Global Internet Law in a Nutshell by Michael L. Rustad

Author:Michael L. Rustad
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781684671281
Publisher: West Academic
Published: 2019-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

(A)Criminal Law Provisions

The most important federal statute used to prosecute cybercrime is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) which punishes and deters computer hackers, e.g., ‘electronic trespassers.’ 18 225

U.S.C. § 1030. The CFAA prohibits accessing a computer without authorization, or in excess of authorization.

As Internet-related computer crimes evolved, Congress amended the CFAA. The USA Patriot Act “address[ed] situations where an attacker within the United States attacks a computer system located abroad and situations in which individuals in foreign countries route communications through the United States as they hack from one foreign country to another.”

Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section Criminal Division, Prosecuting Computer Crimes (2017) at 5.

The CFAA penalizes the act of accessing a protected computer to steal national security information. The term “protected computer,” 18 U.S.C. § 1030(e)(2), is a statutory term of art that covers computers used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce and computers used by the federal government and financial institutions. The computer must be “used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication.” This definition covers all computers connected to the Internet.

The USA Patriot Act amended the CFAA to “address situations where an attacker within the United States attacks a computer system located abroad and situations in which individuals in foreign countries route communications through the United States as they hack from one foreign country to another.”

226

Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section Criminal Division, Prosecuting Computer Crimes (2017) at 5.

The CFAA penalizes the act of accessing a computer to misappropriate national security information. The computer must be “used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication.” The CFAA applies to “protected computers” that in practice is all computers connected to the Internet. The 2008 amendments to the CFAA made the following changes in response to evolving cybercrimes:

Eliminated the requirement in 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(C) that information must have been stolen through an interstate or foreign communication, thereby expanding jurisdiction for cases involving theft of information from computers;

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