Legal, Ethical and Cyber Security: Maroochy Shire Sewage Spill

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Maroochy Shire sewage spill, a significant cyber security breach that occurred in 2000. The incident involved Vitek Boden, a site supervisor, who hacked into the system, releasing a substantial amount of sewage into the environment. The report explores the legal, ethical, and social implications of this event, highlighting the damage caused to the environment and the disruption to businesses and public life. It examines the role of the British Computer Society (BCS) code of conduct in addressing the ethical failures and discusses the technological and procedural errors that contributed to the attack. The report emphasizes the need for improved cyber security measures, including updated systems, restricted access, and rigorous software testing, to prevent future incidents. It concludes with suggestions for enhancing cyber security practices and mitigating risks in similar scenarios.

LEGAL AND ETHICAL
PRACTICE AND
EXERCISE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Cyber Security is explained as the body of technologies, processes and practices designed
just for the purpose of protecting networks, devices, programs and data from being attacked. In
modern era, cyber security is one of the most important concept which can help to protect the
important data’s from being hacked by the hackers. In context of the file, similar topics will have
discussed which is related with Maroochy Shire Sewage Spill. While discussion this respective
case various points will be covered such as what were the main causes and problem in the case,
what were the implication of legal, ethical and social cause. In addition, BSC code of code will
be explained and what can be the way to improve the cyber security in future. At last,
suggestions as well as solution will be given in terms of case study.
MAIN BODY
Maroochy Shire sewage spill is one of the case where cyber security was breach due to
which general public had to suffer for longer period of time. This respective case took place in
the year 2000 between 9th February to 23rd April. The main default of the case was Vitek Boden
who used to work as a site supervisor. In this case, with the help of hacking, Vitek release up to
one million liters of sewage into the river and coastal waters of Maroochydore in Queensland,
Australia. It was one of those hacking case which created lots of problem for number of business
organization because number they have found themselves in a stage where they were not ready
to believe that whether their data were safe or not and if it is not safe then want can be the
consequences of it.
There were lots of problem which had occurred in front of the Australian government just
because of this respective case it was found that environment was harmed very seriously. The
sewerage spill was significant. Just because of this incident almost 500m of open drain in a
residential area which directly flowed into the tidal canal. Lots of resources were affected due to
which many of the industries where unable to perform their business activity on regular basis. It
was also found that Marine life was completely died (Maroochy Shire Sewage Spill, 2019). The
water o river completely turned in black colour and even it was smelling very badly due to which
local people had to face number of problem for many days.
It is important to understand legal system of any nation plays the crucial role due to which
each and every people must follow the rules and regulations. If in any of the situation people

breaches the terms and condition, then legal actions can be taken easily where punishment is
always based on the civil or criminal wrong. Ethical code says that any of the people should not
perform any of those activity due to which other people have to suffer. Also, it is necessary to
understand that people should not do any of those wok which does affect the environment and if
that happens then legal actions can be taken easily (Rasekh and et. al., 2016). In this respective
case, it is necessary to understand that any of the person were not allowed to breach the terms
and condition of the law but Vitek did exactly opposite of the law were he breached the law,
ethical code and even created the lots of problem for the society. By looking at the situation, it
was important that punishment should be given to the one who performed the default in this
respective case.
British Computer Society (BSC) code of conduct states the standards of professional
competence is explained which is needed to be followed at the time of conducting any off the
ethical practices for computing within United Kingdom. By singing up to the code when any of
the member joins BCS, they show their commitment for working in ethical manner where their
each and every work will be for the betterment of society and public interest and in any of the
situation it will not generate those situations due to which one have to suffer. As per the BSC, the
case can be easily assumed that the decision of hacking which was taken by Vitek was not in the
public interest instead of that he decided to created lots of problem for public at large.
While talking about the case in brief, it was found that Maroochy Shire Sewage Spill one of
the serious nature of case which created lots of problem for public. This case could have been
easily stopped if radiation of radio can be managed. Also, the system which they had prepared
that if any of the problem arises then central computer system will know about it in very short
period of time. But, due to technical error it was not found at that moment and that has created
one of the biggest cyber-attack which has a direct impact on day to day life of general public.
Once, the investigation process ended it was found that there were number of issues due to which
this types of accident took place (Forti and et. al., 2017). In the first phase, it was found that the
complete mistake was of technological errors because system was not capable of performing the
task which everyone was willing due to which it was found that one million liters of sewage into
the river and coastal waters of Maroochydore in Queensland. But, when reinvestigation had been
done then completely new figure was presented where it was clearly shown that the it was Vitek
Boden who stolen the wireless radio, SCADA controller and every control software which could

have been used to create this respective attack. As whole of the action was taken internally were
no involvement was found of outsiders due to which it can be clearly said that it was one of the
internal attack. In primary stage, all of the plants were monitored and then with the help of Fake
id attack had been done by one of their supervisor (Clark, Hakim and Panguluri, 2018). If in
case, it would have been one of the external attack, then it would have been very easy for the
main server to detect the errors because investigation report itself says that there was no default
in SCADA.
While looking at the current generation, it can be easily said that changes are required
within the cyber security because there are number of cases were cyber security has been
breached and one of the best example of this respective case is Capital one bank were cyber-
attack had been done by one of the internal employees. So, considering every situation it is
necessary that system should be changed so that cyber security can be improved in future. For
the purpose of maintaining security, unnecessary access should not be given permission because
there are huge chances that problem might occur. Also, it is essential that system should be kept
up to date so that there will be were less chances of misplacing the information. Also, there are
various occasion in which procedure are not being followed properly due to which unauthorized
person can also take the access from which sensitive information can be shared easily which
means procedure must be followed properly.
The main suggestion which can be given within the above case is that it is necessary that
whenever any of the software are used within the organization then it should be checked properly
that whether it is working properly or not (Forti and et. al., 2016). If in any of the condition it is
not performing as per the requirement, then changes should be done accordingly. Although,
technologies are changing the world in rapid speed but it is necessary to ensure that everything
should not be dependent upon those technologies as it is never sure that accurate results will be
obtained every single time. As Vitek Boden was under doubt by the head of department then it is
important that necessary actions should be taken upon the person who have performed those
activities which might create issue for public at large.

CONCLUSION
From the above file it can be concluded that cyber security is very crucial as it helps to
secure the data and security of public at large. If any of the person breaches the terms and
condition of security law, then legal actions can be taken where default can be penalised in
monetary form or prisoner punishment can also be given. The BCS code of conduct helps to
ensure that each and every work will be conducted in a systematic manner where any of the
personal will not work for their personal benefit.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Rasekh, A. and et. al., 2016. Smart water networks and cyber security.
Clark, R. M., Hakim, S. and Panguluri, S., 2018. Protecting water and wastewater utilities from
cyber‐physical threats. Water and environment journal. 32(3). pp.384-391.
Forti, N. and et. al., 2016, December. A Bayesian approach to joint attack detection and resilient
state estimation. In 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) (pp.
1192-1198). IEEE.
Forti, N. and et. al., 2017. Secure state estimation of cyber-physical systems under switching
attacks. IFAC-PapersOnLine. 50(1). pp.4979-4986.
Online
Maroochy Shire Sewage Spill. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.risidata.com/Database/Detail/maroochy-shire-sewage-spill>