Laws such as this will in no way eliminate the problem of hackers, but it will definitely deter people from getting interested or just fooling around. The major problem we have today is that there is no law that says if you break into someone else's computer system, you will be serving a minimum sentence of 5 years. If this kind of law existed and people were aware of it, fewer and fewer people will be inclined to take their chances. Hackers will not break into computer systems simply "to see if they can do it." They will decide to focus their interest in something other than hacking that doesn't have such a harsh penalty. Trying to control hackers by regulating and monitoring all bulletin board systems is useless. You also have to consider the fact that a good percentage of the people who do run BBS's do not break the law. They run an honest system with the sole purpose of enriching their ideas and their interests. Unreasonable rules and regulations will just add unwarranted burden on the law abiding citizens. Making this law as a deterrent would save the government a great deal of money since they won't have to spend their time and effort in monitoring and regulating such a large number of computer systems. All they would have to do is spot check different bulletin board systems and sit back and wait until a computer system is broken into. As mentioned earlier, this will not Eliminate hacking. Hard core hackers will continue to be a nusciounce to society no matter what anyone says, but this law will reduce the overall number of hacking incidents. This means that more effort, time, and personnel is available in catching the hard core hackers. Once caught, the hacker will have the book thrown at him and he will not be bothering society for a very long time.

Jump to: