It has been more than 200 years since the United States has published a brand letter allowing the corsairs to attack the ships of the foreign nations, but these letters can return to empower cyber operators if a bill introduced to the congress really succeeds in passing.
The Republican of Arizona David Schweikert presented the scam and the authorization to reprisals from 2025 to the House of Representatives last week. If it is signed, it would give the American president a lot of latitude to issue brand letters to create an armada of Internet corsairs.
Brand letters were popular in the era of sailing, many possible hackers making their debut as corsairs working for the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and other naval powers of the time. The United States has published brand letters for the last time during the War of 1812, giving the corsairs the right to wage war against British ships.
According to Schweikert’s Declaration of Schweikert on the bill published today, the Congress still has the power to allow the problems of brand letters and reprisals, and that is exactly what we think we should do to fight against the cyber states posed by foreign countries.
“Our current tools do not follow the pace,” said Schweikert. “This legislation allows us to effectively initiate these criminals and to carry out responsibility and restitution to the digital battlefield by taking advantage of the same constitutional mechanism which has once helped to guarantee the maritime interests of our country.”
Schweikert drew attention to the growth of cybercrime loss, such as the 16.6 billion US dollars lost against scams last year, the highest in 25 years of file holding, as proof that our current ideas have not resolved the problem.
The text of the bill gives the president the power to issue marks and reprisals against anyone who determines “is a member of a criminal business or any conspirator associated with a company involved in cybercrime responsible for an act of aggression against the United States”.
This includes foreign governments.
The bill does not limit the number of cyber-rods that the President could command, the size of such a force only limited to what they judge are held “to use all the means reasonably necessary to seize outside the geographic limits of the United States and its territories and the goods of any individual or foreign government” involved in Cyber Hostile activities.
As was the case for the Corsairs in the ocean, Trump cyber-warriers are allowed to “recover stolen assets, prevent future attacks and defend critical infrastructure,” said Schweikert’s office. The age of sailing corsairs was often authorized to keep their assets seized, although this is not mentioned in the bill.
Be that as it may, Schweikert said: “Americans deserve protection against digital predators who exploit obsolete laws and hide in foreign jurisdictions”.
The adoption of the bill is far from being a safe thing, of course. Foreign governments faced with an American pirate force sanctioned by the government could no longer salute the issue.
Schweikert’s office told us that, having presented the bill until last week, the Congress member did not have time to put pressure for this with other elected officials, and the Schweikert team has not learned if the president would support the measure.
The director of communications of the Congress member told us that the idea is not this novel, with organizations paying bonuses similar to the pirates “to relax threats” instead of “paying or bending to the pirates”, said Mitchell Shedd The register in an email.
Beyond the need to counter cyber-men, Shedd said that cybercrime has also become a human rights problem.
“In Myanmar and China, people are treated and mistreated, forced to make these roles as crooks,” said Shedd. “The State Department has expressed its concerns, but these countries do not respond.”
Giving mark American ethical hackers, added Shedd, would help the United States not only protect American citizens, but also those who are abroad abroad. The question of whether the age of sailing tactics deserves to be prosecuted in the cyber era is now at the Congress to decide.