Prosecuting Computer Crimes

This manual examines the federal laws that relate to computer crimes.
Our focus is on those crimes that use or target computer networks, which
we interchangeably refer to as “computer crime,” “cybercrime,” and “network
crime.” Examples of computer crime include computer intrusions, denial of
service attacks, viruses, and worms. We do not attempt to cover issues of state
law and do not cover every type of crime related to computers, such as child
pornography or phishing.

This publication is the second edition of “Prosecuting Computer Crimes”
and updates the previous version published in February 2007. During the
three years since then, case law developed and, more importantly, Congress
significantly amended the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.