Administration of Domain Names and Servers by the USA - Essay Example

Administration of domain s and servers by USA Domain refers the address to an internet; in order to register adomain name one must get authority from the relevant bodies such as the US Domain Registry. For instance, several companies which operate in the United States or outside must get a domain name which they uses to asses various internet services. All the domains and severs in America whether domestic or foreign owned are administered by the USA authorities (Spinello 112). This issue has brought a lot of controversy and legal pursuits between USA government and the corporate world. The unlimited administration of US agencies on servers and internet domains has changed the approach in which the globe views the issue of internet privacy largely. Recent reports points out to the fact that the United States of America is taking the issue of administration of internet and servers too far. It is now apparent that the United States of America possesses unlimited jurisdiction and capacity to obtain and access data stored within the USA Borders. This means that the relevant authorities has control on any company or organization irrespective of whether it is USA owned or otherwise if it is within the American soil. It is important to take note that the authorities claim legitimacy to act in such a manner from the Patriot Act. In fact, the act empowers all the U.S. law enforcement agencies to have unlimited access to any data, anytime provided it is offered by America (Spinello113). One justification for such stringent laws is that it assists in enabling the United States to gather enough intelligence that it uses to boost security in America. The fight against terrorism has been relentless with the likes of the United States leading the pack. In the past terrorists, actions were quite predictable and as such, it was easier to thwart, there acts. However, terrorists have taken a new twist; they have gone viral to say the least. Terrorist of the 21st centuary have the most sophisticated weapons, which makes it hard to fight them. To thwart the events like the 9/11 bombing, high intelligence is therefore comes handy in America. United States of America has indeed spared no effort in ensuring that terrorists are put at bay. One such strategy is intelligence gathering; the United States of America has boosted the capacity of intelligence units and gathered enough intelligence that assists them to counter terrorism (Garfinke l6). The successful capture of two prominent terrorist chiefs such as Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein shows the success story of gathering intelligence. Cases USA has some limited jurisdiction to accessing data outside her soil. In general, the U.S. prosecutor is not accepted to investigate cyber related cases outside the USA; however, when the situation involves the USA, they may be allowed to investigate such an issue and bring criminals to justice. In fact, the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime supports such a move. The issue that the USA government has unlimited control of cyberspace or even beyond its border has elicited several opinions and some have ended up in the courts. One such example is the case involving Bank of Nova Scotia. In this case, a court in the U.S. Required a Canadian Bank to produce some documents that were held by Cayman to the U.S. to facilitate the court proceedings. This fact proves that indeed America has control of cyberspace even outside its jurisdiction. The system of governance in America comprises of the federal government and the state government. Federalism is a system of governance that distributes power between the various state governments and the federal government. Federalism is a good system of governance since it has the capacity to address unique issues affecting specific states. It is however, imperative that policy makers design boundaries for enforcement of various state laws and federal laws to avert conflicts that may stall policy implementation (Clausing 221). The issue of federalism means that some internet related issues are controlled at the state level while others are controlled at the federal level by the central government. Justification of U.S. Unlimited access to data Some pundits argue that the unlimited administration of cyberspace in U.S. is a good concept because it boots information privacy. With advancement in technology, there is an increase in demand for computer-based communication applications. Email communication is one example of such computer-based communication platform; others include internet and wide web programs. Currently, email dominates modern communication. In fact, the survey that was conducted by the Forrester Research Inc. shows that 98 percent of companies with over one thousand employees have internet access (Garfinkel 128). All the companies with internet access uses email as the main form of communication at the organization. Email is a very new concept in communication, which is gaining popularity rapidly. Due to the apparent privacy hitches in email communication, the users of email are exposed to a number of risks. The reason for this is that email is highly susceptible to both active and passive attacks. Passive threats vary from traffic analysis and release of message contents. On the other hand, active threats include replay, masquerade, and altering of the contents of the message. Currently, most emails are transmitted unencrypted and this presents the danger that some unscrupulous individuals other than the designated recipient can gain access to content of the email. Such unscrupulous individuals usually have some tools that they use gain access to the contents of the email (Quigley 211). Security measures by individual to thwart email security are not enough to but at bay the various security risks. This is because recipients or senders of emails usually forward one email to more than one recipient especially if the contents of the email are business in nature and therefore, meant for more than one recipient. According to Rao (205), the fact that email is sent to more than one recipient compromises the emails privacy in that personal details of the sender such as email address, full names of the sender, and phone numbers can be revealed. Traffic analysis is a routine surveillance by government of U.S. through monitoring of emails as a measure to counter terrorism as well as thwart any form of political eavesdropping or espionage. In as much as traffic analysis is justified on security grounds, this approach compromises on the privacy of emails since through the process, access is gained to the private email messages of individuals or corporates even beyond US borders. Works Cited Clausing Jeri. Casting Too Wide a Net?; Critics See Internet Board Overstepping Its Authority. 2011 Online Englehardt, Eleen. The Ethical Challenges of Academic Administration. New York: Springer. 2009. Print. Garfinkel, Sara. Security and Usability: Designing Secure Systems that People Can Use. New York: OReilly Media, Inc. 2010 print. Quigley, Marry. ICT Ethics and Security in the 21st Century. New York: McGraw Hill. 2009. Print. Rao, Hanna. Information Assurance: Security and Privacy Services. New Jersey: John Willey and Sons. 2009. Print. Spinello,Randy. Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace. New York: Prentice Hall.2009. print. Read More