Legislators move to increase criminal penalties for 'swatting'

San Francisco, 10. May 13 04:50 PST News byKTVU-com Revenge, the clich goes, is sweet. But in the Internet age, revenge is taking on a decidedly acrid taste for the victims with the advent of a disturbing new phenomenon called "swatting." Swatting refers to police SWAT teams, short for "Special Weapons & Tactics," maliciously sent to people's homes or offices under the pretext that a hostage has been taken or a terrorist has a bomb. So far the expensive and potentially dangerous prank has been largely limited to a few celebrities such as Ryan Seacrest, Wolf Blitzer and Justin Bieber. But it is now beginning to emerge as a weapon against a wider group of people. Vince-In-TheBay is an emerging Internet radio celebrity. He broadcasts his Howard Stern-like talk show weeknights from 9 to midnight. In his almost-anything-goes show based in the Bay Area, Vince expects to sometimes amuse, sometimes anger and often provoke his mostly young, mostly Web-savvy audience. What he didn't expect was what some misguided listener did earlier this spring: Vince-In-The-Bay was, in Internet jargon, "swatted." "When I first heard the news I was immediately upset," Vince recalled. "Obviously I had a lot of rage. And I wanted to lash out." Making the incident particularly galling, the swatter didn't aim at Vince himself, but at his elderly parents living on a quiet Silicon Valley suburban street. "They used this relay system to call in an emergency to the local police department that two armed men had broken into my folk's house and to send help," he recalled. "Twenty armed units were alerted, came to the house. They shut down the street." Vince continued the dramatic story: "My mother got a call from the PD saying they were outside, they were armed, they had gotten an emergency call and asked her and everyone else to come out. So she came out and, of course, was shocked to see an army of armed police. They raided the house and, of course, found nothing." Swatting seems to be replacing another Internet-based revenge tactic called "doxing." That's when a hacker is able to acquire, and then publically post, a target's confidential information that is usually kept on a computer. Pending state legislation would help address the emerging issue. "This is not just about protecting the Justin Bieber's of the world. This is about protecting the child crossing the street as an emergency vehicle needlessly speeds by," said Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles. He has a bill moving through the legislature that would add more criminal penalties to swatting,

which is often done by using the Internet to disguise a phony emergency call. "Under current law to make that call is only a misdemeanor." Gatto said. "This bill specifies that those instances could be charged as manslaughter is someone gets killed and it could be a felony if someone gets hurt." Some Internet access activists caution against adding laws to the books in hopes of increasing people's security. "A screwdriver is a very useful tool for many things, but one of the things you can use a screwdriver for is stealing a car," said Micah Lee, staff technologist with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It's great that people have full computer access to the Internet, but people can commit crimes with the Internet," explained Lee. "But protecting people's free speech right is worth the risk." For Vince-In-The-Bay, there may be little solace in that. "It was a shock to my folks who had no idea about these phenomena, of swatting," Vince remarked. "They're innocent retirees, just living their lives. It actually shook me up more than it shook them up." The cost of deploying a team of police for a major operation differs from one situation to the next. But everyone agrees it not only costs taxpayers thousands of wasted dollars, it also deprives protection for a genuine emergency. Many police authorities also say it could just be a matter of time before an accident takes place and someone gets seriously injured -- or even killed -- in a phony swatting stunt.