EU states agree on tougher sanctions on cybercrime

European Union countries agreed on June 10 on tougher sanctions against people conducting cyber attacks. Under the new rules, which have to be agreed by the European Parliament, hackers would face a sentence of at least five years if found guilty of causing serious damage to IT systems. Tougher penalties would also affect perpetrators of attacks through botnets -- networks of infected computers programmed to send spam e-mails -- and target identity theft. Illegally intercepting data would become a criminal offence in the EU. The EU's 27 member states have also decided to boost their judicial and police cooperation by creating a cybercrime unit which could be attached to Europol, the European police agency.