“DoS is truly a crime of the information age. While we can
equate more traditional hacking to the ancient doctrines of
trespass, theft or vandalism, the real-world parallels of DoS are
simply not illegal.”
“According to the Justice Department, however, the 1996
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (Title 18 US Code Section
1030(a)(5)) was forward-looking enough to cover even
denial-of-service. Specifically, the act covers anyone who
‘knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code,
or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes
damage without authorization, to a protected computer.’ “
“The term ‘information’ is probably broad enough to cover the
packets which DoS attackers use to bombard their victim computers.
The term ‘damage’ means ‘any impairment to the integrity or
availability of data, a program, a system, or information, that…
causes loss aggregating at least $5,000 in value during any 1 year
period to one or more individuals.’ “