Policy on the Use of the Internet for Illegal - Research Paper Example

? Current issue Diagnosis and Policy Paper (Issue ment: Corporate (i.e. Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc Policy on use of Internet for illegal (criminal) Purposes) 1. Issue Statement What should be the policy of the social network based corporations on the use of internet for illegal or criminal activities? 2. Summary of Issue - Why is it of Concern? In relation to the rapid pace of technological advancements, the illegal use of internet especially for performing criminal activities can be stated as a major concern especially for the web-based online internet service providers. In this regard, the organizations associated with providing social networking based services tend to comply with adequate policies and appropriate terms along with conditions in order to protect information and other valuable assets that are used for illegal or criminal purposes (Federal Bureau of Investigation, n.d.). It can be affirmed that a well-built or a relevant internet policy plays an essential role for an organization to protect credential information from any external threat. Moreover, the intermediaries associated with social media services also incorporate adequate provisions that ensure to prohibit users to practice different illegal activities. In relation to the present day context of rapidly growing vulnerabilities, the social networking service providers are likely to develop effective privacy policies to prevent users from being affected with the conduct of various criminal and unlawful activities (Dinerman, 2011). Moreover, the internet service providers in the global domain tend to adopt along with implement highly developed privacy policies concerning easy accessibility of internet usage due to growing vulnerabilities. In this regard, the internet policies of the global marketers highly incorporate strong regulations in order to protect information of the social media users along with their credentials from external threats (SunGuard, 2013). 3. Data Relevant to Issue The data relevant to determine the policies based on the use of internet for illegal (criminal) purposes would highly associate with the current vulnerabilities that face by the organizations like Google, Facebook and Twitter among others. With regard to the topology of cybercrime, it has been witnessed that a growing number of unlawful or criminal activities by the users are performed through different social media and blogging internet sites. In this present day scenario, it can be viewed that the users often face certain threats while performing different activities in the online social media networks. In this regard, the organizations such as Google, Facebook and Twitters among others are highly focused on building strict policies in order to prohibit the conduct of various illegal activities associated with terrorism, sexual abuse and other similar practices through social networks. The security policies of the present social media websites ensure to keep the track of each user, regarding their posts along with comments made by their peers and other suspicious users. The provisions underneath the privacy policy of the aforesaid organizations also incorporate adequate measure concerning age, gender along with other determinant factors for reducing potential hazards from the criminal issues. With respect to the policies associated with privacy of user contents, the organizations also tend to conduct user verification process in order to keep adequate safety of information along with personal contents. Moreover, the process also enables the organizations to prevent the conduct of illegal activities through the usage of internet medium (Vacca, 2012). 4. Government Policy Options With regard to determine the phenomenon of extensively growing number of social media users, the governmental policies along with the regulations can be apparently observed to frequently involve continuous development in protecting the abusive use of internet. The federal law associated with the use of internet comprises numerous policies that ensure effective use of internet and protect users from different vulnerabilities. In this regard, the federal regulations regarding the use of internet can be characterized into three major sites including Minnesota, Ohio and New York sites that portray critical examination of the internet policies (Center for Technology in Government, 2003). These have been mentioned hereunder. 4.1 Minnesota Site The Minnesota site generally incorporates the Information Policy Office and is highly recognized to combine a range of policy measures concerning the dealing of information within an electronic world. This particular site encompasses a broad spectrum of concerns and seeks to uphold information along with developing service delivery procedure, despite the examination of do’s and don’ts of the internet services. It comprises a unique set of approaches in order to clearly identify information, data management principles along with all essentialities in designing effective web-based information systems (Center for Technology in Government, 2003). 4.2 Ohio Site The Ohio site incorporates the Computer Service Division with an effective unification of Internet Advisory Committee. The Committee and the Office of Policy and Planning comprise wide range of effective policies that cover the jurisdiction of the overall information and telecommunication services. Moreover, this site can also be regarded as an effective set of policies in terms of significantly justifying policies that extensively cover rights and responsibilities of the users in an articulated and incremental approach (Center for Technology in Government, 2003). 4.3 New York Site This site was issued in the year 1996 by the Governor's Task Force on Information Resource Management, considering the review of certain internet service policies. This site incorporates an approach associated with “guiding principles” and depicts value of using internet for administrative purposes. Moreover, the site tends to explain adequate information regarding the use of internet as a network for communication and delivering service. It also ensures in outlining responsibilities for the agencies in order to effectively deal with communication and service delivery processes (Center for Technology in Government, 2003). 5. Recommended Policy Statement With reference to the growing issues of vulnerabilities along with concerns associated with the abusive use of internet services, the federal government has been witnessed to enact well-built regulations for the internet service providers including social network marketers. According to State Department of the US, the policies ensure to build single internet domain, which can be equally accessed by each individual to acquire knowledge and idea about certain world view facts (Lum, Moloney, & Weed, 2012). However, in various cases, the policies have also been identified to protect information from the conduct of external threats. In this concern, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reported that the organizational employees are the most common and highest risk accumulating groups in causing information litigation, data abuse and network abuse related concerns. In this regard, certain effective measures have been recommended in strengthening security measures of the social network service providers. These have been discussed hereunder. 5.1 Filtering Information The web-based service providers should highly focus on enhancing the information filtering process in order to reduce the use of abuse activities that are conducted through internet medium. In this regard, the prohibition of using sensitive words along with discarding the issue of openness in order to prevent the proliferation of internet sources in the initial phase is required. 5.2 Enhancing Supervision In order to ensure adequate security of the personal contents, the social media service providers should enhance supervision and appropriate authentication of actual users. The supervision process of the organizations ought to incorporate effective surveillance and scrutiny process, which can prevent the IP address or network abuse related crimes. 5.3 Developing Special Administrative Department The development of special monitoring department can also enhance security against the abuse use of internet for conducting any unlawful or criminal activity. In this regard, the government should need to structure special department in order to combat against the conduct of cybercrime and promote adequate cooperation with the social networking service providers. Correspondingly, the social networking organizations should also need to provide adequate support to the governmental enforcement departments in terms of tracking abuse users and protecting different sorts of cybercrime. 5.4 Educating and Increasing Community Awareness The adequate incorporation of building community awareness including users and other web-based service providers associated with do’s and don’ts concerning the usage of internet can also reduce potential vulnerabilities. In this regard, the governmental regulation should adopt and implement effective measures of making the web-based corporations to deliver greater awareness programs for the users. The process of communicating users regarding the abuse of internet services in a legal manner and their possible consequences would also help to minimize external threats and enable the organizations to effectively maintain privacy of users’ personal contents. 5.5 Promoting Internet Acceptable Usage Policy (IAUP) Guidelines The adequate compliance of Internet Acceptable Usage Policy (IAUP) is one of the primary steps in managing and controlling web services and protecting information from external threats (Mississippi Office of the State Auditor, 2003). In this regard, the government should highly focus on making requirement of active promotion and enforcement of IAUP guidelines by the internet based organizations for prohibiting abuse use of web-based services. Moreover, in order to ensure adequate compliance of the internet policies, the governmental regulations should also make the requirement of using effective tools that can support to monitor and report about the actual usage of internet services. 5.6 Collaborating between Law Enforcement and Organizational Policies The intense collaboration amid the web-based corporations and effective exploitation of governmental enforcements along with other administrative policies can also restrict the conduct of unlawful activities through the medium of internet. In this concern, the collaboration would help the organizations and the enforcement departments to monitor and keep track of the users involved in performing criminal practices through the use of internet. 6. Persuasive Arguments in Favor of Policy Recommendation 6.1 Liberal Arguments in Favor of Policy Recommendation In order to effectively deal with the vulnerabilities associated with growing number of cybercrime, the government should incorporate additional measures in supervising the movement of the users while performing online or web-based applications. In this context, the liberals within the supervision process of the internet based organizations should proactively support the law enforcement departments. Since, both liberals and conservatives are highly aware about the social responsibilities of the web-based service providers, their involvement would certainly help to maintain effective regulations and enable to protect citizens’ interests of using internet services. It is worth mentioning that liberals, for the safety of the citizens should be a strategic priority of the social networking service providers. In this regard, the organizations should significantly focus on keeping the conversion records of the suspicious users who are involved in performing illegal activities. This process would further enable the organizations to minimize the abuse of internet services by a certain degree. 6.2 Conservative Arguments in Favor of Policy Recommendation In relation to the conservative standpoint, the reinforcement of security policies in the verification of IP address or user-ids and passwords in a frequent interval could also empower the web-based service providers to minimize potential threats and easily track the suspicious users. The process of verifying users’ IP address would enable to restrict the unfavorable use of internet services by the unauthorized users and ensure to protect communities from potential hurdles. The organizational policies of the web-based corporations should ensure the compliance of IAUP guidelines by the users in order to access the provided internet services. The process would certainly help the organizations in upholding society’s regulation along with maintaining adequate security of the internet services. 7. Justification and Evaluation of the Policy Recommendations Provided by the Other Members With reference to various policy recommendations, it can be affirmed that various factors require to be addressed by both the law enforcement departments and the corporations, providing internet services. In this discussion, the aforementioned recommendations have been taken into concern in accordance with the governmental regulations against the abuse of internet services. Moreover, a few of the major recommendations that structured by the other members have also been considered due to their relevance and acceptability. In relation to the arguments associated with the above depicted policy statement, it can be affirmed that the collaboration particularly with the law enforcement departments and increasing community awareness related recommendations can be taken as essential factors for preventing internet abuse. It has often been argued that the collaboration or the appropriate alignment between the law enforcement department and organizational policies can efficiently support in preventing illegal usage of internet. 8. Conclusion In accordance with the present day context, the rapid modernization of technological features tends to impose severe challenges upon the community members including users, web-based service providers along with governmental institutions from external threats. The rising number of vulnerabilities in the internet services has been witnessed to formulate different problems for the social network and other service providers. In this context, the internet policies and their adequate compliance with governmental regulations play a decisive role in promoting acceptable use of web-based services. Certain effective measures have been discussed for the purpose of developing appropriate policies so that the organizations such as Google and Twitter among others can restrict the usage of internet medium for performing unlawful or criminal activities. In relation to the concern associated with the policy statement which has been depicted above, it can be affirmed that filtering information and supervision of users’ contents would aid in minimizing the illegal practice of internet services. Moreover, developing special administrative unit in the law enforcement department can also provide adequate support in supervising and monitoring the conduct of illegal practice of the users through online internet services. Additionally, creating community awareness and ensuring compliance with the IAUP guidelines can also increase the potentialities of the web-based service providers in prohibiting the use of internet services for various criminal or illicit purposes. These imperative aspects might encourage the internet service providers and the users to maintain acceptable use of internet services. In this similar context, an effective collaboration between law enforcement departments and organizational policies can prove to be quite beneficial in protecting and ensuring adequate privacy along with security of users’ personal contents. References Center for Technology in Government. (2003). A brief survey of government internet policies. Center for Technology in Government 1996, 1-9. Dinerman, B. (2011). Social networking and security risks. GFI White Paper, 1-7. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Internet social networking risks. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/counterintelligence/internet-social-networking-risks-1 Lum, T., Moloney, P., & Weed, M. C. (2012). China, internet freedom, and U.S. policy. Congressional Research Service, 1-20. Mississippi Office of the State Auditor. (2003). Internet acceptable usage policy guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.osa.state.ms.us/downloads/iupg.pdf SunGuard. (2013). Acceptable use policy. Retrieved from http://www.sungardas.com/Company/Documents/AUP_Global.pdf Vacca, J. R. (2012). Computer and information security handbook. Canada: Newnes. Read More