In a clarification of their position on armed conflict, the United States will “not rule out a kinetic response to a cyber attack.“. Meaning that the US may consider hacking (presumably by a foreign power) as an attack similar to a physical attack on a bridge or a dam.
At the other end of the spectrum, a court has upheld the “hacking” conviction of a man for for misusing his computer at work to upload pornography.
Rasch said the problem stems from an amendment that was made to the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — the federal anti-hacking law — that states have added to their own statutes.
“The early statute only talked about unauthorized access — which is breaking into computer,” he said. “But then they amended it to say ‘or exceeding the scope of authorization to access a computer’.”
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