Comments on: British ID thieves face jail time

U.K. government proposes up to two years in jail for crooks who misuse other people's personal data.

[Nkully86]

Just 2 years?

I'm sorry, but adding 2 years to an already soft penalty won't scare many hackers out there. ID theft is a much larger issue than they seem to be taking it these days. Recently, when Gary McKinnon got extradited here he was facing up to 70 years for potentially infiltrating government computers.
http://www.iwantmyess.com/?p=77

Seems a little light to give someone 6 months-2 years when they are potentially ruining people's lives when McKinnon may get up to 70 years for not even damaging anyones personal data. These people have access to any sort of dangerous information they want on people and if we want to stop this, we need to begin punishing them like we should.
http://www.essentialsecurity.com/Documents/article16.htm

[heystoopid]

Only Two Years!

At the rate these pom's are filling their current very overcrowded prisons, looks like they will have to bring back prison hulks and transportation, to the far lung outposts of the new empire like Basra in Iraq!

[ajbright]

Where do you draw the line?

It may be that two years seems lenient, but if you were to visit a British prison I doubt you'd think so afterwards, but that's not my point.

My point is when you look a violent crime in general. Do you send a person that stole money, caused hardship and permanently wrecked someone's credit to jail for the same amount of time as the average rapist or those that commit acts of violence while carrying out a robbery?

I mention this not because 1 1/2, 2 or 3 year sentences are correct for such actions, but because often those are the sentences - and by giving someone an equivalent sentence for identity theft the government would be saying it's no worse to rape someone than steal their identity.

Again I would point out that even 6 months in one of Her Majesty's boarding homes is long enough for any but the hardiest of criminals to instantly regret their actions - especially after being greeted on the first night with soon to be intimate on a level you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy cell mates.

[kamwmail-cnet1]

It would take victims MORE than 2 years to fix credit.

Here's a suggestion: psychologically condition the perps to go into convulsions if they come near any financial transactions. They misused it, now they shouldn't be allowed to use it. And if it "inconvience" these perps --- tough f#cking sht! I'm sure the victims are plenty inconvienced too.