Internet Crime Forum Calls For Tougher Sentences For Hackers

from the like-that-will-teach-them? dept

An internet “crime group” made up of businesses, police departments, and government officials in the UK are saying that sentences against computer hackers should be tougher in order to discourage the behavior. Of course, all of these laws have a very loose definition of “hacking”, meaning that some activities that are entirely benign can get a curious hacker locked up for five years. If people want to crack down on hacking there needs to be a much better definition between hacking that actually causes real, classifiable damage, and those where someone claims $50 billion lost after someone happens to find an open security hole in their server. Clearly, breaking in to someone else’s machines is a problem, but authorities never seem to take into account what actual damage (if any) is done. Instead, they seem to get more scared and call for tougher sentences.


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Comments on “Internet Crime Forum Calls For Tougher Sentences For Hackers”

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6 Comments
Mike (profile) says:

Re: No Subject Given

As I said in the post, I still think that just breaking in is wrong. However, it’s not as bad as some make it out to be. And, there are too many cases where hackers who have done no actual damage are accused of doing plenty of damage because the company can make up all sorts of “damage” values for information that might have been accessed.

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