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More Jail Time For Computer Crime Starting Next Month

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the third-arm-of-justice dept.

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."

2 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. The usual linguistic confusion is present... by JessLeah · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...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.

    --
    Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
  2. Have it both ways? by sleepingsquirrel · · Score: 3, Interesting
    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).