Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduces Legislation to Combat Cyber Theft

The United States would take aggressive new steps against computer espionage and theft of valuable commercial data under bipartisan legislation introduced by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI), John McCain (R-AZ), and Tom Coburn (R-OK).

The Deter Cyber Theft Act would combat what National Security Agency head and U.S. Cyber Command commander Gen. Keith Alexander recently called “the greatest transfer of wealth in history” – the theft of valuable intellectual property from U.S. companies, which invest billions every year in research and development, only to be targeted by foreign countries and companies that illegally access valuable data and then use it to compete against American companies and workers.

The Deter Cyber Theft Act would require the Director of National Intelligence to compile an annual report on foreign economic and industrial espionage that includes:

• A list of foreign countries that engage in economic or industrial espionage in cyberspace against U.S. firms or individuals, including a priority watch list of the worst offenders;
• A list of U.S. technologies or proprietary information targeted by such espionage, and, to the extent possible, a list of such information that has been stolen;
• A list of items produced using such stolen information;
• A list of foreign companies, including state-owned firms, that benefit from such theft;
• Details of the espionage activities of foreign countries; and
• Actions taken by the DNI and other federal agencies to combat industrial or economic espionage in cyberspace.

The legislation would also require the president to block import of products containing stolen U.S. technology; products made by state-owned enterprises of nations on the DNI’s priority watch list that are similar to items identified in the DNI’s report as stolen or targeted U.S. technology; or made by a company the DNI identifies as having benefited from theft of U.S. technology or proprietary information.