Attacks on government websites have fallen as would-be cyber terrorists are scared off by the threat of still sentences, it was claimed.
The US toughened up its laws in February following worries over the vulnerability of the world's IT systems.
Hackers now face life for putting lives at risk by electronic means.
Intelligence staff at digital security outfit mi2g said 38 UK government online systems were attacked in the first half of 2001 but the number fell to 12 in the same period this year.
But the company warned a significant rise in the number of attacks against web systems based on the Linux operating system.
It said there were 7,630 attacks against Linux systems in the first half of 2002. The total number of attacks in the first half of 2002 was 20,371, up by 27% from 16,007 last year.
