KEY PROVISION OF THE USA PATRIOT ACT :

SECTION 216

The Patriot Act substantially changes the law with respect to law enforcement access to information about computer use including Web surfing. Reaching for an analogy from the old rotary dialed telephone system, the Act extends provisions written to authorize installation of pen registers and trap and trace devices, which record outgoing and incoming phone numbers, to authorize the installation of devices to record all computer routing, addressing, and signaling information. The government can get this information with a mere certification that the information likely to be obtained is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.
Today, with more than fifty million U.S. households online, when more than 1.4 billion e-mails change hands every day, when computer users surf the Web and download files using phone lines, mobile devices, and cable modems, the government can learn a tremendous amount of information about you from where you shop to what you read to who your friends are through the use of so-called transactional records. The potential for abuse, for invasion of privacy, and for profiling citizens is high. That’s why it is disappointing that the authors of this provision settled for an incredibly weak standard of judicial oversight. A better analogy might have been to the provision of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act governing access to the stored records of Internet service providers, which permits a judge to satisfy herself that there are specific and articulable facts that the information sought is relevant and material to the ongoing investigation. This is a provision that Congress should review as part of its sunset process and amend.
source:john podesta is a visiting professor of law at the geogetown university law center.He served as president clinton's chief of staff from 1998-2001.

Privacy protection

Approaches to privacy can, broadly, be divided into two categories: free market, and consumer protection.^[22] In a free market approach, commercial entities are largely allowed to do what they wish, with the expectation that consumers will choose to do business with corporations that respect their privacy to a desired degree. If some companies are not sufficiently respectful of privacy, they will lose market share. Such an approach may be limited by lack of competition in a market, by enterprises not offering privacy options favorable to the user, or by lack of information about actual privacy practices. Claims of privacy protection made by companies may be difficult for consumers to verify, except when they have already been violated.

In a consumer protection approach, in contrast, it is acknowledged that individuals may not have the time or knowledge to make informed choices, or may not have reasonable alternatives available. In support of this view, Jensen and Potts showed that most privacy policies are above the reading level of the average person .^[23] Therefore, this approach advocates greater government definition and enforcement of privacy standards.

What is computer privacy in the law?

Privacy Laws

Simply stated, courts in the United States tend to favor the employer in workplace-surveillance cases. For that reason, employees should always use good judgment when logging onto the Internet and sending e-mails. Choose your words carefully; you never know who might read your correspondence.

Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), electronic communications are divided into two groups:

• Stored communication
• Communication in transit

Under­ the law, electronic communication in transit has almost the same level of protection as voice communication, meaning that intercepting it is prohibited. Accessing stored electronic communication, such as e-mail sitting on a server waiting to be sent, is not illegal. The courts have ruled that since the e-mail is not physically traveling anywhere -- is not "in transit" -- it does not have the same level of protection.

Privacy law is the area of law concerning the protecting and preserving of privacy rights of individuals. While there is no universally accepted privacy law among all countries, some organizations promote certain concepts be enforced by individual countries. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 12, states:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

What is computer privacy?

Informational

Main article: Information privacy

Data privacy refers to the evolving relationship between technology and the legal right to, or public expectation of privacy in the collection and sharing of data about one's self. Privacy concerns exist wherever uniquely identifiable data relating to a person or persons are collected and stored, in digital form or otherwise. In some cases these concerns refer to how data is collected, stored, and associated. In other cases the issue is who is given access to information. Other issues include whether an individual has any ownership rights to data about them, and/or the right to view, verify, and challenge that information

.Internet privacy is the ability to control what information one reveals about oneself over the Internet, and to control who can access that information. These concerns include whether email can be stored or read by third parties without consent, or whether third parties can track the web sites someone has visited. Another concern is whether web sites which are

Generally the increased ability to gather and send information has had negative implications for retaining privacy. As large scale information systems become more common, there is so much information stored in many databases worldwide that an individual has no way of knowing of or controlling all of the information about themselves that others may have access to. Such information could potentially be sold to others for profit and/or be used for purposes not known to the individual of which the information is about. The concept of information privacy has become more significant as more systems controlling more information appear. Also the consequences of a violation of privacy can be more severe. Privacy law in many countries has had to adapt to changes in technology in order to address these issues and maintain people's rights to privacy as they see fit. But the existing global privacy rights framework has also been criticized as incoherent and inefficient. Proposals such as the APEC Privacy Framework have emerged which set out to provide the first comprehensive legal framework on the issue of global data privacy. ^[10] visited collect, store, and possibly share personally identifiable information about users.

Who are the computer criminals and their object?

Are mean and sinister type.But many more wear business suits
have university degrees and appear to be pillars of their communities.

No single profile captures the characteristics of a typical computer
criminal and many who fit the profile are not criminals at all.

Zero-Day Attack

it takes place before the security community
or software developer knows about a vulnera
rability or has been to repair it.

The primary moral of the story is that defense-in-depth
has once again showed its value as a serious vulnera
bility was blocked by a systematic defense.Users who keep
their software up to date are protected against attack,more
often than not.If you were to run any of the non-vulnerable configuration
and turn off DEP or protect your mode once again.Anti-virus makes
McAfee said the attackers targeted at least 3 of the companies by exploiting
a zero-day vulnerability in internet explorer.Its possible they used other exploits
as well.

What would you do?

If ever my friend had told me to develop a worm that attack the
administrative system i tell her to stop her planned because it
cause a disturbance to the other people.Although it is not app-
ropriate in a that place.And everyone is working hard for the
institution and where a company file a case.