The use of the word ‘access’ immediately imports a concept that has
developed in the physical environment and applies it to a digital context.
Such terminology evokes images of being ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ the
computer. Consistent with ‘computer trespass’ being amongst the earliest
cybercrimes,55 the computer is seen as similar to a ‘box’, a repository of
information, and it is unauthorized entry to the box which is prohibited.
Such an approach reflects an ‘internal perspective’; that is, the perspective
of the computer user who sees access as metaphorically getting ‘inside’
the computer, rather like entering a building.56