20 years in a box, the price for breaking into a PC you don’t own.
[Update 11/20/02]Yesterday the homeland security bill was passed through the senate with no mention of removal of the attached proposal below. See Internet News for details.
According to a News.com article written by Declan McCullagh, a new bill called the “Cyber Security Enhancement Act” or “CSEA” was already passed once by the house but then died in the Senate (when the Senate was still run democratic). This same bill was recently attached to the proposal for a department of homeland security; the bill was pushed through the house and is now being debated in the Senate. So what’s this CSEA bill do? Check it out:
If you're caught hacking, you can go to jail for the rest of your life. “If the offender knowingly or recklessly causes or attempts to cause serious bodily injury from conduct in violation of subsection (a)(5)(A)(i), a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 20 years” - Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2002 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)[H.R.3482.EH]
The rest of the bill pretty much does the same thing as the Patriots Act of 2001. According to Mcullagh, The bill talks about wiretapping, and other surveillance without warrant, the bill also “Change current law, which says it's illegal for an Internet provider to "knowingly divulge" what users do...”
So, what does this mean for you?
It means that if this bill is passed into legislation and your 13 year old child figures out how to attack a website (for example, like so many have), and he/she attacks a website that provides medical supplies and prescriptions, the language of this new bill creates the possibility that your child can go to jail for 20 years (a life sentence). Also, because of this bill, the government can spy on you without warrant or cause, logging who you're calling, watching what internet sites you visit, and watching who you send and receive email to and from.
If this isn’t bad enough, here’s a bigger question. Why is it that I'd receive a similar punishment if was drunk and I squished 20 kids as they were getting off their school bus? This doesn’t make sense. I can go rob my local liquor store, shoot the clerk in the face and I’d probably get no more then 20 years in jail (the same sentence for hacking in this new bill.) Wait I know:Lamar Smith must have the anwser because he's the primary sponsor of this new legislation
"Until we secure our cyber infrastructure, a few keystrokes and an Internet connection is all one needs to disable the economy and endanger lives," sponsor Lamar Smith, R-Tex., said earlier this year. "A mouse can be just as dangerous as a bullet or a bomb."
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