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On February 23, 2021, a bipartisan group of leading Congress members introduced the Cyber Diplomacy Act of 2021. Jim Langevin (D-RI), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee s Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, and Republican Michael McCaul (R-TX), the Republican lead on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, are top sponsors of the legislation.
The bill, which revives legislation introduced during the last two Congresses, establishes an Office of International Cyberspace Policy within the State Department. It also aims to promote American international leadership on cybersecurity, a primary goal of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, which Langevin co-chairs.
A Road Map for Tackling Cybercrime
J. Edgar Hoover Building (Brunswyk, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington DC FBI J. Edgar Hoover Building Brunswyk (2012). Edgar Hoover Building Brunswyk (2012) retouched.jpg; CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
As the United States moved to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, the criminals took notice and acted. After the pandemic’s onset, the FBI saw an uptick in daily cybercrime reports in April of more than 400 percent compared to typical complaint rates. But the recent surge in ransomware attacks against health care systems, such as the University of Vermont’s Health Network, demonstrates that the impact of ransomware isn’t limited to financial crimes. What was initially dismissed as a digital version of extortion has now turned into a crime of life and death, as Germany has tragically found.