Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[B <beeline AT mindspring.com>]

I agree. This is going a bit overboard. I think the collective "we" are
forgetting to consider motive in our zeal to protect. Some peace
activist defacing the DOD home page is simply not on a par with a zealot
seeking to bring down, say, the air traffic control net.

Did anyone else watch the TLC special on hackers last night? It was
enlightening and reminded me that the freedom of *individuals* to
innovate gave us Ford Motors and electricity and telephones, the freedom
of *individuals* to risk their own lives put us in the air, and the
freedom of *individuals* to play with rockets saw us to the moon. Under
current laws developed to protect us from ourselves, none of these
things would be possible. Without those first hackers, our computing
experiences would be much diminished. (Although, I suppose one could
argue successfully that without the first armed and lawless folks in the
US west, we wouldn't have a country "from sea to sea" ... and it would
be impossible to support the same sort of lawlessness now.)

David Spitz wrote:
> 
> Code Red damage was estimated at around $1.2 billion on July 31 [Cnet].
> Melissa was around $8.7 billion [also Cnet]. I suspect Nimda will be similar
> in scope. These are damages on par with small- to mid-sized natural
> disasters, and the costs are real. In cases like this, where the scale of
> destruction and cost is so high, I think it is appropriate to consider very
> long sentences, including life.
> 
> That aside, I am skeptical that these types of crimes are really
> "terrorism". Terrorism to me implies substantial physical violence against
> humans. And unless hacking is used as a means to conduct terrorism, it's
> hard for me to see the link.
> 
> David
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas Beckett [mailto:thomas AT tbeckett.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 9:57 PM
> To: InterNetWorkers
> Subject: [internetworkers] hacking = terrorism = life without parole
> 
> http://www.securityfocus.com/news/257
> 
> Article in full:
> 
>     Hackers, virus-writers and web site defacers would face life
> imprisonment without the possibility of parole under legislation
> proposed by the Bush Administration that would classify most computer
> crimes as acts of terrorism.
> 
>     The Justice Department is urging Congress to quickly approve its
> Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), a twenty-five page proposal that would expand
> the government's legal powers to conduct electronic surveillance, access
> business records, and detain suspected terrorists.
> 
>     The proposal defines a list of "Federal terrorism offenses" that are
> subject to special treatment under law. The offenses include
> assassination of public officials, violence at international airports,
> some bombings and homicides, and politically-motivated manslaughter or
> torture.
> 
>     Most of the terrorism offenses are violent crimes, or crimes
> involving chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. But the list also
> includes the provisions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that make it
> illegal to crack a computer for the purpose of obtaining anything of
> value, or to deliberately cause damage. Likewise, launching a malicious
> program that harms a system, like a virus, or making an extortionate
> threat to damage a computer are included in the definition of terrorism.
> 
>     To date no terrorists are known to have violated the Computer Fraud
> and Abuse Act. But several recent hacker cases would have qualified as
> "Federal terrorism offenses" under the Justice Department proposal,
> including the conviction of Patrick Gregory, a prolific web site defacer
> who called himself "MostHateD"; Kevin Mitnick, who plead guilty to
> penetrating corporate networks and downloading proprietary software;
> Jonathan "Gatsby" Bosanac, who received 18-months in custody for
> cracking telephone company computers; and Eric Burns, the Shoreline,
> Washington hacker who scrawled "Crystal, I love you" on a United States
> Information Agency web site in 1999. The 19-year-old was reportedly
> trying to impress a classmate with whom he was infatuated.
> 
>     The Justice Department submitted the ATA to Congress late last week
> as a response to the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York,
> Washington and Pennsylvania that killed some 7,000 people.
> 
>     As a "Federal terrorism offense," the five year statute of
> limitations for hacking would be abolished retroactively -- allowing
> computer crimes committed decades ago to be prosecuted today -- and the
> maximum prison term for a single conviction would be upped to life
> imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal justice system
> 
>     Those convicted of providing "advice or assistance" to cyber crooks,
> or harboring or concealing a computer intruder, would face the same
> legal repercussions as an intruder. Computer intrusion would also become
> a predicate offense for the RICO statutes.
> 
>     DNA samples would be collected from hackers upon conviction, and
> retroactively from those currently in custody or under federal
> supervision. The samples would go into the federal database that
> currently catalogs murderers and kidnappers.
> 
>     Civil liberties groups have criticized the ATA for its dramatic
> expansion of surveillance authority, and other law enforcement powers.
> 
>     But Attorney General John Ashcroft urged swift adoption of the
> measure Monday.
> 
>     Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Ashcroft defended
> the proposal's definition of terrorism. "I don't believe that our
> definition of terrorism is so broad," said Ashcroft. "It is broad enough
> to include things like assaults on computers, and assaults designed to
> change the purpose of government."
> 
>     The Act is scheduled for mark-up by the committee Tuesday morning.
> 
> ---
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