NewsFactor Network | Hackers, Spammers May Be Punished as Terrorists

Hackers, Spammers May Be Punished as Terrorists
By Jay Lyman

September 27, 2001 4:33PM

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Theoretically, because violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 have been included in the terrorism crackdown, hackers and spammers could be sentenced to life in prison.

A coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups are stressing the need to preserve individual rights and limit government authority as officials seek broadened powers to fight terrorism. But legislation saying that hackers and spammers can be punished as though they were terrorists has so far aroused little negative reaction.

Lawmakers have acknowledged the need to balance new terror-fighting tools with existing civil liberties, but the inclusion of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in the terrorism crackdown could result in harsh penalties -- ranging up to life in prison -- for hackers and senders of unsolicited e-mail, also known as spam , according to legal and security experts.

"It may not be something we like, but breaking into a computer or defacing a Web site isn't terrorism," Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) legal director Cindy Cohn told NewsFactor Network.

"It's not right in our society to equate low-level offenses with our highest level of offense. There's no link to terrorism here."

Almost Overlooked

A number of privacy and other civil liberties groups, including the EFF, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) have been critical of broadened electronic surveillance powers and the immigrant-detainment aspects of the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, but few have focused on the effects of CFAA violations that might be treated as federal terrorism offenses.

Cohn credited Security Focus editorial director Kevin Poulsen for highlighting the issue after reading through the lengthy terrorism act, on which the U.S. Department of Justice has requested swift action from Congress.

Poulsen, who discovered the terrorist treatment for cybercrime by cross-referencing different parts of the legislation and focusing on definitions of terrorism, told NewsFactor that in 30 years of denial of service (DOS) attacks and Web defacements, no cybercrime has ever compared to terrorism.

"None of that comes close to what we saw on September 11th," Poulsen said. "It's just that we don't want to cheapen the word terrorism to include things that aren't. We don't want to over-exaggerate crimes unnecessarily."

Sneaking Cybercrime In

Legal observers complain that the broad anti-terrorism act includes measures that are wanted by law enforcement, but not necessarily related to terrorism.

"There are many things in this statute that don't have anything to do with terrorism, but are a way for law enforcement to sneak in some of their pet projects," Cohn said. (continued...)

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