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another fbi prosecution
The Chronicle of Higher Education (Dec 8, 1995) page A21 reports that
Monmouth University (West Long Branch, New Jersey; http://www.monmouth.edu)
sophomore Dominick LaScala was charged last week in federal court with two
counts of computer fraud.
Dominick had his campus account taken away after other users complained
that he had been "advertising business proposals inappropriately on line."
The FBI alleges that he then sent 24,000 email messages in one day from a
commercial account (unamed) to Monmouth's system.. This denial of service
attack was successful for about 5 hours. He is facing six(6) years in prison
and a up to $350,000 in fines (1.20 years/hr and and $70,000/hr).
His lawyer (Kenneth Weiner) claims that "even if his client sent the mail
bomb" since no damage was done to the system, he could not be convicted
under the computer fraud statute. He also claims that prosecutors are trying
to make an example of his client. The university is still trying to figure
out whether he can be punished under the university code of conduct.