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Spyware, said bill sponsor Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., "is one of
the biggest threats to consumers on the Internet." She and other
lawmakers cited estimates that up to 90 percent of computers in this
country are infected with some form of spyware. Spyware is
software that secretly collects information about a person or
organization and sends it to another entity without the user's
consent.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., co-sponsor of the bill, said it had
been written so that it "protects consumers by imposing stiff
penalties on the truly bad actors" while protecting legitimate
online businesses that are developing new services to keep track of
user preferences.
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 The bill makes it a criminal offense, subject to a prison term of
up to five years, to access a computer without authorization to
further another federal criminal offense. Obtaining or transmitting
personal information with the intent of injuring or defrauding a
person or damaging a computer is punishable by up to two years in
prison.
The measure approves $10 million a year over the next four years
to help the Justice Department fight other computer scams such as "phishing"
-- the use of fake e-mails or online sites to trick consumers into
providing bank account, credit card or other personal information --
and "pharming," where hackers redirect Internet traffic to fake
sites in order to steal personal information.
Similar bills have been approved by the House in past sessions of
Congress, but have yet to clear the Senate.
[Text copied
from file received from AP
Digital; article by Jim Abrams, Associated Press writer] |
