The White House’s proposal to increase prison sentences for hackers and make lesser offenses criminal will boost the ability of both prosecutors and companies to combat increasingly prevalent cyberattacks but won’t be a significant deterrent without the passage of complementary measures to better detect and track intrusions.
While certain provisions are likely to be beneficial, one of the main features of the legislative proposal — the implementation of stricter criminal penalties — is unlikely to provide the kind of deterrent necessary to stop criminal actors, according to attorneys.
“While increasing the ceiling to 20 years is helpful at the higher end of the spectrum by allowing for the more egregious types of crimes to be met with stiffer sentences, at the end of the day these types of crimes will still be penalized based on their specific facts and circumstances,” McCarter & English LLP partner and former federal prosecutor Scott Christie said.