Fergie's Tech Blog

Proposed U.S. Law Would Single Out Cyber Crime Havens

Robert McMillan writes on ComputerWorld:

A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate Tuesday would compel the White House to identify international cybercrime havens and establish plans for cleaning them up.

The International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act takes on a growing problem for banks and U.S. businesses: the ability for cybercriminals to operate with impunity across international borders. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, and Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah.

In recent years, cybercriminals have mastered techniques for hacking into consumer and small-business bank accounts and moving money overseas. They have also become adept at converting hacked personal computers into botnet computer networks, which then can be used for spam, distributed denial of service attacks and ID theft.

The bill would shine a spotlight on countries that are thought to be soft on cybercrime and introduce new protocols for addressing the problem.

posted by Fergie @ 3/23/2010 03:52:00 PM