that technology plays as a landscape for cybercrime.
- Drawing on the above case, and making appropriate assumptions as you see fit, explain ways that IM took advantage of its client’s trust in committing crimes. For example, remember to include IM’s unauthorized access to its clients’ data, breaking into their privacy.
- Research a federal act that may be used in a court proceeding to prosecute IM’s executives.
- Construct a hypothetical case against these individuals based on the steps for data preservation and evidence integrity.
- Submit your report. Your work will automatically be checked by Turnitin.
- Review your Submission Details and access your Turnitin report. Revise your work as needed based on the feedback.
- By the due date indicated, re-submit the final version of your report.
Grading Criteria
Read the assignment rubric to understand how your work will be assessed.
This assignment is also used to assess Cybersecurity Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) and through the rubric. The PLO assessment will appear as a separate row within the rubric; it will not contribute points to the assignment.
For your information, the following PLO is being assessed:
- PLO 6: Analyze and assess an organization’s compliance with regulatory requirements and ethical reasoning.
