A survey of computer crime legislation in the United States
John M. Conley, Robert M. Bryan · Information & Communications Technology Law · 1999
This article surveys federal and state computer crime legislation in the US. In addition to one principal federal statute, more than two‐thirds of the states have laws in place, with legislative activity ongoing in many jurisdictions. Despite wide variation in the structure and wording of these statutes, almost all work to prohibit unauthorized access to or use of computers and databases, the use of a computer as an instrument of fraud, and most presently foreseeable forms of computer sabotage. The application of the federal statute to a particular transaction requires interstate activity or connections. The evidence of successful enforcement is patchy, although in recent years there has been a significant increase in the resources devoted to the problem. There are few reported court decisions to shed light on the interpretive ambiguities that many of the statutes have created.