Cyber Punishments

Through the years cybercrimes have been happening more frequently and policies have
needed to be created and adjusted because now we are currently in ‘the age of technology’, with
people of all ages with phones and access to the internet. With that access comes the higher
ability for people to be manipulated and scammed through emails, texts, or any other form of
cybercrime imaginable. Thankfully, the governments and other companies seem to be learning
about these cybercrimes and punishments, and adjusting those punishments. Sometimes just as
much as regular crimes. They have punishments and laws for both companies not following the
correct guidelines within cybersecurity and for people who actually commit cybercrimes.
In the article “Cyber Crime in the Society: Problems and Preventions” the author
mentions that for cybercrimes the computer or electronics can be used as tools for the crime with
an individual as the target or with the devices as the target (Dashora 2011). According to Mike
Doyle in the book “Cybercrime: An Overview of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Statute
and Related Federal Criminal Laws”, The Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA) is a cyber law
that essentially outlaws any actions that victimizes computer systems. This victimization can
include computer trespassing or hacking, exposure of any sensitive information like government
information or credit information, committing fraud, espionage, and more (Doyle 2014). Dashora
includes cyber defamation, cyber stalking, and certain pornography as those types of crimes as
well (nDashora 2011). In the article “Cybersecurity Laws & Regulations 2024” it is mentioned
that cybercrimes like denial of service, phishing, electronic theft, and more have different laws
and punishments that go with them, depending on which occurs and to whom because, the
punishments seem to get more severe when the government is a victim (McNicholas 2023).

The laws and policies around these crimes, made by the Federal Trade Commision
(FTC), Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), and others, include parts of cybersecurity like
monitoring, detection, prevention, and mitigation against threats, as well as how to proceed in
case of a threat. In many cases when the minimum requirements of these policies are not met,
there are punishments for the companies not following the guidelines. These punishments are
typically fines (McNicholas 2023).
In Doyle’s book it is also mentioned that there are different pentaties depending on what
crime is committed and the exact damage that is done during said crime. For example, the
penalties for attempts to violate or actually violate the punishment can be either up to 10 years in
prison, up to $100,000 in fines, or some of both. For damage to computers it depends on whether
the damage was intentional or not and how much damage was done to the devices. For damages
the punishments can be up to 20 years in prison and/ or up to $250,000 in fines (Doyle 2014).
In the “Cybercrime and the Law: CFAA” article it is mentioned at the beginning that the
creation of the CFAA originated in 1984 after a movie came out depicting a student hacking into
the US nuclear sites and having access to the bombs. As a result of the worry the movie caused,
the president at the time, Ronald Regan, passed this law. Though before it included less detail
and it has been edited many times since then to outline more crimes and punishments (Berris
2020).
Because of the fact that the CFAA outlines the range of punishments for different types
of cybercrimes it lines up with the policies that the FTC and SEC place to better prepare
companies and even the government from them. If you have minimal cybersecurity or less than
what is required then you put yourself and any potential customers at risk of exposure, fraud, and a number of other possible crimes. So those national cybersecurity policies aim to help everyone
better protect themselves from the crimes listed in the CFAA (Doyle 2014).

References

Berris, Peter G. “Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the 116th Congress.” Congressional
Research Service, 21 Sept. 2020, crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46536.
Dashora, Kamini. “Cyber Crime in the Society: Problems and Preventions.” Journal of Alternative
Perspectives in the Social Sciences, Vol 3, no. No 1, 2011, pp. 240–259.
Doyle, Mike. Cybercrime an Overview of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Statute and Related
Federal Criminal Laws. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.
McNicholas, Edward, and Kevin Angle. Cybersecurity Laws and Regulations USA 2024. Global Legal
Group, 2023.