385-3 vote: House OKs life sentences for hackers

[Michael Motyka]

"Elyn Wollensky" <elyn at 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.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> "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."
> 
> <snip>
> 
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