Fergie's Tech Blog

White House Task Force Proposes Criminalizing Harmless Hacks

Kevin Poulsen writes on Threat Level:

The Identity Theft Task Force appointed by President Bush and headed by embattled attorney general Alberto Gonzales wants to close a loophole in a federal computer crime law that's letting slick computer intruders escape federal prosecution merely by doing no harm.

One of the recommendations in the 120-page task force report [.pdf] released Monday would eliminate the $5,000 minimum damage threshold for prosecuting a computer crime at the federal level. Ostensibly, this is because botnet-wielding identity thieves aren't causing enough financial harm to qualify for federal attention under those standards.

posted by Fergie @ 4/25/2007 02:47:00 PM