FC: Bush administration hopes to make computer crime a terrorist act

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 20:10:38 -0700
Subject: Fwd: terrorist -> computer use -> RICO
From: Faisal Jawdat <faisal () faisal com>
To: declan () well com

        I just sent this to Dave Farber.  Not sure if you'd seen it.

        -faisal



>         SecurityFocus reports that the new anti-terrorism bill
>         makes computer crime a terrorist act:
>
>         http://www.securityfocus.com/news/257
>
>         This is frightening.  Putting computer crime under the
>         scope of RICO will allow the authorities to confiscate
>         computer equipment for nothing more than a suspicion
>         that it was used for computer crime.  If our experience
>         with the drug war is any indication, the police will be
>         able to use the fact that you had a computer as indicative
>         of the fact that it was used in a computer crime.
>
>         On top of that, we still don't have a good definition of
>         computer crime, so a system administrator who installs a
>         screensaver that their employer doesn't like could get
>         life in prison with no possibility of parole.
>
>         -faisal






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