Information Security News: Re: Most Say Computer Hacking Should Be a Felony

[Grant Bayley <gbayley () AUSMAC NET>]

On Tue, 29 Aug 2000, William Knowles wrote:

> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000828/zo/crime_1.html
>
> Monday August 28 2:44 PM ET
>
> UTICA, N.Y. (Reuters/Zogby) - Tampering with computers and the
> Internet should be charged as a felony, most Americans said in a
> recent nationwide survey.
>
> A Zogby America poll of 1,155 adults showed that 64.2% of respondents
> strongly agreed that interfering with Internet services should be
> considered a felony and punished severely.
>
> Another 24.1% somewhat agreed while a combined 8.3% strongly or
> somewhat disagreed.
>
> What we asked:
>
> ``How strongly do you agree or disagree that computer hacking, which
> disrupts Internet services provided by a company, should be considered
> a felony and a severely punished crime, strongly agree, somewhat
> agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree?''
It's just a shame that the spin on the results has little do with the
scope of the question that was asked.

I think a question suitably biased in the other direction towards a
particular result would be evidence enough to confirm the absurdity of the
conclusions of Zogby:

``How strongly do you agree or disagree that computer hacking, which has
resulted in technologies such as the Internet, the Linux operating system
and the Apache web server should be considered a noble and productive
pursuit and praised accordingly? Strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat
disagree, or strongly disagree?''

Grant Bayley
2600 Australia

-------------------------------------------------------
Grant Bayley                         gbayley () ausmac net
-IT Manager @ Foster Nunn Loveder      (www.fnl.com.au)
-Admin @ AusMac Archive, Wiretapped.net, 2600 Australia
 www.ausmac.net   www.wiretapped.net   www.2600.org.au
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