Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Senate Passes Cybercrime Bill

William Jackson writes on GCN.com:

The Senate on Thursday passed a bill amending federal law to directly address online crimes, including identity theft.

The Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2007 was passed by unanimous consent. It is one of a host of bills before Congress that would deal with what many in the information technology industry and law enforcement say are holes in the current legal structure regarding cybercrime. A similar bill in the House has not moved out of subcommittee.

The Senate bill would amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code to specifically address conspiracy to commit cybercrime and close loopholes to prohibit online extortion and address botnets — networks of compromised computers used by criminals to launch attacks and conduct fraudulent activity — by making it a crime to damage 10 or more computers in a year. It also would give victims of identify theft a chance to seek restitution in federal court for the loss of time and money spent restoring their credit.

posted by Fergie @ 11/16/2007 12:05:00 PM