The US Congress is considering new legislation to combat terrorism
that, according to the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF), will treat low-level computer crimes as terrorist
acts.
EFF said that the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) will add low-level
computer intrusion - already a crime - to the list of acts known as
"federal terrorism offences," creating penalties of up to life
imprisonment. The act will also add broad pre-conviction asset
seizure powers and serious criminal threats to those who
"materially assist" or "harbour" individuals suspected of causing
minimal damage to networked computers.
The EFF's executive director, Shari Steele, said in a statement
issued on 27 September that treating relatively harmless online
pranksters as terrorists would not be not an appropriate response
to the 11 September terrorist attacks on the US.
The ATA contains many other provisions that would have a severe
effect on the civil liberties of people living in the US, the group
asserted. These include:
- Making it possible to obtain e-mail message header information,
Internet user Web browsing patterns, and "stored" voice-mail
without a wire tap order.
- The removal of most controls on roving wire taps.
- Permitting law enforcement bodies to disclose information
obtained through wire taps to any employee of the US government's
executive branch.
- The reduction of restrictions on domestic investigations under
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
- Permitting grand juries to provide information to the US
intelligence community.
- Permitting the US President to designate any "foreign-directed
individual, group or entity," including any US citizen or
organisation, as a target for FISA surveillance.
- Preventing people from providing "expert advice" to
terrorists
- The extension the federal DNA database to include every person
convicted of a federal terrorism offence. This would include those
convicted of low-level computer intrusions
The EFF urged the US Congress to consider less stringent
regulations proposed in alternative legislation called the Uniting
and Strengthening of America Act (USAA).