Taking Hacker's Seriously

Living at a time when the internet has become a sacrosanct part of one's life for every little thing, from grocery shopping to connecting with friends, from doing research for self-development to expressing views, computer security has become a matter of great concern, especially as computer crimes have become a frequent affair. Since young students with no idea whatsoever about the danger lurking in the cyber world, have an access to the internet daily through various electronic devices, it is important to take some necessary action to protect the young students from the trap of cybercrimes. Jamestown Community College (JCC) has realized just that, and taken measures to address the issue by establishing some basic guidelines through the introduction of ‘Acceptable Use Policy’ for the students to follow as regards the use of computer resources, including but not limited to computers, laptops, the Internet, electronic mail, mobile devices, and related electronic products. All the employees and students whoever have access to the computer resources are obligated to use these resources professionally, ethically, responsibly, and lawfully ("Acceptable Use”). Though the measures have been taken keeping in mind the well-being of the students and employees, some of the measures, especially those related to security and privacy are quite controversial as these provide the college with the right to access and review any material that has been created, sent or retrieved over the internet without any notification or explanation to the user. Though a few may argue that the introduction of these measures would curtail the freedom of the members of the college community, taking into account the permanency of information storage in the internet database, the use of big data by the government agencies and different business houses for various purposes, cyber-attacks and hacktivism, these measures are totally justified as these will teach the JCC members to use computer resources responsibly.
The rapid evolution of computer technologies and softwares has led to a variety of new, technology specific criminal behaviors termed as 'computer crimes'. As per the 2006 report of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), 67% of businesses reported at least one incident related to computer or cybercrime in the past year (Galicki et. al). A computer can be subjected to attacks through various cyber mechanisms such as spam, viruses, sniffers, Trojan horses, denial of service attacks, unauthorized web bots or spiders and logic bombs. Computer is also an instrument to commit traditional crimes, including identity theft, copyright violations, distribution of child pornography, and wire fraud (Galicki et. al). Most of the time, it becomes easy for computer criminals to commit a crime because of the users' ignorance about the safe way to use the computer resources. Therefore, it is important for everyone accessing the internet to know the dangers lying in the cyber world so that they become cautious and responsible while using the computer resources.
JCC in realization of the fact that students and employees may not only bring harm upon themselves or others, but may also create a liability issue for the college by irresponsibly using the internet through the college network, and therefore, JCC has introduced Acceptable Use Policy by issuing a number of guidelines to make the users responsible for their internet behavior and minimize its own potential liability that may arise in case if any member of the college violates a federal law ("Acceptable Use”). The guidelines formulated by JCC prohibit the users from sharing passwords with others; copying any software from the JCC computer system; disseminating personal information of others related to medical history, marital status, employment, and financial transactions; hacking the system and accounts they are not authorized to use; and violating the privacy of others. JCC also wants all