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View Full Version : Steal someone's keyboard: get jailed for 10 years

Zozart
11-11-2006, 18:07
Via Slashdot (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/11/0922243).

"A U.K. law has been passed that makes it an offense to launch denial-of-service attacks. The penalties for violating the new statues are stiff, with sentences increased from 5 to 10 years. The five year penalty was from the 1990 "Computer Misuse Act", which was enacted before the Internet became widespread. The idea of stiffer penalties for DoS attacks are probably something we can all get behind, but the language of the law is frustratingly vague."

"Among the provisions of the Police and Justice Bill 2006, which gained Royal Assent on Wednesday, is a clause that makes it an offense to impair the operation of any computer system. Other clauses prohibit preventing or hindering access to a program or data held on a computer, or impairing the operation of any program or data held on a computer."

Sounds pretty vague to me. If I steal your keyboard, am I not hindering your access to programs or data held on that computer? I'm exaggerating, of course, but vague wording could open up this new law to other, more malicious exploitation.
jacobzcoool
11-11-2006, 19:27
lol @ that.

Does this mean that if someone's parents are preventing them from going online they could nail them under that? :p

EDIT: Or indeed, shutting down or rebooting any PC as that is impairing its operation :rolleyes:
Feldman
11-11-2006, 19:55
Or indeed, shutting down or rebooting any PC as that is impairing its operation


/sues Microsoft
Cosmo_1847
11-11-2006, 20:08
what if you brake your OS. could you sue the OS maker for proventing the operation and access to data? It does sound stupid but the jail time seems even more stupid. 5 to 10 years for a DoZ attack. I think it should depend on what it attacked.
jacobzcoool
11-11-2006, 20:18
what if you brake your OS. could you sue the OS maker for proventing the operation and access to data? It does sound stupid but the jail time seems even more stupid. 5 to 10 years for a DoZ attack. I think it should depend on what it attacked.

No, you did it, not M$. You could sue yourself though.
TriggerHappy
11-11-2006, 23:41
Regardless you would have no chance, they have far too much cash.
master baits
12-11-2006, 00:01
bloody joke , ive seen folk get less for murder
Forthy
12-11-2006, 02:06
Nobody ever gets maximum sentences. I doubt you could even find one person in recent history who has been handed a maximum sentence, let alone served it.

The maximum sentence for theft is something like 14 years, serial shoplifters (that cost business hundreds of pounds a day) get 30 days if we're really lucky.

There's no point in 'maximum sentences' any more, because they just plain never happen. In fact, people even the most evil of villains don't actually serve 'life sentences'. The Hindleys of this world are actually incarcerated for such immense periods not because of the sentence given by the court, but because it is her majesty's pleasure.

The whole system's farcical tbh, take it from someone who knows...


Back OT:

I imagine that the quotes are paraphrases of far more complicated legislation, and as such probably refer more to hacking big business than unplugging a PS/2 connector...
Craig
12-11-2006, 03:57
The maximum sentence for theft is something like 14 years, serial shoplifters (that cost business hundreds of pounds a day) get 30 days if we're really luck


If only they'd get 30 years, and maybe then we could get some peace at work. Either that or let us deal with them ourself and bury them somewhere amongst the bails of carboard...
jacobzcoool
12-11-2006, 10:52
than unplugging a PS/2 connector...

What about USB? :p :rolleyes:
Karl
15-11-2006, 21:24
5 to 10 years for a DoZ attack. I think it should depend on what it attacked.

Then I assume you've never had to deal with one. I'd give them 25 years minimum. It's rarely just the site being attacked that suffers, there are intermediary networks, other people on the same network etc.
mrClen
14-12-2006, 09:18
its must be a golden keyboard..
bob_monkhouse
20-12-2006, 20:41
I imagine that the quotes are paraphrases of far more complicated legislation, and as such probably refer more to hacking big business than unplugging a PS/2 connector...

That's how I understand it. Think a lot of the legislation was aimed at activists/campaigners who have recently misued computer services. Good example is when Glazier was about to increase his stake in Man U. To do this, his law firm needed to speak regularly to his accountants/the sellers etc. People who didnt want him to complete the purchase bombarded the lawyers with thousands of junk emails which I understood brought the law firm's email system down!