Is the law more flexible for hackers to cause?
This was a recurring question throughout duration of 2013, as several of the so-called hacktivists faced sentences that would keep them in prison for years. All pleas for leniency, based on the fact that they had hacked networks for the common good, appeared to fall on deaf ears with the judges.
"I did it because I believe people have a right to know what governments and companies are doing behind closed doors," Jeremy Hammond told the judge, defending himself and other hackers whose motives were ideological and not financially. "I did what I thought was right."
But the courts didn't seem moved by such arguments in 2013, a year when hacktivists and government clashed repeatedly in an escalating struggle for control of information.
Peter Ludlow, a philosophy professor at Northwestern University, wrote in The Nation newspaper that the prosecution of hacktivists was part of a "war on knowledge" that extends beyond hackers to include Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, who exposed government secrets. THE Manning currently serves 35th penalty for violations of the Espionage Act. Snowden has found temporary asylum in Russia and has been accused of spying and stealing state records.
"On the whole, the lesson seems to show that hacking into computers for social reasons and cyber piracy to uncover secret governments will not be tolerated," Ludlow said.
In November, Hammond, 28 of years, whose hacking in a private information company revealed that the government was watching all members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
In March, Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, 27, who said he tried to protect consumers from identity theft when he shared a security hole he discovered on AT&T servers with a journalist, was sentenced to three years in prison. .
In January, Aaron Swartz, 26 of years, who was responsible for a hacking that brought him millions of science articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology servers, committed suicide because he was facing a felony.
Gabriella Coleman, a professor at McGill University who studies the culture of hackers, said that the work of hacktivists "produces tangible results."
"The courts are reluctant to recognize this activity as politically motivated and for the common good," Coleman said.
Michael Sussman, a former prosecutor, said hackers who say they deserve leniency, because their motivations are not economic, are unlikely to be lenient to the government.
"I do not think a Robin Hood profile will have much of an impact on prosecutors," Sussman said. "I do not think there will be anyone in the federal government who will say, 'Well, these people consider themselves hacktivists, so I have to be lenient.'
In fact, prosecutors point to hacktivists as a source of significant harm. Hammond, who also stole credit card details belonging to about 1 million people, caused "personal and financial chaos to their owners," Manhattan District Attorney Preet Bharara said when Hammond pleaded guilty.
But 2013 was not just the year when law hit hackers. It was also the year when the law itself was challenged and re-controlled.
In June, legislation was introduced to Congress to amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which was responsible for the convictions of Swartz, Auernheimer and Hammond. Critics say the law is extremely punitive and inflexible in terms of imprisonment for some crimes that are now relatively innocuous.
Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) Said in an interview that he introduced the bill, called "Aaron Law" because he felt Swartz had been "intimidated" by prosecutors for an act of political disobedience that certainly did not take much. years in federal prison. ”
Lofgren continued to report that 1986's law to combat hacking of government, military and banking computers has become obsolete.
"Things have changed," he told HuffPost Lofgren. "There is a law that was created when the Internet was not in commercial use and that is a big mistake."
But with so many conflicting priorities in Congress, Lofgren said internet legislation "was not a major topic of discussion" for this year.
"There was no outbreak," he said. "It does not seem that my colleagues in Parliament feel pressure" for the reform of this law.
