Obama Admin Wants Hackers Charged As Mobsters 568
GovTechGuy writes "The Obama administration wants hackers to be prosecuted under the same laws used to target organized crime syndicates, according to two officials appearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning. From the article: 'Associate Deputy Attorney General James Baker and Secret Service Deputy Special Agent in Charge Pablo Martinez said the maximum sentences for cyber crimes have failed to keep pace with the severity of the threats. Martinez said hackers are often members of sophisticated criminal networks. "Secret Service investigations have shown that complex and sophisticated electronic crimes are rarely perpetrated by a lone individual," Martinez said.'"
Better than Terrorists (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Its Official: Jimmy Carter is off the hook (Score:5, Interesting)
You've got to be kidding. Jimmy wasn't that bad, he was just stuck with a shitty economy, and he wasn't terribly effective. His death blow was when he failed to deal with the Beirut situation effectively.
That totally pales in comparison to several other presidents. The worst one in my book was Lyndon Johnson, who's responsible for destroying the American economy in the 70s because of the Vietnam War, plus the deaths of over 50,000 American citizens in that atrocity, plus countless Vietnamese. He's not quite as bad as Stalin who's responsible for 20-30 million deaths, but the Vietnam war probably killed about 1 million total, and most of the blood of those are on LBJ's hands.
His stupid Great Society program also helped to wreck the economy and create generations of inner-city blacks stuck in poverty, and is probably responsible for the destruction of the African-American family.
Nixon wasn't very good either; he also kept up the Vietnam war, plus he pushed the War on Drugs.
Reagan pushed deficit spending to levels far beyond what they ever were before in history. We only forget about that now because Bush and then Obama have raised the bar so much with their spending sprees.
What the heck did Jimmy do that was so bad? Nothing I can recall. Being ineffective isn't remotely as bad as what these other jerks did.
Obama is pretty bad too, but nowhere near as bad as his fellow Democrat LBJ.
Holy Shit! (Score:5, Interesting)
Did anyone read the second half of the article?
Experts have warned that without some sort of enforcement mechanism [to compel compliance with Department of Homeland Security cyber security standards] companies will not take the necessary security precautions. [Democratic Senator] Blumenthal echoed that stance, suggesting the administration "consider some kind of stick as well as a carrot."
Industry has argued that resources are the main limitation and argued for incentives such as liability protection for firms that experience attacks.
Are you shitting me?
The government wants companies to actually secure their/our data and the response is "sure, if we're not liable for any break-ins"
Off the top of my head, the government has indemnified vaccine manufacturers and nuclear power plant operators.
For some reason, I don't see cyber security as being in remotely the same league.
If anyone else can think of other industries indemnfied by the Federal Government, don't be shy about responding.
I'm willing to bet that nothing anyone brings up will be remotely similar to indemnifying private companies for poor computer security.
Right Idea, Wrong Application (Score:4, Interesting)
I disagree with applying this law to hackers, but I have been saying for a while that Wall Street should have been tried under RICO Act [wikipedia.org]. That would allow to put at least half of the scum in jail, along with confiscation of property. Some justice would have been served.
WAIT a minute here (Score:3, Interesting)
What about all the patent trolls? shouldn't they be classified as mobsters too? After all, aren't they behaving in the same way?
Re:Too bad (Score:4, Interesting)
The Tea Party is a creation of Fox News. I remember their creation while many seem to gloss over this fact. They are just another element of how we are goosestepping towards Fascism ever so quickly these days. We have our modern version of the Gestapo with a strong police state/prison industry to enforce whatever mandates are handed down to us. Both sides of the political coin are corrupt as can be; it's a matter of how you want screwed over, not if you will be screwed over.
If you monitor Rightwing web traffic and comments, you can see a major spike in the angry tones. We aren't even into the official election year or it's cycle and the political rhetoric is turned up on 11. Imagine how this is going to play out when this election doesn't play out the way these people want. I will be shocked if we don't see outbreaks of political violence before the election. It's all classic fascism in play; a quick study of the definition of it and it's history will chill your bones. Once you understand this element, things really start crystallizing clear. You have to step back, clear your head of preconceptions and look at the big picture.
These 24 hour news channels are epic propaganda outlets. If you look at the history of propaganda, and its modus operandi you will find disturbing similarities with these current propaganda outlets. Fox News has shifted into high speed, low drag with theirs, and their impact has been impressive. I have followed them since their creation, for it was interesting to see a Rightwing perspective after years of CNN's far Leftwing propaganda. Obama though has frankly made them snap. I have watched them go from "Fair and Balanced" to "Fairly Unbalanced" since his election. Their objectivity, trying to present a "balanced" approach to news has crumbled to dust, taking with it a huge audience down the Rightwing path.
Now they tote far Rightwing talking points and methodically craft their propaganda to suit a target audience. The Tea Party was their creation. It was incredibly partisan of them to create them, now they step back from it as if it wasn't something they created; as if this was some "movement" created out of thin air. It wasn't, they nurtured it, broadcasted it, provided web support and still keep them in the limelight.
People seem to forget about the shooting in Arizona, where a Rightwing nut job shot up a Congresswoman and part of a crowd. People forget how Sara Palin had "Gun Cross hairs" literally on her web site that had that Congresswoman targeted. Her people made changes to that site immediately after the shooting. The Tea Party has a history of violence to it that isn't making national news yet. Here is a local news cast about some on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pdwTQ4xA8 [youtube.com]
Tea Party violence is amazing to research. I watched one video of a woman getting her head stomped on at one incident. Only blind political partisanship will ignore the signs of where this movement is going. It's symptomatic of a bigger picture though; which is a serious step towards Fascism. All the piece of this puzzle are here if you look.
Re:I thought the problem was security? (Score:4, Interesting)
If a group of people formed an organization with the goal of stealing credit cards, then yes, they can be prosecuted under organized crime law. Doesn't matter if their method for doing so is beating up pedestrians and taking their wallets, breaking and entering, or SQL injection.
If just one guy decides to steal some credit cards, he can be prosecuted for one of the several varieties of theft, but not under RICO. Doesn't matter what his method is.