THERE HAVE been a number of highprofile cases involving computer abuse/misuse, where the line of defence has been that the device had been under the control of an unknown third party.
In many cases the assertion is that the computer has been infected by a virus or piece of malicious code that would allow the execution of programs or running of services without the owner’s knowledge or consent. An extension of this theme is to suggest that the computer has been broken into by a hacker, who used the device as a platform for perpetrating their crime(s). This has become known as the ‘Trojan defence’ and was applied successfully in the matter of R v Aaron Caffrey, who was charged with breaking into computer systems owned by the American Port Authority in Houston. It has been known for criminals to infect their computers purposefully with viruses and malicious code, laying the foundations for just such a defence.