US Law to Isolate Cybercrime Harbors

According to a bill introduced on March 23, 2010 in the Senate, foreign countries that are negligence towards cybercrime would not be benefitted by US monetary assistance and resources.

The International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act handle the emerging problem for the banks and businesses operating in US - the ability of hackers to function with freedom all over international borders. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican from and Legislators Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat are the co-sponsors of the bill.

In past few years, hackers have become competent enough for hacking into the bank accounts of small business and consumers, and transferring the money abroad. Also, the hackers have become expert in converting hacked personal systems to botnet system networks, which, in turn, can be utilized for ID theft, spam and distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS).

It seems that many of those attacks have come from countries outside US, especially from the countries where there are no laws against cybercrime or the countries that do not implant those laws.

In that case, the bill would give special attention to countries, which show casual behavior towards cybercrime and initiate new protocols to tackle the problem.

Also, the International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act is aimed to motivate countries to fully cooperate with the authorities of US law enforcement. According to the proposed legalization, the president will offer a yearly assessment on worldwide cybercrime and can terminate financing, aid or trade schedules with countries, which do not perk up.

The proposal comes in at a time when lawmakers are highly concentrating on computer crime, which costs US businesses billions of dollars yearly. In 2005, the Government Accountability office found that because of cyber attacks; US businesses suffered losses of $67.2. Gillibrand's office stated that it is only after this that the attacks have soared up noticeably. Lately, policymakers have been concentrating on attacks against Google and other firms reportedly evolving in China.

Director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, James Lewis, claimed that he appreciated the proposal of legislation to assist countries to encourage cybersecurity, according to the news published by Federal Computer Week on March 24, 2010.

Related article: US Passes Baton to Asia in Spam Relay

» SPAMfighter News - 4/1/2010