Computer Hackers Case Study
Hackers are people portrayed as super-criminals who have powers that enable them roam the internet searching for valuable information that is contained in an individual's or company's computer. The article is about a case of the United States v. Jarrett.in Jarrett the issue was if the prosecution was in apposition to use information that had been obtained by the search of private hackers of the defendant's personal computer. A computer hacker known as unknown user had hacked into steigner's computer and stumbled into evidence of child pornography. He went ahead to send emails containing the images and Steiger's personal information to the Alabama police department. Steiner was later arrested and he was convicted and sentenced to 171/2 years in prison. Unknown user was not to be prosecuted for hacking since he was a foreigner and thus was not subject to the laws in the U.S. He later gave out information about another suspect of child pornography Jarrett and was still assured that he would not be a target of law enforcement for his activities of hacking. He spoke freely of how he was...
When the court was analyzing the issue of suppression it looked at whether there was an agency of relationship that existed between the hacker and government and went ahead to apply a traditional two part agency relationship test to a problem that was ultra-modern in order for them to achieve a result that was flawed. Instead of requiring the government actively acquiesce in the search for the establishment of the agency of the relationship, the court ought to have looked to see whether there was passive acquiescence. This is what such a strict standard is required so as to protect an individual's fourth amendment rights against seizures and unreasonable searches in situations that deal with hackers that…
