Mike Rounds calls for harsher penalties for those perpetrating cybercrimes.
More severe penalties would be imposed on cyber-criminals under new proposed legislation.
Introduced by U.S. Senator Mike Rounds, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Cybersecurity Subcommittee, the Cyber Conspiracy Modernization Act would amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to create a specific penalty for the crime of conspiracy under the CFAA.
A statement from Rounds stated that there is currently no crime of conspiracy that is specific to the CFAA, meaning the U.S. Department of Justice charges conspiracy to commit cybercrimes under a general statute, rather than under the cyber-specific CFAA.
While the general conspiracy statute has a maximum penalty of five years, a CFAA-specific conspiracy charge would be anywhere from ten years to life imprisonment depending on severity.
“As cyber technologies continue to rapidly evolve, we need more people working to secure cyberspace as well as harsher penalties for those perpetrating these crimes,” said Rounds.
“As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, I am committed to working on policies that strengthen the United States’ ability to respond quickly and decisively to cyberattacks which have been on the rise.”
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
