Caution Is Urged in Any Cyber-Attack Crackdown
Even as federal law-enforcement officials called for a crackdown on computer hackers, a competing faction emerged Tuesday to argue against a dangerous overreaction to last month’s spate of cyber assaults on popular Web sites.
Representatives from Microsoft Corp. and other leading technology companies, joined by several members of Congress, warned that Congress should be wary of passing swift but overly burdensome legislation that could do more harm than good in reeling in hackers.
Their comments, reflecting the deep divisions over how best to regulate the Internet, came at a joint House-Senate hearing on Capitol Hill assessing the impact of the still-unsolved computer assaults.
Beginning Feb. 7, unknown hackers launched attacks against Yahoo! Inc., EBay Inc., Amazon.com Inc,. and several other popular Web sites, blocking access for millions of legitimate users by overloading the systems with an avalanche of bogus requests for service. Even the FBI, which is investigating the case, saw its site hit--and temporarily shut down--last week.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. told members of the joint subcommittee on criminal oversight that the disruptions cost companies tens of millions of dollars in business. And the episode has pointed up the need for toughened legislation to give authorities more tools to battle cyber crime, Holder and other officials from the Justice Department and the FBI testified at the hearing.
“Our vulnerability to this type of crime is astonishingly high,” Holder said.
The tremendous growth of the World Wide Web has set off several furious debates in recent months over whether the federal government should tax Internet sales and allow high-tech companies to export encryption technology, among other issues. The division over how best to pursue computer hackers now promises to mark the next major battleground.
Policy responses to the Web site assaults already include proposals to subject juvenile hackers to federal prosecution, impose tougher penalties for computer vandals and give authorities greater power to demand computer service records from private suppliers.
To track down the hackers, Holder said the government also needs to do a better job of luring to federal jobs talented computer specialists, who often can earn two to three times as much in salary--plus stock options--by going to work in the private sector. One incentive, he said, might be to forgive part of the student loans assumed by recent college graduates.
But his comments were met with some reservations by lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
“I am skeptical of calls for greater federal assistance for cracking down on computer vandals,” said Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), adding that the government must be wary about not trampling on the privacy rights of Internet users.
Barr and several other lawmakers at the hearing said that, with all the demands placed on law-enforcement officials, the private sector should bear the burden for plugging the holes in its own internal security measures. The FBI and the Justice Department should be “the last line of defense,” not the “cop on the beat,” said Rep. Anthony D. Weiner (D-N.Y.).
Such views drew strong endorsements from a panel of officials from top high-tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon and ZDNet Group, who testified at the hearing.
