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Hacking Laws and Punishments

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) criminalizes unauthorized access of computers and hacking. It was first passed in 1986 in the US but is now implemented worldwide. The CFAA protects computer systems and intellectual property. Punishments under the CFAA include imprisonment of up to 10 years for offenses like damaging government computers, fraud, or trafficking passwords without authorization. Countries enforce the CFAA differently but it provides a framework for prosecuting computer crimes internationally.

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Umer Rafiq
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110 views

Hacking Laws and Punishments

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) criminalizes unauthorized access of computers and hacking. It was first passed in 1986 in the US but is now implemented worldwide. The CFAA protects computer systems and intellectual property. Punishments under the CFAA include imprisonment of up to 10 years for offenses like damaging government computers, fraud, or trafficking passwords without authorization. Countries enforce the CFAA differently but it provides a framework for prosecuting computer crimes internationally.

Uploaded by

Umer Rafiq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Hacking Laws and Punishments

In the modern world, we witness a lot of crimes happening online. There’s an act against this

online hacking and frauds. It is known as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). It works

for the protection of the online systems and the intellectual property. CFAA has the authority to

ban and to take severe actions against the people who get involved in ethical hacking and do

harm to others. In the beginning, this law was proposed and implemented in by the U.S.

government in the United States only. But, with the increase in hacking and online frauds, it

became a necessity to implement this law all over the world. Now, almost every country has

CFAA which protects the basic rights of people who use computers and work online. “ The major

proposed revisions to the CFAA are related to the use of the provisions “exceeds authorized access” and

“access without authorization.” Punishment will be administered only if one or more technical or

physical measures are intentionally bypassed.” (D Searls, 2013) Different countries have their own

ways to deal with hacking.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) accuses a criminal for the act of intentionally

accessing a computer without permission, among other issues. The CFAA, codified at 18 U.S.C.

1030, was first passed by Congress in 1986 to address different types of "computer crime." At

the time, this was widely interpreted to include "hacking or intruding into computer networks or

records." The act has been extended from that time and revised many times, as lawmakers try to

keep up with improvements in technology and innovation.

Trespassing a government computer and obtaining governmental, financial or credit information is a

major crime. Causing damage to a government computer or a computer dealing with bank accounts as

well as involving fraud which involves government computers can lead to imprisonment. Threatening to
damage a government computer or a bank computer as well as trafficking passwords related to

government computers is considered a crime. Simple trespassing can lead to an imprisonment of 1 year

while major frauds can lead to an imprisonment of up to 10 years.

Intentionally accessing a computer without having any authorization and obtaining information related

to financial records of financial institutions or information related to departments and institutions of

United States as well as information from computer which are protected can lead to imprisonment.

Simple violations can lead to imprisonment of maximum 1 year whereas taking advantage of

information for gains can lead to imprisonment of up to 5 years.

Under the " causing computer damage act", a person who causes transmission of code, information or

program and causes damage intentionally as a result without authorization to a computer which is

protected can get a jail time of up to 3 years. The term damage means deleting the data or changing it

in a way that it loses its integrity.

Accessing a computer with the intention of obtaining money by causing a defraud without gaining

authorization can lead to jail time. Such violations can result in a n imprisonment of up to 5 years. The

amount of fraud as well as damage caused can further determine the jail time.

Threatening someone with the intention of gaining money or other things of value as well as damaging

the confidentiality of information gained without authorization or exceeding the limits of authorization

from a protected computer can lead to imprisonment. Such violations can lead to a jail time of up to 5

years and a maximum of 10 years for a second attempt.

Trafficking of passwords or information of similar type which can lead to access of computers without

any authorization with the intention of defraud can lead to an imprisonment of up to 1 year. However,

doing a similar offence for a second time can lead to a jail time of up to 10 years maximum.
Conclusion:

In today's world, hacking is seen by most as unauthorized access to computer systems and

networks. Though it shouldn't be so. Initially hacking was all about learning programming

languages and computer systems to solve problems with the goal of making new inventions and

software codes. It was a kind of tinkering that people were engaged in to create something

different. It was about fully understanding computers, and making progress and revolutionary

technologies. Ethical hacking is not about breaking laws.To sum up, ethical hacking is not

an illegal practice and should not be treated as one. Although it is true that malicious hacking is a

fraud and computer crime, ethical hacking is never a criminal offence. Ethical hacking is in line

with market laws and IT policies for organizations. Inaccurate hacking should be stopped while

promoting and enabling ethical hacking that encourages science, creativity and technical

breakthroughs.

REFERENCES

D Searls, “How “Aaron’s law” is good for business,” Harvard Business Review, 2013,

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/02/how-aarons -law-is-good-for-bus/ .

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