Bush Push for Stiffer Hack Fines

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50620,00.html

By Declan McCullagh  
2:00 a.m. Feb. 23, 2002 PST 

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department wants Congress to increase jail
terms and boost surveillance in an anti-hacking bill that will be
debated next week.

On Tuesday, a House Judiciary subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the
Cyber Security Enhancement Act, which already increases punishments
for illegal computer intrusions. In cases where miscreants knowingly
attempt "to cause death or serious bodily injury" through electronic
means, the punishment would be life imprisonment.

That's not stiff enough for the Bush administration. John Malcolm, the
deputy assistant attorney general, has testified that life
imprisonment also should include "reckless" offenses like wreaking
havoc on a 911 system or a hospital network.

"Although the hacker has not intentionally or knowingly harmed ...  
patients, his reckless conduct has clearly put them at risk of death
or serious injury.... (The law should cover) not only hackers who
damage a computer system knowing that death or serious injury will
result, but also hackers who damage a computer system with reckless
disregard for whether death or serious injury will result," Malcolm
said.

Also look for behind-the-scenes lobbying by the FBI and the Justice
Department on behalf of a replacement bill to expand police wiretap
powers even beyond last fall's mammoth USA Patriot Act.

Current law permits police to use devices that record the numbers of
incoming and outgoing phone calls -- or the Internet equivalent -- for
two-day periods. Cops legally can do that without a court order in
situations that could involve organized crime or the possibility of
"death or serious bodily injury to any person."

A revised version of the Cyber Security Enhancement Act would extend
that list to include "an immediate threat to a national security
interest or an ongoing attack on a (networked) computer that
constitutes a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment greater than
one year."

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman of the crime subcommittee,
plans to introduce the revised bill as a replacement for the original
one at the vote next Tuesday.



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