11–20 of 86 posts
I remember when I came home from school to find cops going through my room demanding to know where I kept my copy of the cellular hackers bible because I had told somebody on fidonet I had it and it was deemed forbidden knowledge
* mandatory minimum sentences
* lopsided plea bargains (you can go to jail for anywhere between 18 months to 30 years, depending on whether you take the bargain)
* prosecutors pushing for convictions as a means of adding to their professional scorecard
* rampant fear and paranoia (marijuana is a gateway drug! command line interfaces are scary!)
* using that fear and paranoia to pass draconian (and oftentimes ineffective) legislation via door-in-the-face argument -- propose something obviously ridiculous, and when it's rejected then you propose something that's still overreaching but not enough to cause outrage
* using the above-said legislation to funnel public funds to our congress-critters' friends
Beyond that, the two are essential incomparable.
This article makes an important point about the brokenness of CFAA sentencing, but it (or Wired's editors) do the point a disservice by making an absolutely hyperbolic claim. The "War On Drugs" has imprisoned literally millions of people, and done so in a fashion that is both racist (minorities are far more likely to be imprisoned for a drug offense) and classist (wealthy defendants are unlikely to be imprisoned for…
There's no particularly strong connection between computer crimes and drug crimes. As you point out, the comparison is hyperbole, and ignores the deep racial, cultural, and class conflicts at the heart of the drug war. None of those things are really applicable to computer crimes.
Rather, the time Keys is facing is simply a symptom of the broader malaise of the justice system: felony enhancements are too quick to trigger, sentences are too long and the sentencing guidelines offer false precision while reducing necessary judicial discretion.
The article's comparison to California's vandalism law highlights the issue described above: "Under California law, physical vandalism – like spray painting graffiti on a building — can be punished as either a misdemeanor or a felony..." That part is true of the CFAA as well, which is also a misdemeanor unless committed in furtherance of another crime. And the trigger for felony vandalism in California isn't high--above $400 in property damage makes a felony charge available to the prosecutor, as well as a sentence of up to three years in prison. In other words, I don't think it's fair to say that Keys faces more time for his computer crime than if he had physically vandalized a building to the tune of five figures of damage.
Drug crimes are just in a whole different league. Possession with intent to distribute less than 100 grams of heroin can carry a sentence of up to 20 years, or up to 30 years on a second offense. Meanwhile, prison time for computer crimes is still relatively light, unless they are effectively some sort of fraud or theft: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_criminals. Something like this is much more typical: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/aspiring-medical-s... (three months prison + 7 months of halfway house out of 10 months sought by the prosecution for hacking into AAMC computers with intent to cheat on the MCAT exam).
Unless they figure out how to use hackers to justify frisking random minorities for the crime of walking on the sidewalk, then this is not really the new War on Drugs . The War on Drugs is a "solution" to a "problem" that white suburbia America, and their police departments, perceived. At the federal level it was driven by people attempting to protect their political interests by criminalizing the behavior they assoc…
Or was that a joke?
This article makes an important point about the brokenness of CFAA sentencing, but it (or Wired's editors) do the point a disservice by making an absolutely hyperbolic claim. The "War On Drugs" has imprisoned literally millions of people, and done so in a fashion that is both racist (minorities are far more likely to be imprisoned for a drug offense) and classist (wealthy defendants are unlikely to be imprisoned for…
The article goes off the rails with this sentence: "As a country and a criminal justice system, we’ve been down this road of excessive punishment before: with drugs." There's no particularly strong connection between computer crimes and drug crimes. As you point out, the comparison is hyperbole, and ignores the deep racial, cultural, and class conflicts at the heart of the drug war. None of those things are really ap…
I have some sympathy for defendants who are blindsided by the impact of simple, trivial-seeming actions; things that just see like pranks or political statements. But I'm also very familiar with the real damage these actions cause. I see the gap. I don't know how to resolve it. And I think it occurs all over the place, not just in computer intrusions but in things like mass file sharing, online trolling, defamation, revenge porn and sexting.
I don't have the right words yet for it, as you can see; I'll probably still be mulling it 5 years from now.
Anyways: the fix I'd want to see for the CFAA is the one that applies approximately the same consequence to pulling 10 accounts from an AT&T endpoint as it does for 100,000, and so keeps Auernheimer from facing a long custodial sentence for abusing an AT&T web service simply because he ran his script too long. From the way these things are prosecuted, constraining sentences also (a) makes it safer to push back on potentially unjust charges --- since you're most likely looking at probation anyways, and (b) might keep them out of court to begin with.
I don't know what you do about the guy who fed his admin credentials to Anonymous to help them deface a newspaper. That seems overtly criminal no matter what rules we come up with.
Unless they figure out how to use hackers to justify frisking random minorities for the crime of walking on the sidewalk, then this is not really the new War on Drugs . The War on Drugs is a "solution" to a "problem" that white suburbia America, and their police departments, perceived. At the federal level it was driven by people attempting to protect their political interests by criminalizing the behavior they assoc…
The original claim is outlandish and devoid of any perspective, but comparing this to the "War on Terror" is just mind boggling. You do realize that there's a world outside the US where the "War on Terror" has had some pretty devastating effects. Or was that a joke?
My comparison between Hacker Panic to the War on Terror is not meant to imply that a few teenagers getting sent to prison for decades is equivalent in any respect to raining missiles down on wedding parties.
It is a statement about the motivation of the people driving it. It isn't motivated by fear of civil rights movements, or a desire to continue segregation under the radar. Rather it is about using irrational fear to facilitate power grabs and justify pointless expenditures (In the case of hackers: any government program that has the word "Cyber" in it. In the case of terrorists: damn near everything else).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article goes off the rails with this sentence: "As a country and a criminal justice system, we’ve been down this road of excessive punishment before: with drugs." There's no particularly strong connection between computer crimes and drug crimes. As you point out, the comparison is hyperbole, and ignores the deep racial, cultural, and class conflicts at the heart of the drug war. None of those things are really ap…
I've been idly working on an essay for... I don't know, 5 years now? about how computers and the Internet catalyze harm, by shielding people who cause harm from the impact of their action, and by making harmful actions practically indistinguishable from benign ones --- "click this button and 'like' someone on Facebook, click this other button and help DDoS someone whose politics you disagree with". I have some sympat…
I'm guessing the actual monetary value assessed was some consultative analysis paid out to investigate the "breach", beyond that I find it hard to believe the actual cost to fix was more than three figures.