Cyber crime punishment questioned by Internet advocacy group

March 16, 2013

Digital rights activists are using a recent security breach involving the secretive group Anonymous as an opportunity to rail against a federal anti-hacking law called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The Electronic Frontier Foundation isn’t defending the alleged actions of Matthew Keys, a former Tribune Company employee who could face as much as 25 years of jail time over federal charges accusing him of conspiring with members of Anonymous to hack into a Tribune website. But the San Francisco-based advocacy group says current law means cyber crimes are often prosecuted much more severely than crimes of violence. The EFF likens Keys’ case to the Justice Department’s prosecution of political activist and Internet innovator Aaron Swartz, in which he faced a maximumsentence of 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Swartz committed suicide in January. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031041/cyber-crime-punishment-questioned-by-internet-advocacy-group.html#tk.rss_all