This does not necessarily
mean that someone has to throw a server at another person??™s head, but since almost
everything today is run by some type of technology, personal harm or death could result
from what would otherwise be a run-of-the-mill hacking attack. For example, if an
attacker were to compromise embedded computer chips that monitor hospital patients,
cause fire trucks to report to wrong addresses, make all of the traffic lights change to
green, or reconfigure airline controller software, the consequences could be catastrophic
and under the Act result in the attacker spending the rest of her days in jail.
In August 2006, a 21-year-old hacker was sentenced to 37 months in prison, 3 years
probation, and assessed over $250,000 in damages for launching adware botnets on more
than 441,000 computers that targeted Northwest Hospital & Medical Center in Seattle.
This targeting of a hospital led to a conviction on one count of intentional computer damage
that interferes with medical treatment. Two co-conspirators in the case were not
named because they were juveniles. It is believed that the attacker was compensated
$30,000 in commissions for his successful infection of computers with the adware.
The CSEA was also developed to supplement the Patriot Act, which increased the U.
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