Given the intangible nature of "electronic properity" and the legal ambiguity surrounding malicious intent, we should not be surprised to find states amending extant criminal law to cover abuse by computer. A few states (e.g.,Alabama, Alaska, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Ohio) initially responded to the objective or perceived realities of computer-related abuses within the extant legal framework by incorporating crimes committed by computer into existing theft, trade secrets, or trespass laws (see Soma et al., 1985). Most jurisdictions, however, adopted a very different tactic. They defined computer crime as a unique legal problem and thereby created separate computer crime chapters in their criminal codes.