HIGH-LEVEL CYBERCRIMES TO BE PROSECUTED IN THE US

United States experienced large number of attacks in the recent years. As organized cyberattacks continue to plague the United States, the Department of Justice hopes to shift focus towards prosecuting cybercriminals.

The large volume of cyberattacks aimed at U.S. infrastructure, including banks and private sector companies, has finally led the U.S. Justice Department to begin showing interest in prosecuting cyberattack crimes. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin is spearheading the project, with a more realistic emphasis on cyber security efforts.

Similar to the statement made during five days "MEETING" took place in Dar-es-salaam aimed to building capacity and knowledge/information sharing, Carlin recently noted in his statement made in the US.

 "We need to develop the capability and bandwidth to deal with what we can see as an evolving threat," Carlin recently noted. He is building a team around him able to understand the seriousness of state-sponsored cyberattacks, especially by the Chinese and Russian governments.

Instead of worrying about rogue hackers, the government wants to work to dismantle organized hacker groups that victimize US companies - and consumers, with millions

of victims racked up. This is an important step by the federal government, which tried to bury its head in the sand, though that not surprisingly hasn't worked.

Meanwhile, a local college student facing federal charges for taking part in an online hacking group was sentenced on Thursday 23 of October to two years in prison.

Daniel Krueger, 20, of Dix, was one of two leaders of the computer hacking group. He was a network administration student at Kaskaskia College at the time. More than 50 public and private computer systems were affected, including multiple universities, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Navy.

The co-defendant, Nicholas Paul Knight, 27, of Chantilly, Virginia, will be sentenced on November 21. Knight was an active-duty enlisted member of the Navy aboard the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman at the time of the hacking.

The breech put the private information of 220,000 sailors at risk. Federal prosecutors in Tulsa, Oklahoma handled the case.