By Jenny Park

In December, the White House blamed North Korea for hacking Sony Pictures (Sony’s confidential information was leaked and the hackers threatened attacks on movie theaters that would play The Interview, a political satire comedy poking fun at Kim Jong-un). Now, the White House has authorized the US Treasury discretionary power to impose sanctions against perpetrators of cyber-attacks on US assets and infrastructure. President Obama declared cyber-attacks as “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges.” The White House stressed that this new power will not target internet free speech and will not replace traditional law enforcement responses to cyber-attacks.

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May 05, 2015

By Rick Mendenhall

Picture a bank heist. $45 million stolen. No guns. No alarms. No masks. Just secret meetings between international criminal cells, suitcases stuffed with hundreds of thousands in cash, and an international investigation encompassing law enforcement authorities in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Germany and Romania.

Throw in Bruce Willis, set it on Christmas day, and this sounds like Die-Hard 7.

Alas, no yippe ki yay was uttered, and this heist was very real. Armed only with debit cards and an internet connection, three men plus an unknown number of international co-conspirators ripped off forty-five million from both domestic and foreign banks. The DOJ, however, with the assistance of sixteen countries, swiftly apprehended the cyber-criminals, and a federal judge just entered a sentence against them.

This type of international cyber-crime, while splashy now, may be the norm of tomorrow. Please join Georgetown University Law Center Thursday December 4^th for a symposium entitled Cybercrime 2020: the Future of Online Crime and Investigations. Speakers will undoubtedly tackle both domestic and international legal issues.

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December 02, 2014