National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996

National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996 - Revises Federal criminal code provisions regarding fraud and related activity in connection with computers. Sets penalties with respect to anyone who having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access, obtains specified restricted information or data, and, with reason to believe that such information could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, or transmits it to any person not entitled to receive it (or causes or attempts such communication) or willfully retains it and fails to deliver it to the U.S. officer or employee entitled to receive it.

Sets penalties for: (1) intentionally accessing a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access and thereby obtaining information from any U.S. department or agency, or from any protected computer if the conduct involved an interstate or foreign communication; (2) intentionally accessing, without authorization, any computer of a U.S. department or agency that is exclusively for use by or for the U.S. Government or, in the case of a computer not exclusively for such use, that is used by or for the U.S. Government if such conduct affects the use of the Government's operation of such computer; (3) knowingly and with intent to defraud, accessing a protected computer without authorization, or exceeding authorized access, and furthering the intended fraud and obtaining anything of value, unless the object of the fraud and the thing obtained consists only of the use of the computer and the value of such use is not more than $5,000 in any one-year period; (4) knowingly causing the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and, as a result, intentionally causing damage without authorization to a protected computer, intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and recklessly causing damage, or intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and causing damage; and (5) with intent to extort from any person or legal entity any thing of value, transmitting in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing a threat to cause damage to a protected computer.

Increases penalties for fraud and related activity in connection with computers.