14 DAY TRIAL // US House Representatives Mike Rogers and Tim Ryan, and Senator Ron Johnson have introduced a new law that represents new efforts to punish foreign state-sponsored cybercriminals.
According to the initiators of the bill, the Cyber Economic Espionage Accountability Act is aimed at cyber spies backed by China, Russia and other foreign governments.
“This is a vital step to let China know that there are real consequences to stealing American intellectual property and robbing U.S. ingenuity and innovation in order to gain competitive advantage,” Rogers commented.
“It’s happening at an alarming rate. It is one of my top national security concerns. This rampant theft is crushing American jobs. We need to identify these economic cyber criminals and create valid consequences to prevent them from undermining our economy and compromising U.S. national security.”
The Cyber Economic Espionage Accountability Act encourages the US Department of Justice to pursue foreign actors engaged in economic espionage.
"Theft of U.S. intellectual property is costing our economy an estimated $300 billion a year. It costs American jobs, innovation, and threatens national security. It's time there are repercussions for these brazen acts taken by foreign actors,” Senator Ron Johnson explained.
“This bill is a simple, common-sense measure. It directs the Administration to develop a list of cyber spies, make that list public, and enforce penalties for those bad actors.”
The penalties Johnson is talking about refer to denying the right to obtain a US visa for foreign agents caught participating in cybercrimes.
In case the offenders already have a visa and they’re residing in the US, their visa would be revoked and all their financial assets would be frozen.
“This bill will give the President and Congress the power and oversight to deal with foreign cyber espionage in a meaningful way,” said Congressman Tim Ryan.
“Stealing intellectual property not only threatens the manufacturing jobs we have—it threatens the jobs we are trying to create. We need to ensure that countries like China and Russia no longer gain a competitive advantage through cyber crimes.”