Orange County Computer Lawyer Blog

Senate Seeks to Toughen Computer Crime Laws

Before lawmakers headed home for the Thanksgiving holiday, the United States Senate approved legislation toughening federal computer crime laws. The Senated passed The Identitity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act. The bill would make it a crime punishable by up to five years in prison for threatening to steal or release information from a computer. Victims of identity theft would also gain the right to seek restitution for the time and cost of restoring their credit record. The legislation would also make it a crime to impersonate businesses in order to steal sensitive personal data.

This last provision would presumably criminalize “vishing” as described in yesterday’s blog, where a bad guy poses as an employee of a financial institution to steal your personal information. Here’s the scary part: If the U.S. Senate is just now passing legislation to criminalize this conduct – legislation which still has to be passed by the House and signed by the President – what is the legal status of “vishing” now? Presumably such conduct could be prosecuted under other laws, but it points out how long it takes for the law to catch up with technology.