Under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 USC § 1030) part 5(a) reads "knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage without authorization, to a protected computer". Currently the penalties for a first offense begin at one year imprisonment, this being for those who do not intentionally cause damage. A person who intends to either damage a system,
or use a computer to gain materially by false pretenses can spend up to five years in prison. These penalties might shortly be changing if Congress passes the
Anti-Terrorism Act proposed by the Bush administration. This act would classify most computer crimes as acts of terrorism resulting in a penalty of life imprisonment with no chance of parole.
Links
www.securityfocus.com/news/257
Library of Congress Search
Georgia Computer Systems Protection Act
Information Security Law Library
Home : Information Security : Architecture 
