Security: Security through uncertainty

Like much legislation, the Computer Misuse Act 1990 was implemented to plug a hole in the law. It may have made it easier for prosecutors to punish those abusing computer systems nearly 20 years ago, but conditions have changed dramatically since then. The Police and Justice Act 2006 was passed at the end of last year, and nestled among its non-computer related measures is a raft of new rules designed to bring the terms and conditions relating to computer crime into the 21^s^t century. IT criminology expert Stefan Fafinski examines the ramifications of the law, and wonders whether its scope might cause collateral damage for legitimate security practitioners. Society is becoming increasingly reliant on electronic communications and information storage. E-commerce has really taken off and more individuals communicate, shop, bank, and search for information electronically. Governments and other institutions gather, store and communicate vast quantities of information, much of it sensitive or private, electronically. The internet enables all of us to do so much more, so much more efficiently, than we could before, but a great deal of this e-freedom relies on secure communications. This in turn requires cryptography.