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Obama Authorizes Penalties For Foreign Cyber Attackers

Posted by samzenpus on from the laying-down-the-law dept.

An anonymous reader writes President Barack Obama has today signed an executive order extending the U.S. administration's power to respond to malicious cyberattacks and espionage campaigns. The order enforces financial sanctions on foreign hackers who action attacks against American businesses, institutions and citizens. It will enable the secretary of the Treasury, along with the attorney general and secretary of State, to inflict penalties on cyber criminals behind hacking attacks which "create a significant threat to U.S. national security, foreign policy or economic health or financial stability of the United States," Obama said. Sanctions could include freezing of assets or a total ban on commercial trade.

5 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Hypocracy at its best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And what about the non-stop attacks from the US government against... everyone else?

  2. How can foreigners be charged under US law? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is ridiculous. Law is part of the agreement between citizens and their government. Citizens get certain benefits like public education and healthcare, and in return must pay the government taxes and obey their laws. If the citizen disagrees with this, he can resign his citizenship, but by doing so loses the benefits of citizenship as well.

    Foreigners, on the other hand, have no such agreement, and therefore it's ridiculous to charge them. What's next, Saudi Arabia charges me for having a beer tonight? North Korea charges me for criticizing their regime? Should I serious have to look up every single country's law before I do something, just to make sure I'm not breaking some obscure country's law?

    1. Re:How can foreigners be charged under US law? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, I'm aware that "asset forfeiture" is the catchall reason our government can use to steal private assets when it knows there is no law on its side, but trying to use this power internationally is going to elicit - I hope to hell, anyway - an armed response.

    2. Re:How can foreigners be charged under US law? by msobkow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Funny. The Russians seem to have your backs to the wall over the Ukraine...

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  3. The USA government can never be wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Don't you ever bad-mouth the US government or their dogs will be after you for the rest of your pathetic life

    Look at what happened to Gaddafi of Libya of Saddam of Iraq and you will understand that you can *NEVER* say anything bad about the government of the United States of America

    When (and if) the USA attacks you, it is YOU who must be bad, as USA is the de-facto "good guy" in the whole goddamn world