The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act has several subsections that can be applied to "hackers" and/or trojan programs. While there is a $5,000 damage threshhold for 1030(a)(5), the main anti-hacking subsection, 1030(a)(2) prevents the unauthorized access to "information" - which, although mostly a misdemeanor, does not require the high damage estimate to invole federal jurisdiction.

"intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains... information from any protected computer if the conduct involved an interstate or foreign communication."

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