Sunday, July 7, 2013

European Union Increases Penalties for Cybercriminals and Hackers

The European Union has decided to raise prison sentences for people found guilty of hacking, data breaches, and cyber-attacks.  Lawmakers from 28 nations have decided to assign harsher penalties to include increased prison sentences.  A person will receive two years for illegally accessing information systems and at least five years for cyber-attacks against infrastructure such as power plants, water systems, and transportation networks.

Other cybercrimes that receive penalty increases were the illegal interception of communications or the creation of tools for this purpose.  Also, any company that’s found guilty of using these tools or hires hackers to steal data will also be liable under the new law.


The only country that didn’t sign onto the new rules was Denmark because they want to keep their own sentences.  This is the first update to such laws since 2011 when lawmakers agreed to tougher penalties for cybercrimes.  The U.S. is working hard to clamp down on cybercriminals also.  Last month, members of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee proposed a new cyber theft law that would target hackers based in other countries.  Back in May, a group of senators proposed a similar bill call the “Deter Cyber Theft Act” to protect commercial data from foreign hackers and governments.

No comments:

Post a Comment