On Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:08:00 EST, Lamar Owen said:
In reality DoS threats/execution of those threats/ 'pwning' / website vandalism are all forms of terrorism.
Let's not dilute the meaning of terrorism to the point where graffiti, cyber or otherwise, is classifed as terrorism. The USA Patriot act says: "activities that (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the U.S. or of any state, that (B) appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping, and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S." I don't think Joe SIxpack felt intimidated or coerced by a few DDoS attacks, nor did it seem to do much to change official US policy (mostly because the guys in DC are running around like the Headless Horsechicken trying to figure out what our policy *IS*). And it's the rare DDoS that becomes an act "dangerous to human life". I believe the word you wanted was "hooliganism". And we have a legal system that has about 3,000 years of experience in dealing with *that*, thank you very much.