Senate hearing set to update anti-hacking law

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee next week plans to hold a hearing focused on updating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a national anti-hacking law first enacted in 1984 that makes it illegal to access government or financial institution computers without authorization. A White House cybersecurity legislative plan to Congress, released in May, proposed broadening the scope of CFAA and increase penalties under the statute. Witnesses for the hearing are scheduled to include James Baker, associate deputy attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, and Pablo Martinez, deputy special agent in charge of the Criminal Investigative Division of the U.S. Secret Service. The hearing is planned for 10 a.m. on Aug. 3 and can be viewed online.

More in News

Privacy-bolstering "Apps Act" introduced in House

The bill would provide consumers nationwide with similar protections already enforced by a California law.

Microsoft readies permanent fix for Internet Explorer bug used in energy attacks

Microsoft is prepping a whopper of a security update that will close 33 vulnerabilities, likely including an Internet Explorer (IE) flaw that has been used in targeted website attacks against the U.S. government.

Weakness in Adobe ColdFusion allowed court hackers access to 160K SSNs

Up to 160,000 Social Security numbers and one million driver's license numbers may have been accessed by intruders.