Under the federal
anti-hacking laws, the maximum penalty he would receive would also be
two years prison.
Meanwhile, a look-see hacker breaks into a university computer without
doing any damage. He doesn't delete any files. He FTPs a public-domain
file from another system and quietly tucks it away in a hidden, unused
corner of the university machine. Maybe he writes a message to someone
else on-line. If caught, the law, as interpreted by the AFP and the
DPP, says he faces up to ten years in prison. The reason? He has
inserted or deleted data.
Although the spy hacker might also face other charges--such as
treason--this exercise illustrates some of the problems with the
current computer crime legislation.
The letter of the law says that our look-see hacker might face a
prison term five times greater than the bank fraud criminal or the
military spy, and twenty times greater than the anti-Liberal Party
subversive, if he inserts or deletes any data. The law, as interpreted
by the AFP, says that the look-see hacking described above should have
the same maximum ten-year prison penalty as judicial corruption. It's
a weird mental image--the corrupt judge and the look-see hacker
sharing a prison cell.
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