Team for Research in
Ubiquitous Secure Technology

Citation
Aaron Burstein. "Amending the ECPA to Enable a Culture of Cybersecurity Research". Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 22(1):167-222, December 2008.

Abstract
Research being conducted by computer scientists offers great promise in improving cybersecurity threats in the short and long term. Progress in cybersecurity research, however, is beset by a lack of access data from communications networks. Legally and informally protected individual privacy interests have contributed to the lack of data, as have the institutional interests of organizations that control these data. A modest research exception to federal communications privacy law would remove many of the legal barriers to sharing data with cybersecurity researchers. The basic outline of this exception is simple: allow cybersecurity researchers to obtain access to electronic communications data that the communications privacy laws would otherwise forbid, without the consent of the individuals who are parties to those communications. This reform would pose minimal risks to individuals’ communications privacy while countering many of the non-legal objections that network providers have to sharing data.

Electronic downloads

• http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/articles/pdf/v22/22HarvJLTech167.pdf

• HTML

  Aaron Burstein. <a
  href="http://www.truststc.org/pubs/625.html"
  >Amending the ECPA to Enable a Culture of Cybersecurity
  Research</a>, <i>Harvard Journal of Law &
  Technology</i>, 22(1):167-222, December 2008.

• Plain text

  Aaron Burstein. "Amending the ECPA to Enable a Culture
  of Cybersecurity Research". <i>Harvard Journal of
  Law & Technology</i>, 22(1):167-222, December 2008.

• BibTeX

  @article{Burstein08_AmendingECPAToEnableCultureOfCybersecurityResearch,
      author = {Aaron Burstein},
      title = {Amending the ECPA to Enable a Culture of
                Cybersecurity Research},
      journal = {Harvard Journal of Law \& Technology},
      volume = {22},
      number = {1},
      pages = {167-222},
      month = {December},
      year = {2008},
      abstract = {Research being conducted by computer scientists
                offers great promise in improving cybersecurity
                threats in the short and long term. Progress in
                cybersecurity research, however, is beset by a
                lack of access data from communications networks.
                Legally and informally protected individual
                privacy interests have contributed to the lack of
                data, as have the institutional interests of
                organizations that control these data. A modest
                research exception to federal communications
                privacy law would remove many of the legal
                barriers to sharing data with cybersecurity
                researchers. The basic outline of this exception
                is simple: allow cybersecurity researchers to
                obtain access to electronic communications data
                that the communications privacy laws would
                otherwise forbid, without the consent of the
                individuals who are parties to those
                communications. This reform would pose minimal
                risks to individuals’ communications privacy
                while countering many of the non-legal objections
                that network providers have to sharing data.},
      URL = {http://www.truststc.org/pubs/625.html}
  }
  

Posted by Aaron Burstein on 18 May 2009.
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