U.S. ‘Hacker’ Crackdown Sparks Debate Over Computer Fraud Law
In June 2010, Andrew Auernheimer, a well-known Internet security expert, discovered a gaping hole in AT&T’s website that exposed 114,000 email addresses belonging to the wireless giant’s Apple iPad customers. After a colleague downloaded the data, Auernheimer passed the information to a journalist at the wesbite Gawker. The episode was a major embarrassment for AT&T because the list included thousands of high-profile individuals, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. AT&T quickly patched the hole. The FBI promptly launched an investigation, and last November, Auernheimer was convicted of two felony counts under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a 1980s-era law originally designed to punish and deter intrusions into government and financial industry computer systems. His colleague, Daniel Spitler, pleaded guilty last year. On Monday, Auernheimer, 27, was sentenced to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay $73,000 ...
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Should Uncle Sam Be Doing More to Get His Hands on the $1.7 Trillion U.S. Companies Hold Overseas?
We’re once again in the thick of earnings season and not only are U.S. companies reporting solid profits, but many large, multinational firms are also disclosing big cash stockpiles, especially at their foreign subsidiaries. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that some of America’s best-known firms are stashing a majority of their cash abroad, where they can shield it from getting taxed by Uncle Sam. For instance, according to the report, Apple stores 68% of its $121.3 billion in cash abroad. Likewise, Microsoft, biopharmaceutical company Amgen, and chip-maker Qualcomm each keep 87%, 63%, and 74% of their cash reserves at foreign subsidiaries. One of the main reasons for this phenomenon is the the U.S. corporate tax code, which refrains from taxing U.S. domiciled firms on profits made at foreign subsidiaries, as long as the cash remains at those subsidiaries and isn’t transferred back to the corporate parent. Interestingly enough, this doesn’t mean that the money can’t ...
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