More Jail Time For Computer Crime Starting Next Month

An anonymous reader writes "Washingtonpost.com is running a detailed story about how new changes to the sentencing guidelines will increase jail time for most computer crime cases, starting November 1. When will the feds learn that raising penalties isn't going to deter this type of crime? The piece ends with a quote from uberhacker Kevin Mitnick saying just that."

Comments

The usual linguistic confusion is present...

[JessLeah]

...regarding the word "hacker". As many of us here know, the term "hacker" does not mean "computer criminal", as the mainstream press continually connote or denote it. I've often heard the defense that "well, once 99% of people start using a given word in a particular sense, that becomes a/the 'correct' meaning." By this logic, the millions of people who point at their computer (the box with the power supply, optical drive(s), floppy drive(s), hard drive(s), PCI/AGP/ISA card(s), etc. in it) and call it a "CPU", or a "processor", or a "hard drive"-- or even a "modem"-- are correct. They're not, nor are the people who think that "hacker" means "cyber-criminal".

I'd say that perhaps 99% of lay-people would, if shown a computer sans monitor, keyboard and mouse, call it either "a CPU", "a processor" or "a hard drive", and a few will call it "a modem" or "some computer thingy". This does not make these terms correct.

"Hacker" will never mean "computer criminal", no matter how many ignorant journalists and non-techies take it as such.

I am most definitely a hacker. I am most definitely not someone who breaks into systems, creates or uses exploits, makes viruses, etc. etc. etc.

It's not just a deterrent

[Thatmushroom]

It's about actually punishing the crime. This might filter out a few people who would've committed a crime, but that's only a secondary function of the law. Given the greater damage incurred by attacks (worms and viruses being a key component of that), it seems fit to more severely punish those who take a part in this increased damage.

Note to Justice Department...

[GeneralEmergency]

Hey boys...Just keep pumping out more of these "Hackers are Witches" kinda dumbass penalties and you're going to start to find that good computer help won't help your asses anymore.

Get it?

Re:It's not about deterring crime ..

[kfg]

And many people who commited crimes no worse than would get them 6 months community service from a city court will get 20 years in federal prison and then be exfelons forever afterward with many of their rights of citizenship permenantly removed.

The laws will be misapplied, giving harsher and harsher sentences for more and more trivial offenses until everyone has a cousin or sibling who has been cruelly treated under these laws.

Then a sense of outrage will ensue amongst the populace and these laws will be "reformed."

At that point everyone will promptly forget any of the abover ever happened.

Rinse and repeat.

So it has always been. So it shall, it seems, always be. It seems we've not only forgotten history, but relegated Santayana to the historical realm.

KFG

Have it both ways?

[sleepingsquirrel]

Can't we have it both ways? For instance let's say we see the following headline in the local newspaper...

Golfer bludgeons caddy with 9-iron

...are golfers now going to get their panties in a bunch because they've now be defamed as muderous thugs? Should we invent a new word to describe people who use golfing implements to commit crimes? But wasn't the killer still a golfer? Or do you have to have a certain handicap to really be considered a true golfer? Do we really think that if the local mobster strangled a person with a random USB cable lying around that the headline would describe the murderer as a hacker? Or just maybe when the word "hacker" is popularly used, it denotes at least a minimum of technical expertise, irrespective of whether the perpertrator was a mere script-kiddie (just like you don't have to be Tiger to be considered a golfer).

Thats a good argument

[Srin Tuar]

Most of the non-technical people I know refer to their monitors as their "computer". (The box itself is of course just the CPU)

I wonder, if common usage forces "hacker "to mean "computer criminal", will it force "computer" to mean "monitor".

What stopped Kevin?

[Bob Cat - NYMPHS]

Could it have been the time in prison?