Absolutely, we're not there yet. But as the quantity of crimes continues to rise, so will the quantity of prosecutions.
I am affected by the bozo with a cablemodem who's computer is p0wned by a hacker ring running out of russia that is using his computer to generate spam that I have to deal with, both on my mailservers, and in my inbox. Its the cyber-equivalent to the bozo driving down the street on bald tires and no breaks who is a direct physical danger to everyone around him.
Excellent analogy.
I suspect that eventually there will be laws and other regulations about computing whereby the user will be held liable to some degree for leaving his system wide open to attackers, in much the same way that you can be fined for leaving the keys in your ignition in many Amerian jurisdictions.
Possible, but the charges against someone leaving their keys in their car won't be as severe as the charges against a person who may have stolen the car.
I think it is going to take a while for us to catch up to some of he new threats and responsibilities that come from being a networked, computing society.
It'll turn out like everything else. Want something good, reliable, and safe? You'll have to open your wallet, or be such an expert you can build and maintain it yourself, which is getting harder and harder even with cars.
You ain't kidding. Modern cars are becoming more like black boxes than anything else. One trend I've noticed is that folks who are really into performance, are learning how to get computers to work for them. It's really neat seeing the insane amounts of information a modern automobile can output through it's computer.
Geeks and Mechanics, Unite!