- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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."
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- The Act is scheduled for mark-up by the committee
Tuesday
morning.
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