Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

The Bush administration is pushing for an amendment to a computer security bill being debated this week in Congress that would raise the maximum penalty for hacking to life imprisonment, according to a report by Wired News.

The draft Cyber Security Enhancement Act currently proposes a penalty of life imprisonment for causing death or serious bodily injury through electronic means. However, the deputy assistant attorney general, John Malcolm, has said that the sentence should be extended to cover “reckless” offences such as disruption of emergency services or a hospital network.

In a statement before a House subcommittee, Malcolm argues that the law should be extended so that it covers, “not only hackers who damage a computer system knowing that death or serious injury will result, but also hackers who damage a computer system with reckless disregard for whether death or serious injury will result.”

The bill will be voted upon tomorrow.

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