Senators take on cyber spying

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation to crack down on people and businesses that steal valuable economic secrets from American companies.

They say that the Deter Cyber Theft Act is necessary to protect US firms from foreign hackers who try to break in, steal their valuable secrets and strategies and then ship that information abroad.

The bill comes days after the Obama Administration filed landmark charges against a team of Chinese hackers for stealing trade secrets from American companies.

“It is time to fight back to protect American businesses and American innovation,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI), in a statement. “Battling the wave of computer espionage targeting the American economy requires law enforcement actions such as the indictment, and it requires action by Congress to hit those who profit from these crimes where they’ll feel it: in the wallet.”

Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sens John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) joined Sen Levin to introduce the bill. The Deter Cyber Theft Act would allow the Treasury Department to impose sanctions and freeze monetary assets of people behind the cyber snooping. Additionally, it would require the director of national intelligence to publish an annual report naming which countries target US company information through computer espionage, as well as a watch list of egregious offenders, how stolen information is being used and what the federal government is doing about it.