"Elyn Wollensky" <elyn@consect.com> wrote :

seems the cyber-terrorist FUD is starting to hit the fan ... ;~( e

House OKs life sentences for hackers But time may run out for computer crime bill in Senate http://www.msnbc.com/news/780923.asp

WASHINGTON, July 15 - The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Monday to create a new punishment of life imprisonment for malicious computer hackers. By a 385-3 vote, the House approved a computer crime bill that also expands police ability to conduct Internet or telephone eavesdropping without first obtaining a court order.

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"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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Explain to me how someone who puts porno on a USAF website is any worse than someone who spraypaints a bridge abutment? Isn't community service a typical outcome of the latter getting caught? Explain to me how a computer hacker is more dangerous than a drunk driver on the freeway? A hacker who interrupts power could be said to put hundreds or thousands of lives at risk but so could a drunk driver who spends an hour on the freeway. One is parallel the other is more or less serial, so what? I guess rationality has little to do with what we're seeing : enabling technologies scare totalitarians. Mike