By Noah Shachtman
American officials can have some pretty over-the-top reactions to hackers and so-called cyber terrorists. Once, I saw a briefing comparing our own Kevin Poulsen to Osama bin Laden and Pablo Escobar -- seriously. But the U.S. has nothing on Pakistan, when it comes to cyber terror paranoia. Yesterday, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari signed a law making cyber terror a crime "punishable with death."
Executions will only be allowed if the hack attack "causes [the] death of any person," the Prevention of Electronic Crimes law states.
But the definition of what is considered "cyber terror" is alarmingly broad in the law, proposed last year and signed Thursday by the Pakistani president. Not only does it apply to "any person, group or organization who, with terroristic intent utilizes, accesses or causes to be accessed a computer or computer network or electronic system or electronic device or by any available means, and thereby knowingly engages in or attempts to engage in a terroristic act."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment