A National Law That Defines and Provides for Criminal Prosecution of Cyber Terrorism, Annotated Bibliography Example

Research Question: Should we have a national law that defines and provides for criminal prosecution of cyber terrorism?

Why It Matters: With the increased use of the internet as well as social media, crime that is not only international but also virtual is on the increase. This is a new and significant challenge to not only law informant agencies but also legal experts as well. Laws have to be created to protect victims of crime as well as institutions. It matter because cyber crime can attack the heart of democratic institutions and are the greatest threat we face from terrorists and criminals. Being able to put a face and tools to combat them is a very serious and important matter; law must catch up to the reality.

Tentative Thesis: The U. S. Congress should enact a national law governing the definition, prosecution, and punishment of cyber terrorism.

Sources

Samuel McQuade “The Encyclopedia of Cybercrime”, Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Press. 2009. Print

This is a good resource for terminologies. There are no obvious biases in the book it is as it claims to be an encyclopedia of cyber crime. It uses several resources that I found credible and relevant especially when other sources would use terms that are unfamiliar or when looking for a particular topic or subject matter, it is a good guide. It will help when looking for a specific aspect or topic and provides further references.

David Parker “Fighting Computer Crime”, U.S.: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1983. Print

The author looks at criminality in the cyber sphere from a unique perspective of both the perpetrator his pathology and motivations pushing him to do the crime. The author also covers how to overcome these people and the methods that they use. However the book relied too much on the psychological reasons for committing cyber terrorism but ignored the political motivations. Its greatest failure is looking at home grown terrorism. The book is also very readable which its winning point is. Its use is mainly in the counter measure proposed that will be used in the paper.

Chuck Easttom and Jeff Taylor “Computer Crime Investigation and the Law”, Course Technology. USA. 2010. Print  

The book is essentially a how to book. How hackers do what they do. How to investigate it, the history of cyber crime. It introduces one to the various legal aspects from expert witnesses and the like. However how the book is useful is that it brings in the concept of encryption and hacker slang language which is a very important aspect in investigating cyber terrorism. This is especially true in a situation in which it is cross border in nature. The book leans too heavily on the law and lacks the psychological and political environment that allows these crimes to grow and exists. This is useful in that it’s a text book with easy to understand language for those who are not that computer sophisticated.

David Wall ‘Cybercrimes: The transformation of crime in the information age’, Cambridge: United Kingdom. 2007. Print

This book looks at hacking specifically. It looks at more from the technical software sphere. It is useful because it is not saying all hackers are bad but how they have a role to play in the prevention and protection. The book will be useful in formulating a rehabilitation plan in the paper. It will also help in seeing them not as only being criminals but also help high light their usefulness in terms of being cyber soldiers. The book is very balanced and does not have a particular leaning.

Verton, Dan (2003). Black Ice: ‘The Invisible Threat of Cyber-terrorism’. Osborne/McGraw-Hill, U.S. 2003. Print

This is the main resource that will be used in that it looks at cyber terrorism specifically in all its different facets the book is well balanced and brings some very useful highlights not considered in most books. It looks at the implications and the impact if such attack were to occur. It even looks at the civil liberties that will be threatened by the legal enactments by government. The author is an expert in the field and the number of experts featured makes it an excellent resource for the paper.