Senate passes cybercrime bill aimed at victim restitution

11/16/2007

(IDG News Service) -- The Senate has passed a bill that would allow victims of online identity theft schemes to seek restitution from criminals and expands the definition of cyberextortion.

The Senate passed the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act by unanimous consent Thursday. The bill, introduced a month ago by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, allows victims of identity theft to seek restitution for the time they spend to fix the problems. The bill would allow prosecutors to go after criminals who threaten to take or release information from computers with cyberextortion, and it would allow prosecutors to charge cybercriminals with conspiracy to commit a cybercrime.

Current law only permits the prosecution of criminals who seek to extort companies or government agencies by explicitly threatening to shut down or damage a computer.

The bill would also make it a felony to use spyware or keystroke loggers to damage 10 or more computers, even if the amount of damage was less than $5,000. In the past, damage of less than $5,000 was a misdemeanor.

The legislation, among other things, would also allow the federal prosecution of those who steal personal information from a computer even when the victim's computer is in the same state as the attacker's computer. Under current law, federal courts only have jurisdiction if the thief attacks from another state, according to Leahy's office.

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