I know I am the only person on Gather that didn't go to law school, isn't a practising attorney now or has a brother in law that is a high powered attorney so bear with me.
We all know that Sarah Palin's private email account was hacked. All over the internet people are crying federal offense...but is it?
I did some checking and this is what I came up with.
There seems to be no federal laws about this but each state regulates computer crime.
So this is what I found for Iowa.
716.6B Unauthorized computer access - penalties - civil cause of action.
1. A person who knowingly and without authorization accesses a computer, computer system, or computer network commits the following:
a. An aggravated misdemeanor if computer data is accessed that contains a confidential record, as defined in section 22.7 , operational or support data of a public utility, as defined in section 476.1 , operational or support data of a rural water district incorporated pursuant to chapter 357A or 504 , operational or support data of a municipal utility organized pursuant to chapter 388 or 389 , operational or support data of a public airport, or a trade secret, as defined in section 550.2 .
b. A serious misdemeanor if computer data is copied, altered, or deleted.
c. A simple misdemeanor for any access which is not an aggravated or serious misdemeanor.
2. The prosecuting attorney or an aggrieved person may institute civil proceedings against any person in district court seeking relief from conduct constituting a violation of this section or to prevent, restrain, or remedy such a violation.
2000 Acts, ch 1201, §11 ; 2002 Acts, ch 1049, §2 ; 2003 Acts, ch 75, §1 ; 2004 Acts, ch 1049, §191 ; 2004 Acts, ch 1175, §394
Computer terminology, see § 702.1A
I am just interested to see what kind of spin the GOP will put on this.
Will they:
1. Claim it is federal because of who she is?
2. Claim that they actually hacked into a government computer because Palin reads her private email at the office.
3. Claim that since there does seem to be, if the internet postings are accurate, several "official" emails on her private account. And if this is the case isn't Palin just as guilty of an ethics crime?
Should be interesting.
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Comments: 32
The fun part is that she was using the yahoo account to hide her own illegal activities.
Thanks Lora.
Christopher I havent looked at your link but from my understanding if it federal for one state then it is for all states.
Hey, I think they're patriots (hint)/
Doesn't make me dislike her and what she does and stands for any less....or more...
that addresses this and also says The specific United States statute that prohibits hacking is the Federal Fraud and Computer Abuse Act of 1986(68) ("1986 Act") which was enacted to fill legislative gaps in previous statutes. Subsection (a)(1) of this act makes it a felony to knowingly access a computer without authorization and to obtain information with the intent to injure the United States or to benefit a foreign nation.(69) This subsection protects any information that has been determined, pursuant to an executive order or statute, to be vital to this nation's national defense or foreign relations.(70) In addition, the 1986 Act prohibits unauthorized access of information contained in a financial record or consumer reporting agency, provided a "federal interest computer"(71) is involved. which is the same law christopher cited 18 U.S.C. § 1030 (1988). I am not sure that it covers hacking into someone's e-mail though. So far I can't find anything more specific to e-mail.
Doesn't make me dislike her and what she does and stands for any less....or more... Same here. I already think she is a disaster and one of the worst choices for this (or any government) position. This is just fun.
I'm not condoning the hacking at all, but you would think she would have a better security system in place. All you need is to guess a password to get access to Yahoo e-mail.
Apparently there is a program or something one can do to see who is checking your computer..and one of his friends knows how to find out.
Big brother is watching.
My parents told me to never say anything I didn't mean, to anyone, anywhere, any time.
So then the bush/cheney should fall under that law as well then??? Her using public email for government reminds me of the Rove/MSN emails. Doesn't that remind anyone here or is it deja vu again all over again??? Using public email to do government jobs it in itself is a criminal activity and should be prosecutated to the patriact law that bush/cheney touts so much about but you know they will do crap about it when one of their own is found using it...right...