Computer Use in Legal Work: How Automation Software is Changing Law
Computers have been dominating the workplace these days. In this modern world, companies have become ultimately dependent on computers when it comes to continuous or automatic tasks where humans are no match with when it comes to process time. It completely eliminates the factor of “human error” and the inherent disadvantages of humans versus computers, such as the need to sleep or rest, the need for variety, etc.
Modern technology has enabled data to be sorted, collected and analyzed quickly and perhaps more cost-effectively when compared to hiring a number of people to work on them to collect and analyze the data and then paying them an appropriate level of wages and benefits.
Artificial intelligence allows data extraction, sorting and analysis to be tailored to the need of the client, wherein concepts that are identified using deduction processes can be added to their features. These developments are leading to law firms where the majority of staff will be limited to those operating the machines alone – not to people doing the gathering, sorting and analyzing of the data.
Computer logic has become very much intelligent and has become, at times, more than at par with how humans think. Computers are replacing workers at an alarming pace in many corporations – with the notable exception of tasks needing high levels of creativity.
Automation has become both good and bad for the economy. Automation progresses as technology progresses. Applications on computers are replacing the humans who used to do their jobs as computers do those jobs faster – often doing double the work that would be done in 8 hours by a single human being.
Economics will be greatly impacted by the changes in technology. Although it may not directly create unemployment since people tend to get more and more creative in finding something to do for work, the advancements in technology will continue to grow.
E-discover, an application being used in the legal world, uses both linguistic and sociological logic in order to filter information when users search for information. Apart from language, the social aspects implied in the searches will be included in the results.
Information-sifting has become so sophisticated that applications are already able to identify and deduce human interactions pertaining to events, telephone calls, emails, messages, etc.
They are also capable of decoding data used to cloak information being conveyed through these venues.
Cataphora, a software that analyzes data, is capable of “…showing who leaked information, who’s influential in the organization or when a sensitive document like an S.E.C. filing is being edited an unusual number of times, or an unusual number of ways, by an unusual type or number of people.”
It is also programmed to identify human emotions implied within an e-mail or a call. Detection of shifts in human emotions can mean an alert implying illegal activities.
Clearwell, a program from a company in Silicon Valley, analyzes documents by searching for concepts, which simplifies material review in litigation. In an example given by the company, an analysis task that would normally take an entire work week could be cut down to 3 days using the software.
Although computers may seem to have advantages in certain types of analysis tasks, the “human factor” involved in identifying relevant information still remains in the hands of the person operating the computer.
Taking for example the case of Enron, wherein over five million messages had to be processed for the prosecution, Andrew McCallum decided to purchase a copy of the database for $10,000 for the University of Massachusetts and made it available for research, which made a huge impact within the legal community.
Although technology has its own limitations as when data need to be audited by a person, it still makes a huge impact in terms of how fast the work is delivered.
In terms of accuracy, humans commit errors – hence the term “human error”. This is what Mr. Herr found when he back-tracked and did analysis on previous jobs to check the difference in results between humans and computers. The 40% difference in accuracy he found in favor of computers leads us to think about companies, corporations and the legal profession as a whole, and the savings from expenses it will have when software as such is used.
ReCAPTCHA Cracked: Has Google’s Anti-Spam Solution Been Hacked?
Abuse of Google’s reCAPTCHA system has been reported, despite claims being denied by Google. It is alleged that the system has now been exploited by junk mail procurers. The system is being used by Google to protect Web sites from spammers.
In a research published by Jonathan Wilkins regarding the security system, a 17.5% success rate against the system has been proven, which leaves the system highly vulnerable. CAPTCHA is also known as Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. The concept of the system is to present users an image that is said to be unrecognizable for machines. In essence, it has been found that the warped image intended for optical recognition apparently cannot cover 100% of blocking unwanted bots getting into their system. These bots are used to create accounts in an alarming count of 864,000 accounts per day to be used for spamming.
Google, on the other hand, claims that the research done by Wilkins involves an outdated version of reCAPTCHA from 2008, and has been changed and upgraded since then. True enough, Wilkins has confirmed that the tests done were made to the older version, but that he has also done new tests to the new set of images being used – only to prove that the percent rate only increased.
The older CAPTCHA versions uses horizontal lines designed to prevent machines from recognizing the words in the image. The lines, however, also made reading difficult to humans. The new version on the other hand, dropped the lines, and uses OCR images, which are easier to read for humans, but has been proven to be easily readable as well for machines.
Google’s two-word images are designed for two purposes integrated in their CAPTCHA system. First is to protect themselves from spammers. Second is to aid data collection for their OCR software. Google uses the unreadable images from the books being digitized, but have problematic words, that users read and input, adding the unrecognizable word into their dictionary.
Another alarming issue with regards to the reCAPTCHA is that a single incorrect letter will still be accepted by the system as valid. The credibility of Google’s reCAPTCHA has led other users into using alternatives such that of Microsoft using images of cats and dogs called Asirra. This system asks the user to identify categorize 12 images into canine and feline. Microsoft calls this method Human Interactive Proof (HIP). This system on the other hand requires large databases to back it up since high capacity computational power is needed in order to simply prevent spammer attacks, where Microsoft uses Petfinder.com to complement their method by utilising over 3 million photos in the pet site.
Cybercrime Cases: Stories of How Cyber Criminals Commit Identity Theft
Identity theft has become more and more elaborate, where identity thieves have mastered numerous ways accessing bank accounts, Social Security numbers and controlling another individual’s identity. These crimes became apparent through dozens of cybercrime forums. Criminals use these sites the same way as any regular person uses their online purchasing/bidding sites. They buy, sell, and auction anything related to cybercrime through these sites, including credit and debit card numbers, bank accounts and personal data.
Cybercrime cost the US approximately $67.2 billion a year worth of income from businesses, according to the FBI. Consumers, on the other hand, lost roughly $8 billion from malicious contents and viruses online within the last two years based on Consumer Reports.
FBI Unsuccessfully Attacks the Cybercrime Forums
The FBI and US Secret Service attempt to suppress the growth of forums in 2004 were shortly successful, only to make a stronger come back. They have continuously grown more sophisticated and into a larger scale, almost as much as any other successful business sector where forum takeovers take place, much like in business takeovers in the business world, creating a bigger empire — in this case, a larger forum. Watchgroups and security firms say that this megaforum created is not a depot of anything a person needs to do cybercrime with.
This illustrates the rising business of cybercrime and the gravity of the threat it has for everyone. These growing forums use these sites in order to communicate with other cybercriminals, and gave them a venue to get together and be known.
After Shadowcrew, the pioneer in cybercrime forums, was taken down in October 2004, the operation led to the creation of new smaller forums where crimes were done in smaller scales.
Behind the Scenes of Internet Identify Theft
They also learned to be precocious in getting new members, where “Vouching” is now needed as a requirement before being invited to join. These veterans associate themselves with several forums to make sure that they have a back-up in case something happens to the others.
As in any criminal behaviour, they change tactics every now and then when one gets caught. This is the growing evolution of these forums specializing in different schemes and that this business has grown like any other secured business, as they take precaution from getting caught.
The world of cybercrime is highly dependent on reputation, wherein their desire to be known through their nicknames, or nics, is far greater than the compensation they get from performing their crimes.
Iceman, a veteran hacker and forum owner, made history by hacking through rival forums, and quadrupled membership to his forum by stealing the members of the other forums, thus stealing the archived messages and posts of the other four rival forums.
Iceman’s goal is to consolidate and isolate his megaforum to the potentially unreachable location, Iran, far from any law enforcement in the US. This now poses a bigger problem in terms of security.
Cyber Crime Investigations Lead to Arrests
As a precaution, the U.S. Secret Service has begun their investigations and probing, but has been quiet with regards to the details of their operations. So far, there have been 35 suspects arrested, but no details have been available until after the unsealing of indictments.
Several arrested include Binyamin Scwartz, 28, of Oak Park Mich., suspected of trafficking more than 100,000 Social Security numbers; and Paulius Kalpokas, 23, of Lithuania, suspected of trafficking stolen credit card data. Upon their arrest, no other information are being released by the U.S. Secret Service regarding how many and which forums are currently being investigated.
It is, however, feared that the existence of the megaforum created by Iceman, becomes a platform in creating highly secured forums created by highly skilled cybercriminals. The existence of Iceman’s CardersMarket, a hypersecured megaforum, has led these cyberoffenders into hiding under its umbrella.
After the massive takeovers, leaders of other forums presume that Iceman was installed by the FBI to attract crooks and eventually arrest them. This assumption was based on the inside-job that was done on Shadowcrew, where the informant was one of its high-ranking members.
With reputation being the basis of success in the cybercrime world, Iceman is in between being admired and distrusted by his peers for exposing their whole community and showing them how unsecure it is. It also led for these criminals to be more cautious as well as for law enforcement to have a difficult time trying to access the databases due to the new security features installed.
With the public being either unaware or lenient about the violations being done online, they are being warned to take the matter seriously. Security officials also instruct businesses not to be slow in taking steps in ensuring their customers’ safety. These measures include biometric identification apart from their log-on and passwords to properly identify them.
Thomas Harkins, COO of Edentify — a security firm in Bethlehem, Pa., warns that identity theft will rise by 20 times in the next 2 years.
Thomas Harkins spent two decades as operations director for MasterCard International’s fraud division, gaining an insider’s view of cybercrime’s breakneck rise. Now COO of security firm Edentify, based in Bethlehem, Pa., Harkins says identity theft is poised to increase by a factor of 20 over the next two years.
Cases involving theft is sure to continue rising, such as the case of Kevin Munro from Warsaw, N.Y.. His name popped up in the forums, and his bank details, as well as personal data were being used to make online purchases. Munro says that for people like him who works for what he has and what he needs, cybercriminals being outlaws taking away the fruits of his labour.
