The Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman 'Patrick Leahy' reintroduced a revamped version of the "Personal
Data Privacy and Security Act" for tough criminal penalties for hackers,
that he originally authored in 2005.
During last Christmas Holidays, a
massive data breach had occurred at the shopping giant Target, involving hack
of 40 million credit & debit cards, used to pay for purchases at its 1500
stores nationwide in the U.S.
Reason:
"Target Data Breach? Seriously"?
In a statement, as published below, the Senator wrote:
"The recent data breach at
Target involving the debit and credit card data of as many as 40 million
customers during the Christmas holidays is a reminder that developing a
comprehensive national strategy to protect data privacy and cybersecurity
remains one of the most challenging and important issues facing our
Nation"
It
seems that the TARGET Breach was scheduled, as the best opportunity to ramp up
the cyber security laws against all kinds of Hackers.
Finally, on Wednesday he has
re-introduced a stricter version of the "Personal
Data Privacy and Security Act" bill that aims to protect Americans’
data from cyber criminals. He wrote in a statement,
"The
Personal Data Privacy and Security Act will help to meet this challenge, by
better protecting Americans from the growing threats of data breaches and identity
theft."
In his proposal, the companies with
databases containing sensitive customer information will have to adopt a
'nationwide standard' of internal policies to defend against cyber attacks. It
will also provide an alert notice to all Americans users, when they have been
victims of such data breach.
No Doubt, I am also in favor to give strict
sentences to the Cyber criminals who are involved in Malware related crimes,
financial hacks, cyber bullying, espionage or spying, but this Bill now also
covers strict sentencing for hactivists and hackers who have nothing to do with
financial data. I have explained these facts about the bill as follow:
Obviously,
I smell a Rat here!
New
Penalty - 20 Years, rather than 10: Another
most important modification is proposed to increase the maximum sentence for a
first-time offender from 10 years to 20.
Cyber
Criminal = Hacktivist = Anonymous = Cyber Fraud ≠ NSA: Unfortunately, this Bill will also apply to all types of
hackers, who is involved in Data Breaches, Cyber Fraud activities, Identity
theft, Malware developers as well as on the other hackers including Anonymous,
Hacktivist etc. who is not hacking for financial benefits.
“The
bill also includes the Obama administration’s proposal to update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, so that
attempted computer hacking and conspiracy to commit computer hacking offenses
are subject to the same criminal penalties, as the underlying offenses."
If you haven’t forgotten the news of
the Hactivist Jeremy Hammond, who was sentenced 10 years in prison under the
same Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for hacking into private intelligence
contractor Stratfor and attempting to highlight Stratfor’s work as a private
intelligence firm.
He exposed Surveillance operation
done by Stratfor on the political protesters at the behest of both private
companies and the government. His attack was for political purpose, rather than
financial.
Attempt
to Hack = Successfully Hacked:
If you are even planning to hack someone, then, according to this updated Bill,
you are also considered as a Criminal. The Senator also proposed that the
hackers who are unsuccessful in their actions are punished as severely as more
accomplished ones regardless.
Considering the NSA's unethical Hacking operation? Now that’s interesting! Whistle-blowing comes
under a massive crime, but spying on the whole world by the their own NSA comes
under nothing from any above??
Recently, The Security researcher
Jacob Appelbaum accused the NSA of illegally hacking the massive amounts of
private data of users under the guise of counterterrorism. “NSA gets to do
something like intercepting 7 billion people all day long with no problems. And
the rest of us are not even allowed to experiment with improving the security
of our own lives without being put in prison or under threat of serious
indictment.” he said.
Making Laws more strict for hackers
with criminal or Fraud activities is OKAY, but what about the team of hackers
who are unethically hacking into world's telecommunication companies, devices
or the database of Big Internet companies?
Now, this is something on what U.S Government
won't give a damn look!
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