Members of the U.S.
House of Representatives Intelligence Committee are in the middle of proposing
a new cybertheft law that would target hackers based in other countries,
according to Reuters.
The bill, which
doesn't yet have a name, is to be introduced on Thursday by Rep. Mike Rogers
(R-Mich.), Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc). These
lawmakers have said that the intent of the law will be to go after hackers from
"offending nations" and deliver "real consequences and
punishments."
Of those countries
said to be cyber spying on the U.S. and possibly
stealing data from the government and various companies are China, Russia,
Iran, and others.
"Cyber hackers
from nation-states like China and Russia have been aggressively targeting U.S.
markets, stealing valuable intellectual property, and then repurposing it and
selling it as their own," Rogers' office said while announcing plans for
the bill's introduction, according to Reuters.
China has bared the
brunt of the most recent cyberattack accusations. After The
New York Times admitted in January to being the victim of a lengthy hack
that it believed was propagated by the Chinese government to spy on its
journalists, The
Wall Street Journal, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and dozens
of other companies and news sources said their sites were hacked too, most
likely by the same source.
A study
by Mandiant published in February linked China's People's Liberation Army
to the large number of cyberattacks. And in March, the Obama administration
demanded that China end
its "unprecedented" campaign of cyberespionage, warning that the
hacking activity threatened to derail efforts to build stronger ties between
the two countries.
In May, the Pentagon
published a report claiming that the Chinese government and military have
been engaged in widespread cyberespionage that has targeted U.S. government and
business computer networks. However, the Chinese government has flatly
denied it is involved with any of the recent hacking or cyberespionage.
The news of the upcoming cybertheft bill comes on the eve of Chinese
President Xi Jinping's visit to the U.S. According to Reuters, President Obama
plans to discuss China's alleged cyberattacks on the U.S. with Xi.
A group of senators proposed
a similar bill called the "Deter Cyber Theft Act" last month. The
goal of this legislation is to protect commercial data from foreign hackers and
governments. If passed, this law would require that an annual report be written
to list the countries involved in cyberespionage and highlight the worst
offenders. (source: cnet)
Post a Comment