Analyzing IT Ethics, Law, and Cyber Security in the UK: Datafication

This report delves into the realm of IT ethics and cyber law within the UK, particularly focusing on the 'datafication' of children and the adequacy of current privacy laws. It examines a case involving a 16-year-old hacker from the Lapsus$ group, highlighting the implications of cybercrime. The report references the Network and Information System Regulations 2018 and discusses key cyber laws such as the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Children Act 1989. It argues that existing cyber laws may be insufficient to deter cybercrime effectively and emphasizes the need for stronger measures to protect children's online rights and prevent their exploitation. The document concludes by advocating for a more robust legal framework to address the increasing incidents of cybercrime in the UK.

IT ETHICS AND LAW
IN CYBER SECURITY
IN UK

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
The ‘Datafication’ of children: are current UK privacy laws sufficient to protect and uphold
the rights of children in the online world?..................................................................................3
Cyber crime of hacking done by a 16 year old child from Oxford involved in cyber crime
group Lapsus-..............................................................................................................................3
Cyber laws ..................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The Network and Information System Regulations,2018 provides more tools for
cyber security in this digital world. Nowadays, the cyber security has become one of the vital
services in the present scenario (Abu-Taieh and et. al., 2018). The NIS regulations are applicable
on transport services, water supply, energy or healthcare services. Cyber security is a type of
application whose main function is to protect the data, network, devices or programs from the
cyber attacks. It helps the authorised user from hacking by the unauthorised person. It is very
necessary in this present world as now everything is digital. More over, all the banks and
financial institutions are online which requires high cyber security. This report further deals with
a case of cyber crime like hacking by a 16 year old child.
TASK
The ‘Datafication’ of children: are current UK privacy laws sufficient to protect and uphold the
rights of children in the online world?
The term datafication refers to the movement of people from analog world to digital world. Now
a days, everything is becoming digital in this modern world. All the services related to education,
banking, financing, etc. are becoming virtual. Hence, the need for cyber security is realised more
and more in this present scenario. The children of today's generation is very brilliant. It is very
usual for the children to use the online gadgets like android mobile phones, laptops, computers,
tablets, etc. The United Kingdom has laws for the cyber crime (Fahey, 2021). But, as seen in the
present cyber crime cases, the law is not sufficient for the criminals as the number of criminals
are increasing day by day. There is no fear in the minds of the people while doing such illegal
acts. Hence, the laws relating to cyber laws are not sufficient to punish the criminals.
Cyber crime of hacking done by a 16 year old child from Oxford involved in cyber
crime group Lapsus-
One of the recent article from BBC tells about a teenager boy of 16 years who have been alleged
by the rivals that he has accumulated $14 million by hacking. The London police has said that

they had arrested seven teenagers for this cyber crime but cant assure that he is the one. The
police further informed that they have released all the teenagers under investigation. The boy's
father told that his son always used to work something on computer and thought that he is
playing the game. It was revealed that he was behind the Lapsus crew. The Lapsus is a popular
cyber crime group of hacking. This group had earlier also hacked big firms like Microsoft. The
rivals has leaked all the social media photos, name and address of the hackers. Further, they have
also revealed about the hacking career of the teenager boy. The chief of Cyber security
investigation informed that they were tracking White from last one year and got his details of
address by his older posts. They cached White by tracking him from his online accounts he used.
The Lapsus had a telegram channel of over 47,000 subscribers where they provide unauthorised
data and earn money from it.
Cyber laws
1. Computer Misuse Act 1990-
This act enables hacking as a crime. The Computer Misuse Act 1990, explains that any person
who uses unauthorised data from any other computer is termed as hacking. The four major key
essentials of this act are as follows-
 Unauthorised alteration of data by any unofficial person.
 Unauthorised access with the intention to commit crime.
 Unauthorised use of computer system.
 Delivering, creating or gaining anything that can misuse the authenticity of the data.
Further more, there are the provisions of punishments under this act to the maximum of 14 years
of imprisonment (Saleem, 2019). Moreover, if any act done which is against humanity or
national security , then the punishment will go to the extent of life imprisonment.
In the above case, the teenager White has done unauthorised use of data by hacking which is a
punishable offence under this act. The teenager was liable for fine and imprisonment as
prescribed under this act.
2. Children Act, 1989-
The Children Act, 1989 provides for the welfare of the children. According to this act, it is the
duty of every local authority to work for the welfare of the children. The essential condition in
this is there should be the need of such welfare. If the local authority thinks that the child is
suffering , then it must take actions to provide due care to the child. This act also provides for the

provisions where the parents or guardians doesn't cooperate with the local authorities in order to
safeguard the suffering child. This act takes child as a national human asset that is mandatory to
take care as it will directly influence the future of the United Kingdom (Giri, 2019). The local
authorities must ensure that every city must have the community homes for such type of child.
In the given case of teenager White, the police must ensure that the identity of the child must not
be revealed as per the laws of the counter. If the identity will be revealed, then it will hinder the
growth and development of the teenager. The local authority must also ensure that the child is
not exploited by the public and the investigating department.
Conclusion
The above report concludes about the cyber crime in UK. There are several cases that shows that
the present law is not sufficient in order to control the cyber crime in the country. The teenager
also did cyber crime of hacking for which he is punishable by the law. But the law for children
will protect them from harsh punishments. Hence, the cyber laws are not sufficient in the country
as it can be seen that the number of cases are increasing day by day in UK.

REFERENCES:
Abu-Taieh and et. al., 2018. Cyber security crime and punishment: comparative study of the
laws of Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Cyber
Warfare and Terrorism (IJCWT), 8(3), pp.46-59.
Fahey, E., 2021. Developing EU cybercrime and cybersecurity: On legal challenges of EU
institutionalisation of cyber law-making1. In The Routledge Handbook of European
Integrations (pp. 270-284). Routledge.
Giri, S., 2019. Cyber crime, cyber threat, cyber security strategies and cyber law in
Nepal. Pramana Research Journal, 9(3), pp.662-672.
Saleem, M., 2019, June. Brexit impact on cyber security of United Kingdom. In 2019
International Conference on Cyber Security and Protection of Digital Services (Cyber
Security) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.