FBI Pushes for Cyber Ethics Education

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGATYY8I4EC.html

Oct 9, 2000 - 02:50 PM

By D. Ian Hopper
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Thou shalt not vandalize Web pages.  Thou shalt not
shut down Web sites.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's MP3s.

FBI agents are spreading a new gospel to parents and teachers, hoping
they'll better educate youths that vandalism in cyberspace can be
economically costly and just as criminal as mailbox bashing and
graffiti spraying.

The Justice Department and the Information Technology Association of
America, a trade group, has launched the Cybercitizen Partnership to
encourage educators and parents to talk to children in ways that
equate computer crimes with old-fashioned wrongdoing.

The nascent effort includes a series of seminars around the country
for teachers, classroom materials and guides and a Web site to help
parents talk to children.

"In a democracy in general, we can't have the police everywhere," said
Michael Vatis, director of the FBI's National Infrastructure
Protection Center, which guards against computer attacks by
terrorists, foreign agents and teen hackers.

"One of the most important ways of reducing crime is trying to teach
ethics and morality to our kids. That same principle needs to apply to
the cyber world," he said.

Vatis and other FBI agents attended a kickoff seminar, titled the
National Conference on Cyber Ethics, last weekend at Marymount
University in Arlington, Va.

Part of the challenge: Many teens still consider computer mischief
harmless. A recent survey found that 48 percent of students in
elementary and middle school don't consider hacking illegal.

Gail Chmura, a computer science teacher at Oakton High School in
Vienna, Va., makes ethics a constant in her curriculum, teaching kids
about topics such as computer law, software piracy and online
cheating.

She has argued with students who don't see that stealing from a
computer with bad security is as wrong as stealing from an unlocked
house.

"It's always interesting that they don't see a connection between the
two," Chmura said. "They just don't get it."

The FBI's Vatis tells students, "Do you think it would be OK to go
spray-paint your neighbor's house or the grocery store down the
street? On a Web site, it's the same sort of thing. It's somebody's
storefront or an extension of themselves."

Chmura tries similar messages. For instance, she asks a budding
composer how he would feel if his music was stolen and given away
online.

"They do sometimes realize that when they're copying someone's
product, it's not just that 5 cent disk, but someone's work that
they're copying," she said. "I think they do come to appreciate the
fact that it's somebody's salary they're stealing."

Vatis cites a long list of cyber crimes perpetrated by minors,
including attacks on defense department computers in 1998 and the
February jamming of major Web sites such as Amazon.com and eBay.

He tries to drive home the consequences of hacking - including the
resources it drains from his center, as law enforcement scrambles to
find who is responsible at the outset of an attack.

Authorities "don't know if it's a terrorist or a foreign military,"
Vatis said. "It diverts very scarce resources of people who are trying
to focus on crime, warfare and terrorism."

And children aren't the only ones in need of training. College
students and parents also are frequently undecided about what crosses
an ethical boundary in cyberspace, where anyone can download pirated
musical recordings.

"We had some discussion about the legalities of whether you're sharing
something with your friend or burning CDs to sell at your school,"
said Deborah Price of Lewisville, N.C., parent of a 14-year-old
daughter. "I'm not real certain about Napster ethics myself."

Price - whose daughter uses Napster, the music-sharing service
considered a threat to the recording industry - feels that computer
ethics are an important issue.

"I think it should be part of the discussion at the school," Price
said. "It's only going to get bigger."

---

On the Net:

Cybercitizen Partnership: http://www.cybercitizenpartners.org
National Infrastructure Protection Center: http://www.nipc.gov
Information Technology Association of America: http://www.itaa.org


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