You might have already heard of cases reported all over the media about certain companies being under fire for illegal coding practices. The publicity that comes with it is not good for engineers and developers. Well, coding itself is not illegal; how the code is designed and where it is going to be used is where it crosses the line and makes it illegal. In this blog, we divulge the dark underbelly of what illegal coding is and why programmers should stay away from it if they don’t want to be caught in the web of law.
Copyright infringement is not just for books. It can occur in mainstream tech as well. The concept is the same: You steal from someone else and present it as your own work. Copyright infringement is when a programmer takes his own liberty to copy someone else’s code and use it without their permission.
To explain it better, if a business is building a website and comes across a similar company with a similar concept, if they figure out how they have done it and create a code that is similar to it and runs similarly, and if they somehow get access to the code and copy it, well, that is when it's Copyright Infringement.
Now, if you are working on a code that can help hack into a computer system or access an unauthorised network. Well, that's when you are crossing boundaries to illegal jurisdictions, which can land you in the eyes of the law. Programs like phishing, viruses, UI redress attacks, cookie theft, DDoS attacks, and DNS spoofing are just to name a few.
Malware and malicious code are similar to hacking, not the entire concept, let's say the intent. The primary intent and purpose of creating malware, viruses or malicious code is, most of the time, to damage a business or a computer system. A few of the prime examples of Malware and Malicious codes are Ransomware, which could encrypt a user’s data and ask for payment, sending Trojans that could access the system via backdoors, or Worms, which can self-replicate, and widespread across the system.
This could happen because of a couple of factors, from hardcoding sensitive information, storing data insecurely, insufficient access control, insecure data transmission, collecting excessive data and not securing that data properly, well, the list will go on and on. Now the best way to explain this is the wipro’s 2003 Data Breach Incident, where four employees were accused of selling confidential consumer information to a competitor company. The impact of the whole incident, reputation damage, increased scrutiny over outsourcing companies and data security and finally, an industry-wide wake-up call on this incident.
A growing concern in this digital age is Intellectual Property Theft, or IP Theft. With the evolution of software development, there is a significant concern over the risk of unauthorised use, copying code, and modification. A quite common form of IP Theft is Plagiarism, Unauthorised code modification, reverse engineering, Patent Infringement, and software piracy.
Digital Rights Management is a technology crafted to restrict the use of copyrighted digital content. It has been used mainly to prevent illegal copying, sharing, and modifying of software and tech. There are times when individuals try to bypass or circumvent DRM. This usually involves using methods, techniques or tools to turn off the DRM protection, which allows the individual to access the content without paying for it or use it without permission or restrictions.
You might already know that Cryptography and Encryption Laws are widely complex and differ in many ways depending on the country. These laws often examine ways to use, export, and strengthen cryptographic algorithms and technologies relevant to them. Now, you see many organisations out there who take high measures to protect their digital assets. Data breach notification laws and privacy regulations might call for implementing encryption measures to protect sensitive data for organisations. If you remember, in 2013, Target Data Breach, which exposed personal information related to their consumers. It was a devastating compromising situation that led the hackers to get into a large number of POS systems along with data leaks of 40 million credit card and debit card numbers. The incident leads them to take radical measures to increase data security through robust encryption to prevent data loss and breaches and protect consumer data.
Coding is a pretty complex and webbed world to navigate through, even for professionals, there are chances to sideline and go the wrong way at any time and anywhere. Like the pop culture reference to the Marvel movies, with great power comes great responsibility. The privilege to learn and create powerful solutions should be for the greater good, not to harm anyone. As a developer, it is important to keep up with relevant laws and regulations, be mindful of other intellectual property rights and prioritise user privacy and security as well.
