Senators unveil bill to crack down on cyber criminals

A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday unveiled legislation intended to crack down on cyber criminals, who have increasingly posed a threat to critical U.S. organizations.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the International Cybercrime Prevention Act, which would enhance criminal violations for hackers targeting critical infrastructure such as dams, power plants, hospitals and election equipment.

It would also expand the Justice Department’s ability to go after botnet groups by allowing injunctions against botnets involved in certain destructive cyberattacks, destruction of data or other issues that pose a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The bill was previously introduced by the same sponsors in 2018, but did not get a vote in the Senate. Graham told reporters that he would “insist” on attempting to add the bill to any potential Senate agreement on an infrastructure package.