For quite some time, the White House has implied that the sentences for breaking into government and other private networks should be made more severe. Now, following the recent incident during which both the CIA and the Senate’s websites were hacked, the Obama administration is urging Congress to instill stronger, more reliable internet security, as well as to double the maximum sentence for such crimes, to 20 years in prison.
The proposal has not yet been approved, but the issue of cyber-security and internet crime is becoming more and more serious in recent months. Computer hackings have been targeting large, international companies and organizations such as Sony Corp, Citigroup and the International Monetary Fund. Other loosely organized groups have claimed to have broken into both the Senate’s and the CIA’s websites.
“It’s been a busy month,” said James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Lewis explains that the “hacktivists” made a “big mistake” by hacking the FBI and CIA sites. “That bumps it up immediately,” he explained. “That could make it a grudge match.”