DoS attack will cost 2 years of jail
Date: March 16, 2005Source: Computer Crime Research Center
By:
Derek Wyatt MP, chairman of the All Party Internet Group (APIG), has filed notice of a 10 Minute Rule Bill calling for amendments to the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) to address the threat from denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.
Wyatt's Computer Misuse Act 1990 (Amendment) Bill tackles the key recommendations of the APIG inquiry into a revision of the CMA calling on the government to add a specific DoS offence and increase the maximum custodial penalty for CMA Section 1 (Hacking) offences from six months to two years.
A two-year penalty would make hacking an extraditable offence and bring it in line with the requirements of the European Convention on Cybercrime.
"APIG was hoping that an MP would have picked this up as part of the Private Members' allocation for bills," said Wyatt. "But sadly no-one did so it seemed sensible, given the work we undertook last year, to at least place on record what we think the Bill should look like in the hope that the government will come back to it after the general election."
The APIG report recommends that, although the CMA already makes many distributed DoS attacks illegal, there is "significant value" in adding an explicit offence to the legislation.
"In particular, this would send a clear signal to the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts that these attacks should be taken seriously. Also, publicity about the new offence may deter potential attackers by making it explicit that their actions are clearly criminal," APIG stated.
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| 2005-11-02 10:48:03 - Thank you for the information! John |
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