Civil Liberties and Security in Cyberspace - Hoover Institution

Hoover Press : Cyber DP5 HPCYBE0500 06-11-:1 11:53:04 rev1 page 204
204 Ekaterina A. Drozdova
privacy. The use of automated and semiautomated tools facilitates
near-real-time detection of security breaches, tracing to origin of attack,
scalability of action (detecting intrusions among large volumes
of data involved in normal network operations and responding to
intrusions that may hop across international networks), and ultimately
increased efficiency and effectiveness. Automation in searching, tracing,
and tracking preserves the anonymity and privacy of innocent
individuals whose messages may be subjected to search in the course
of an investigation. The protection of privacy ultimately relies on a
combination of automated and other protective technologies as well
as laws that constrain law enforcement. Where law enforcement methods
are intrusive and automation is not available or fully reliable, legal
constraints are especially necessary.
3. Criminal Law and Constraints
on Police Behavior
Constraints on police behavior in cyberspace have received far less
public attention than privacy problems. This is partly because they are
narrowly focused on criminal investigation—whereas privacy interests
span personal, commercial, and government realms—and partly because
what is necessary and legally permissible in cyber-related investigation
and prosecution procedures is still being determined.
The protections against self-incrimination and unwarranted
searches and seizures and the rights to due process of law apply in
cyberspace as anywhere else, yet technological realities can complicate
the observance of these rights. The pursuit of crimes committed over
international computer networks is also complicated by the differences
in domestic procedures and the absence of a system of international
criminal law.