Re: Need to stop an attack

In article <42e86241$0$548$a726171b@news.hal-pc.org>,
James T. White <SPAMjtwhiteGUARD@hal-pc.org> wrote:
:IIRC the type of attack that the original poster described is a federal crime
:which would mean the FBI has to take the lead in investigating and prosecuting
:it whether or not the origin was in or out of the US.

"federal crimes" only apply to "Federal Interest Systems"
within the meaning of the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Statutes.

There is some room for argument over what constitutes a
"Federal Interest System". Broadly speaking, the term includes
important commercial infrastructure such as banks, includes
systems used for medical diagnosis, and includes cases that cross
state boundaries (which in turn includes foreign intrusions.)

The room for argument comes in when the attack is within the
same state: in such an instance, the normal scoping rules would
have state law apply instead of federal law -- but there is
phrasing in the Statutes that could be interpreted as
indicating that -any- US-based computer is "Federal Interest System"
if it ever communicates intra-state (e.g., trans-border email
or web surfing). Some people might perhaps argue that the
clause doesn't apply to residential systems [it looks to apply to -me-,
but IANAL.]

-- 
  "Never install telephone wiring during a lightning storm." -- Linksys