The European Commission plans to introduce harsher penalties
for cybercriminals.
New laws could see jail terms for cybercrimes increased to more
than five years, according to the
Financial Times.
EC cybercrime officials say the current jail terms of one to
three years are not severe enough to dissuade criminals responsible
for increasing numbers of large-scale cyber attacks.
International cybercriminals are moving at lightning speed to
defeat corporate security, attendees heard at the
eCrime Congress 2009 in London in March.
Cybercriminals targeted an estimated 4.7 million computers in
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in 2008, according to the
latest
internet threat report from security firm Symantec.
The EC wants to bring all 27 EU member states in line with
countries like the UK, France and Germany, which have longer
sentences for cybercrime.
The EC also plans to set up a regional reporting system to
enable EU member states to notify each other quickly of cyber
attacks and related prosecutions to help improve security.
The new rules will be introduced when the EC updates the Council
Framework Decision on Attacks Against Information Systems. The
update is expected to be published at the end of this year.
The EC has a budget of £47m from the Safer Internet fund, which
it plans to use to fund projects aimed at fighting cybercrime over
the next four years.