US Anti-Terrorism Act: Harsh Consequences for Low-Level Cyber Crimes

Legislation under consideration in the United States Congress to combat terrorism will treat low-level computer crimes as terrorist acts and threaten hackers with life imprisonment, according to officials of the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). EFF says the Anti-Terrorism . . .

Legislation under consideration in the United States Congress to combat terrorism will treat low-level computer crimes as terrorist acts and threaten hackers with life imprisonment, according to officials of the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). EFF says the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) will add low-level computer intrusion -- already a crime under other laws -- to the list of "federal terrorism offenses," creating penalties of up to life imprisonment. The act will also add broad pre-conviction asset seizure powers and serious criminal threats to those who "materially assist" or "harbor" individuals suspected of causing minimal damage to networked computers, EFF said in a statement.

Treating relatively harmless online pranksters as terrorists is not an appropriate response to the September 11 attacks on the United States, EFF's executive director, Shari Steele, says in the statement.

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