[iwar] [fc:New.Law.Lets.U.S..Nab.Foreign.Hackers]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-11-26 06:43:31
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 06:43:31 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:New.Law.Lets.U.S..Nab.Foreign.Hackers]
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New Law Lets U.S. Nab Foreign Hackers

By D. Ian Hopper, AP, 11/23/2001
<a href="http://sns.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-policing-the-internet1122nov21.story?coll=sns%2Dtechnology%2Dheadlines">http://sns.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-policing-the-internet1122nov21.story?coll=sns%2Dtechnology%2Dheadlines>

WASHINGTON -- The recently approved antiterrorism law could be used to
prosecute foreign hackers, a move critics say could make the United
States the world's Internet policeman. 
The new prosecutorial powers, which have no parallel in other nations,
affect computer hacking cases and take advantage of nation's pivotal
role in Internet communications. 
The precedent could be used to apply to pornography or other crimes in
which laws differ between nations, according to a former Justice
Department computer crimes prosecutor. 
"It's a massive expansion of U.S. sovereignty," said Mark Rasch, now
with computer security firm Predictive Systems. 
A prosecution can occur if any part of a crime takes place within U.S.
borders. A large part of the Internet's communications traffic goes
through the United States, even in messages that travel from one foreign
country to another. 
The change was highlighted last month by the Justice Department in its
field guidance to federal prosecutors. 
"Individuals in foreign countries frequently route communications
through the United States, even as they hack from one foreign country to
another," the recommendations said. "The amendment creates the option,
where appropriate, of prosecuting such criminals in the United States." 
The FBI referred questions to the Justice Department. A Justice
Department spokeswoman did not return calls for comment Wednesday. 
More than 80 percent of Internet access points in Asia, Africa and South
America are connected through U.S. cities, according to Jessica Marantz
of the Internet statistics firm Telegeography. 
So, for example, an e-mail sent between two cities in China probably
would travel through the United States -- putting its contents under
American jurisdiction. 
The Justice Department pushed for the legislation as a way to fight
terrorism, and American interests overseas could be protected by the
change. 
But the change in law creates a precedent that could be used to
prosecute any computer crime, Rasch said, from basic data theft to
sending pornographic pictures. Current law already allows pornography
prosecutions in any jurisdiction the pictures pass through, but this has
not yet been applied on an international scale to Internet
transmissions. 
For example, an owner of a pornography Web site in Sweden might be
prosecuted for sending a racy picture to a friend in Norway if the
message happened to travel through a computer in Fairfax, Va. In that
case, a U.S. prosecutor could try to extradite the sender and prosecute
him for breaking Virginia law, using Virginia's standards for obscenity. 
"We haven't done that yet, because it's an affront to the way the
Internet works," Rasch said. "But now we're criminalizing anything that
happens over the Internet because traffic passes through the United
States." 
"What it basically says is that we will impose our values on anything
that happens anywhere in the world provided it passes through our
borders," he said. 
FBI agents complain about the difficulty of computer crime
investigations that almost always venture overseas, requiring
time-consuming search warrants at every step and the cooperation of
foreign governments. They also are frustrated by offshore pornography
and gambling Web sites, accessed by Americans, that are legal in their
own countries. 
David Sobel, general counsel of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy
Information Center, said the change is particularly troubling when
coupled with powers to send federal agents overseas to abduct and bring
back suspects for trial. 
"It is a significant expansion of U.S. jurisdiction with respect to
so-called cybercrimes," Sobel said. "It was enacted under the guise of
counterterrorism, but it is in fact applicable to all types of crimes." 

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