Australians prosecute hackers as terrorists

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2691323,00.html

By Rachel Lebihan
ZDNet Australia
February 28, 2001 7:49 PM PT

Australians are in favor of the British Government's recent move to
broaden the definition of terrorism to include computer hacking and
believe cyber-terrorists should be prosecuted accordingly, according
to a ZDNet survey.

Hackers have become terrorists under U.K. law following the passage of
The Terrorism Act 2000, which recognises the new threat from
cyber-terrorists for the first time.

Under the Act, the definition of terrorism includes those actions that
"seriously interfere with or seriously disrupt an electronic system"
and only when they are "designed to influence the government or to
intimidate the public," ZDNet U.K. reported.

Over half of 600 Australian ZDNet readers questioned in a recent
survey said they thought that Australia should follow the U.K.'s lead
and catch out computer hackers.

However, civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA)
said it would be concerned about the way in which any such legislation
would be written.

The problem lies in the definition of what's hacking and what's
cracking, according to EFA executive director Irene Graham said.

"We [EFA] support the view that there needs to be legislation in place
that makes interfering with other people's Web sites illegal," Graham
said. "At the end of the day it really comes down to intent."

EFA said it supports the view that cracking is illegal where its done
with malicious intent as distinct from well intentioned hacking -
where people are testing to see if certain systems are secure.

"Any such legislation in Australia would have to be carefully drafted
so it didn't have unintended consequences," Graham said.

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