Cybercrime & Enforcement

This course will focus on analyzing government enforcement actions, regulations, and policies that seek to prevent cybercrime and online misconduct. The course will cover topics such as cyber threats to national security, economic espionage, computer hacking, extortion (such as ransomware), online fraud, misuse of personal data, crime involving digital assets, and AI-enabled fraud and misconduct. The course will review (i) the most common types of cybercrime; (ii) the laws that are most frequently used by prosecutors to prosecute cybercriminals; (iii) the Constitutional principles governing law enforcement investigations of cybercrime; and (iv) as relevant to the discussion of cybercrime, the laws and policies that apply to businesses regarding cybersecurity, data privacy, and breach notification. Some classes will include presentations by guest speakers such as industry experts and government officials. Classes will focus on the applicable statutes, cases, policies, news articles, and reports of actual cyberattacks. The semester will conclude with a "tabletop" exercise in which the class will explore a simulated cyberattack on a major business, including both the government's and the victim's efforts to investigate the attack, remediate any harm caused, identify the threat actors, and anticipate any litigation from regulators or private plaintiffs. Students will be graded based on an individual research paper and their class participation.