Ohio Votes to Outlaw Attempted Hacks

The Ohio House of Representatives has voted through new legislation that will criminalize all malicious hacking attempts, whether they succeed or not. 

Backers of House Bill 368 say changes are necessary as currently only malicious computer hacks that succeed are punishable under Ohio law.  

House Bill 368 was passed yesterday with a vote of 93–1, with the lone "nay" cast by state Representative Tavia Galonski. 

If approved by the Senate, the new law will prohibit a person from gaining access to, attempting to gain access to, or causing access to be gained to a computer, computer system, or computer network when certain conditions apply. 

Ethical hackers, such as those hired to test a company's cybersecurity, would not be punishable under the new law, even if they were to accidentally access data that they were not supposed to.

The legislation also proposes making penalties for offenders convicted of computer trespass harsher if they are found to have acted recklessly or if they have deliberately targeted elderly or disabled users. 

Under the new bill, victims of cybercrime would be permitted to file a civil lawsuit pursuing compensation from offenders convicted of cyber-offenses. 

Currently, Ohio only has two categories of offense covering computer crimes: criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a computer. The new legislation would update and expand these offenses with several new felony-level offenses.

Electronic data tampering and electronic data manipulation, electronic data theft, unauthorized data disclosure, electronic comp ..

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