CO3603 Assignment 1
Date issued: 3/11/2014 Date due (via Blackboard): Parts 1 & 2 14th December 2014
Part 3 May 2015 (with assignment 2)

This assignment is worth 50% of the assessment for this module.
Overall word count: approximately 3000 words.
General Advice
You should aim to summarise cases or statutes or give small quotations that you build into your discussion. You should not use large quotations or provide excessive detail. I am interested in your ability to summarise and explain ideas, not in your ability to cut and paste.
Background
You are systems manager for a small company with 15 employees. The company provides forensic computing services, which include forensic investigation, data recovery for commercial organisations and the public, electronic discovery for businesses and consultancy for local solicitors. A technician manages your two separate IT systems each having its own local area network and file-servers. One system stores and processes all the material relating to forensic investigations. The other is the information system required to run the business. She also remotely administers the cloud-based server that hosts your Web-site.

You have developed a long-term relationship with a local University, working closely with a member of staff to support placement students and to teach network forensics.

Consider the following hypothetical situations. You appreciate the importance of seeking professional legal advice, but you like to form your own opinion first to help you understand the advice you receive from your solicitor.
Situations
1. The new networks
Because of increasing reliability problems and the growing amounts of data that have to be moved around, you are planning to upgrade the investigators? system, replacing both the network and the server. Because an important contract to analyse disks for a police force will start in three months, it is vital that the system is operational by then.

A member of staff from the local university has said he will help your technician purchase and install the new equipment although he can?t start it now, as he is currently busy. This could be done in his own time or as a consultant working for the University. You have also considered using a systems integration company and you are studying their standard contract. Your technician has recommended saving money by not having a feasibility study because she understands the current system and is aware of your future needs.

a. Discuss the legal issues that are relevant to the quality of the new network and to protecting your company from problems arising from the installation. You should take a broad view of quality, which would include, for example, timeliness of delivery, adequate security and not just the speed of the network. You should consider whether the choice of supplier affects the legal position. You will need to explain the key issues and relate them to this situation.
25 Marks
Assessment Criteria
A summary of relevant statute and case law
? Identification of important issues and law that are relevant to the relationship with the developer/their employer and work you want them to do.
? Awareness of relevant cases and contentious issues
? Quality of summary: express key issues clearly but avoid excessive detail
? Appropriate use of relevant references in text and at the end of the answer
15 marks

Discussion of the implications of the legal issues for this situation, including an assessment of any differences that could arise if you used the system integration company rather than the university lecturer.
? Ability to relate statute and case law to this situation
? Identification of potential problems and how they can be handled
? Justification of the points made
10 marks

b. Discuss the legal issues relevant to protecting data in all three of the company?s systems (the forensic investigation system, the business system and the cloud-based server). In your discussion, identify issues about data privacy and security, handling personal data correctly, transmitting and archiving data.
20 Marks
Assessment Criteria
? Identification of important issues and law that are relevant to data protection, security, archiving and transmission.
? Awareness of relevant cases and contentious issues
? Quality of summary
? Appropriate use of relevant references in text and at the end of the answer
10 marks

Discussion of the implications of the legal issues for this situation.
? Ability to relate statute and case law to this situation
? Identification of potential problems and how they can be handled
? Justification of the points made
10 marks
2. Crime & the Court
During an investigation of material provided by the police, your company have discovered in the internet cache on a disk from a doctor?s computer, image files that appear to be indecent images of children. It appears that these images have been constructed from images that are themselves legal. On the disk, there are also many photographs from fantasy films (e.g. Lord of the Rings). There is evidence that Invisible Secrets has been installed on the doctor’s computer. (http://www.invisiblesecrets.com/invsecr4.html)

a. Summarise the legal issues relevant to this situation.
15 Marks
Assessment Criteria
A summary of relevant statute and case law
? Identification of appropriate issues and appropriate law
? Quality of summary
? Appropriate references in text and at the end of the answer
10 marks
? Ability to relate the law to the given situation
5 marks

Because of her research into steganography, a lecturer has been approached to be an expert witness in separate civil and criminal cases. She has worked with you previously, and has asked you for advice to help her decide whether to take the role.

b. Advise her on the role of the expert witness and any potential liability that might arise from the expert’s evidence. You do not have to provide any advice about presentation issues or how to deal with questioning while in court.
15 Marks
Assessment Criteria
A summary of the role of the expert witness 10 marks
? In preparation for court
? In court
This should include examples from referenced cases to help her understand the relevant problems and issues.
Discussion of issues relating to liability arising from evidence given by the expert witness 5 marks
Credit will be given for appropriate references in text and at the end of the answer.

3. The invention
You design software that can connect over the network to a computer to capture data for forensic analysis. You have worked with a company technician to develop a prototype. He has now left the company and is working for a competitor. You will be seeking a loan from a bank or private investor to commercialise the software.

Discuss how the law can help protect your invention.
15 Marks
Assessment Criteria
Long-term protection of software 5 marks
Issues relating to discussions with bank or private investor 5 marks
Issues relating to the technician who is working at a competitor 5 marks

Discuss any issues that should be considered by a company purchasing this software to deploy it on a work network to monitor employees.
10 Marks
Assessment Criteria
Summary of relevant laws 5 marks
Implications for a company using the software to monitor staff 5 marks

Administration
? Submit the assignment as a Word document through the link on Elearn. It will be submitted to Turnitin as part of a check for plagiarism.
? Work that is up to 5 days late will be capped to 40%
? This is individual work. Cheating such as plagiarism (using ideas without acknowledgement), collusion (working with others on the assignment) or submitting work that has been submitted for another assignment, will be investigated and dealt with according to the University’s regulations, which you can find on the University’s website.
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