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Are We All Computer Felons?

By Eric A. Packel

Virtually every day we read about another cyber attack or malicious hacking incident. Hackers seek corporate secrets for competitive advantage, personal information, financial fraud, or sometimes they simply perform “hactivist” political stunts. A recent report by Mandiant, a computer security firm, even detailed sophisticated cyber attacks by a Chinese Army Unit against U.S. corporations and government agencies. See, “APT1: Exposing One of China's Cyber Espionage Units.”'

As cyber victims and law enforcement struggle to find the means, both technical and legal, to respond to these attacks, critics claim that certain laws go too far. In fact, one statute, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. '1830, has come under recent scrutiny due to its use against unsuspecting individuals who may not be the malicious hackers that the Act was originally meant to address. This has led to a noisy push for CFAA reform, a split in the Federal Circuit Courts and calls for Congressional action.

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