Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 23:48:05 -0400
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: Hackers face life imprisonment under 'Anti-Terrorism' Act
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

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

NEWS

Hackers face life imprisonment under 'Anti-Terrorism' Act
Justice Department proposal classifies most computer crimes as acts 
of terrorism.

By 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.

[...]

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.

[...]


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