ip: Hackers face life in prison under 'Anti-Terrorism' Act

[R. A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


Status:  U
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 01:56:38 -0500
To: believer at telepath.com
From: believer at telepath.com (by way of believer at telepath.com)
Subject: ip: Hackers face life in prison under 'Anti-Terrorism' Act

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/257

Hackers face life imprisonment under 'Anti-Terrorism' Act

Justice Department proposal classifies most computer crimes as acts of
terrorism.

By <mailto:klp at securityfocus.com>Kevin Poulsen
Sep 23 2001 11:00PM PT

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
<http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/20010919_ata_bill.html>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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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



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