5.33 Suppose a denial-of-service attack shuts down two dozen major websites, including retailers, stock
brokerages, and large corporate entertainment and information sites, for several hours. The attack
is traced to one of the following perpetrators. Do you think different penalties are appropriate,
depending on which it is? Explain why. If you would impose different penalties, how would they
differ?
(a) A foreign terrorist who launched the attack to cause billions of dollars in damage to the U.S.
economy.
(b) An organization publicizing its opposition to commercialization of the Web and corporate
manipulation of consumers.
(c) A teenager using hacking tools he found on a website.
(d) A hacker group showing off to another hacker group about how many sites it could shut down
in one day.
6.27 The ECPA does not prohibit universities from reading student email on its computers, just as
it does not prohibit businesses from reading employee email on company computers. Find your
university’s policy about access to student computer accounts and email (on university computers)
by professors and university administrators.Describe the policy. Tell what parts you think are good
and what should change.
6.28 Find a decision made in a lawsuit by an employee who was fired because of photos or other material
the employer found on the employee’s social network pages. Summarize the case and the result.
Do you think the result was reasonable? Why?
