US May Go Global to Tackle War on Cybercrime

The United States is taking serious steps to curb crime on the Internet by taking a global initiative to curb new threats.

Two United States senators have proposed new legislation that would require the US government to monitor the cybercrime posture of other countries. A bill proposed by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) would require the government to track cybercrime internationally and either aid or sanction countries based on their activities.

The International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act has been referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The text of the bill is not yet available. Under the act, the President would be required to report annually to the Congress on the state of various Internet crime protections and law enforcement in different countries. This would be used to direct aid resources.

Just this month, the U.S. was urged to curb hackers as the threats and attacks increased to new heights. It was implied that the current efforts are just not enough. Something else had to be done and taking a new global approach could be the answer.

For each country of cyber concern, the President would establish an action plan with benchmarks designed to assist the government of each country to improve its capacity to combat cybercrime. Countries of cyber concern that do not reach their benchmarks would face restrictions in financing, trade, or other assistance from the United States. The bill would also require the Secretary of State to designate a senior official at the State Department to coordinate and focus on activities, policies and opportunities to combat cybercrime internationally.

The bill's introduction comes in the wake of recent news headlines which claimed "hackers in China launched a large, sophisticated attack on Google and other American businesses." The bill's backers include Cisco, HP, Microsoft, Symantec, PayPal, eBay, McAfee, American Express, Mastercard, Visa, and Facebook. The roster of backers suggest that the bill is receiving support both from victims of cybercrime and from vendors that hope to sell solutions.

Do you think this is the right approach to deal with cybercrime? Instead of a centralized focus on just the United States, would taking a global approach be more of an effective strategy?