Parliment Asked For Harsher Computer Crime Laws

In the United Kingdom, Labour MP Tom Harris is asking Parliment to consider his 10-Minute Rule Bill, which asks that, among other things, the maximum sentence for hacking is raised from 6 months to 2 years, and that jail terms for unauthorized modification of computer material be between 5 - 10 years.  The bill also asks that a specific law be created against “denial of service attacks”, where a flood of emails is used to overload and crash a computer system.  Harris believes that harsher penalties are needed against computer crimes in order for courts and prosecutors to take them seriously, and uses the example of an Exeter University student that hacked into a US Government laboratory’s computer network, but was only ordered to do 200 hours of community service.

The media like to imagine that hacking, virus-proliferation and denial-of-service attacks using email are the product of bright but lonely, socially challenged teenagers sitting in their bedrooms.  This is an outdated, inaccurate and, I think, dangerous notion.  Those who regularly and increasingly hold website operators to ransom are more likely to be members of an organised crime syndicate than the school computer club.

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