Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2001: hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives

Original publisher: Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the Supt. of Doc, U.S. G.P.O. [Congressional Sales Office], 2001. LC Number: KF27 .J858 2002b OCLC Number: (OCoLC)49898760 Subject: Computer security -- United States. Excerpt: ... 11 choice between adding features and resolving security issues, we will choose secu-rity. JUDGES NEED TO RECOGNIZE THE SERIOUSNESS OF COMPUTER CRIME As a technology company, we, like many of our competitors, are doing all that we can to fight criminal hackers through superior technology and the initiatives men-tioned above. Yet as a former federal prosecutor, I can tell you that nothing puts a chill on aggressive enforcement of a law than obtaining a conviction which then goes unpunished or under-punished. Unfortunately, that is the case today with re-spect to many computer crimes. Currently, sentences for violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ( 18 U.S.C. 1030 ) are determined primarily by calculating ac-tual economic loss, which is often difficult to determine in the computer crime con-text. As a result, defendants convicted of computer crimes often serve little or no term of imprisonment. Not only is there no justice, but the deterrent effect from bringing the case evaporates and it makes computer crimes less likely to be pros-ecuted in the future. Section 101 of the bill directs the Sentencing Commission to promulgate a guide-line specifically addressing computer fraud and abuse. The Sentencing Commission, in determining the appropriate sentence for computer crime, is to consider a number of factors in order to create an effective deterrent to computer crime, including: • the level of sophistication and planning involved in such an offense; • whether or not such an offense was committed for purposes of commercial ad-vantage or private financial benefit; • whether or not the defendant acted with malicious intent to cause harm in committing such an offense; • the extent to which such an offense violated the privac...