The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 was created by the government in order to clarify definitions of criminal fraud and abuse for federal computer crimes and to remove the legal ambiguities and obstacles to prosecuting these crimes. The act was followed up by the Computer Abuse Amendments Act of 1994 to include the transmission of viruses and other harmful code. Yet, there is much inadequacy to these laws, and hackers know every way to get around them. Hackers basically see the government as a nuisance to their hard fought struggle to free all information. As I stated before, Hackers are not the enemy.
Crackers are the one's who break the law.
The media, who are very misinformed, have created this hacker scare by thinking that the viruses and destruction of computer systems is caused by hackers. They print article after article about how hackers are on the loose, and how everyone should update the latest safety features on their computer. This letter describes crackers and reasons why hackers should not be considered as criminals. The basic difference between hackers and crackers is that hackers build things and crackers break them. Crackers are mainly adolescent males who get a kick out of breaking into computers and cause mayhem.