Tougher Hacking Laws Get Support in UK

rainbowhawk writes to tell us BBC News is reporting that new laws outlining harsher punishments for computer crimes are gaining support in the UK. From the article: "The move follows campaigning from Labour MP Tom Harris, whose ideas are now being adopted in the Police and Justice Bill. There will be a clearer outlawing of offenses like denial-of-service attacks in which systems are debilitated."

Comments

Slashdoting?

[nexxuz]

Would that mean that there could be legal actions against slashdotting in the UK?

What?

[voice_of_all_reason]

10 years for hacking? So you might as well take out the cops who are trying to bring you in. Assuming concurrent sentencing, you'll get the same time even with a few second-degree murders thrown in. Sorta like a bonus.

Awkward justice system

[GenKreton]

Does anyone else find it COMPLETELY wrong someone like Milan Babic (former Croatian Serb leader who just commited suicide) serves 13 years for genocide crimes and hackers can serve as much for a little denial of service attack?

You think this is a joke?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Actually, Slashdotting almost certainly would be regarded as a deliberate DDoS attack.

1. It suddenly diverts massive numbers of requests to a particular system, resulting in an obvious denial of service.
2. The admins of that system are given no prior warning and have no particular reason to expect such a spike, so they can't do anything about it. (There goes the "if it's on the web, it's fair game" argument.)
3. The Slashdot admins know damn well about the Slashdot effect, and have consistently ignored public suggestions to improve their procedures.

I would expect that if the Slashdot editorial staff continue to allow linking in articles without giving any sort of warning or (better) seeking consent from the linked service's admins, the first case will go against Slashdot in a matter of minutes, and there will be genuine consequences for the admins. Let's hope the more enlightened editorial policy zillions of Slashdotters have been advocating for years results.