Cybercrime legislation in the United States

Abstract

As a result of both a significant increase in cybercrime and a growing concern about its economic and societal impact, the United States has enacted legislation aimed at curtailing a wide variety of cybercrimes at the state and federal levels. This chapter summarizes US legislation that has been modified or enacted over the past 30 years. The chapter focuses on cybercrimes that can be classified as computer hacking and malicious software; online fraud and identity theft; digital piracy and intellectual property theft; pornography; child sexual exploitation materials; sexting and revenge pornography; cyber harassment, cyberbullying, and cyberstalking; SPAM; and cyberterrorism. This chapter is neither meant to be exhaustive nor critical in nature. Instead, the chapter was written as a resource to provide an overview of the most relevant US legislation on cybercrime.