U.S. law enforcement officials are admitting they don't have a clue about attacks this week that disabled the world's most popular Internet sites. It's not that federal police are singularly incompetent or bumbling buffoons. These sorts of electronic broadsides typically involve scores of machines that have been hacked into and turned into unwitting launching pads for attacks on the targeted company. If a malicious hacker is clever enough, he might be able to conceal his footsteps from prying eyes and an investigation might reveal only that the attack originated at an anonymous dialup account. The FBI said it has launched a criminal investigation, and penalties under federal law could include five years of prison time for the first offense.
States usually have their own computer abuse laws with similar penalties.