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New law designed to tackle how the U.S. government handles cybercrimes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, President Biden signed the Better Cybercrime Metrics Act. Co-sponsored by Utah Rep. Blake Moore, the law establishes requirements to improve data collection related to cybercrime and cyber-enabled crime.

The bill passed through the Senate unanimously in 2021, and got through the House with a 377-48 vote in March.

“Cybercrime is one of the top security threats facing Americans today,” said Moore. “It is imperative that we equip the government to better understand and address the challenges of cybercrime so we can improve our national cybersecurity infrastructure.”

Better Cybercrime Metrics Act creates a better tracking system

A 2018 Gallup poll showed that nearly 25% of Americans have been a victim of cybercrime. The crimes included phishing, credit card fraud, and identity theft.

The Better Cybercrime Metrics Act is creates a system to track, measure and analyze cybercrime in the U.S.  Only an estimated one in 90 incidents is currently tracked by Internet Crime Complaint Center database. 

According to Moore, the  Better Cybercrime Metrics Act would improve federal cybercrime metrics by:

• Requiring the Government Accountability Office to report on the effectiveness of current cybercrime mechanisms and highlight disparities in reporting data between cybercrime data and other types of crime data
• Has the National Crime Victimization Survey incorporate questions related to cybercrime in its survey instrument
• Requiring the U.S. Department of Justice to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to develop a taxonomy for cybercrime that can be used by law enforcement, and
• Ensuring that the National Incident Based Reporting System — or any successor system — include cybercrime reports from federal, state, and local officials

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