SB 259-THEFT OF IDENTITY MR. JIM POUND, staff of Senator Taylor, stated that SB 259 is an expansion of the previous bill and incorporates some of the federal language regarding civil matters. The current statute only covers fraud, and this bill lays out felony and misdemeanor status for different violations. SB 259 will also include hacking and monetary gain from acts of fraud as a crime. SENATOR HALFORD moved to adopt CSSB 259. With no objection, CSSB 259 was adopted. MS. CARPENETI went through the work draft for CSSB 259 and laid out the following changes: On pages one and two, the term "aural" refers to hearing. The last line of page four and top of page five, (d) Deceptive business practices is a class C felony if the person uses the internet or a computer network to commit the offense. In this subsection, "Internet" means the combination of computer systems or networks that make up the international network for interactive communications services, including remote logins, file transfer, electronic mail, and news groups, raises a class A misdemeanor to a class C felony. DOL was concerned the previous bill was too broad and the purpose of the new language is to raise the penalty and include the internet. On page five, lines 13 and 16, the words "or misleading" were removed because it was too hard to define. The language now reads, introduces false information into a computer, computer system,... Page 6, Sec. 14. AS 11.56.800(a), provides for a class A misdemeanor and covers traffic offenses. This is in reference to a person stealing someone's identification (ID) and then being caught driving with false ID--this would not be criminal impersonation. LIEUTENANT DAVID RAY HUDSON, Department of Corrections (DOC), Division of Public Safety, said DOC supports the effort to strengthen cyber crime and criminal impersonation. He said the fiscal note attached to this bill addresses technological crimes with theft of ID both statewide and nationwide. MR. BLAIR MCCUNE said the public defender is still concerned with the breadth of "access device" on page six, section 16. In section 6, a class B felony is a very strong penalty for the type of crime, and he is glad "misleading" has been taken out of section 11. SENATOR TORGERSON asked about "international network" on page five, line 2. Will this be a crime if the network is not international and does it apply to local networks? MS. CARPENETI responded, to her knowledge, all computer networks are international and it does apply to local networks. This section raises the penalty from a class A misdemeanor to a class C felony. SENATOR TORGERSON said he is still concerned with section 11 because it is hard to interpret. The language on lines 12 through 15 is too broad based--"this sort of thing happens all the time in campaigns." MS. CARPENETI stated that section 11, lines 12 through 15, is current law, and SB 259 adds "financial reputation" to the current wording. SENATOR TORGERSON moved CSSB 256 (JUD), version K, from committee with individual recommendations. With no objection, the motion carried.