November 16, 2007 - Yesterday, the Senate passed a new cybercrime bill, targeting identity thieves. The Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2007 gives identity theft victims the right to seek restitution from criminals and provides additional funding to various law enforcement agencies to combat identity theft. Ironically, the bill passed within hours of an announcement from the Veterans Administration that it has lost several more computers containing the personal information on 12,000 veterans.

The new cybercrime bill passed through the Senate on a unanimous voice vote. The bill amends the law to make conspiracy to commit cybercrime a felony and closes a variety of loopholes in existing law. It provides penalties for online extortion and for the establishment of networks of hijacked computers - known as botnets - to conduct fraudulent online activities. It also makes it a crime to damage 10 or more computers in a year.

A similar bill is currently being considered by the House of Representatives. The House version of the bill has been stalled in Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security since June, and passage this year is by no means assured. Even so, the Senate's unanimous vote on the measure may be enough to get the House to move forward on the bill.

The timing of the Senate's action is somewhat ironic. It came at almost the same time that the VA was forced to announce another data breach. In its latest data security boondoggle, the VA had three computers stolen from medical facility in Roudebush, Indiana. The computers contained the names, addresses and Social Security Numbers on more than 12,000 patients who have been treated at the facility.

This theft is just the latest in a string of data breaches by the VA which have exposed nearly 30 million veterans, their families and some active duty military personnel to identity thieves over the past 24 months. Although the theft happened on Veteran's Day, the VA didn't notify Congress about it until yesterday.

In a prepared statement Congressman Steve Buyer (R-Ind) said, "It appears from this most recent breach that there are still some in the VA, even some responsible for the security of such data, who don't realize the importance of the security of the names and data of our veterans."

by Jim Malmberg

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