Magendanz’ Washington Cybercrime Act signed into law

April 2, 2016

Cybercrime costs consumers billions of dollars every year.  Almost anyone who owns technology today is at risk.  Now, the governor has signed into law a bill that will give prosecutors additional power to punish those behind cybercrime.  Ruth Johnson reports from Olympia.

Johnson:  Chad Magendanz, a state representative from Issaquah, and a 20 year veteran of Microsoft, says the sophistication of the cybercriminal is growing faster than the ability of the law to properly litigate.

Magendanz: “Some very inventive prosecutors have been able to take some of the old criminal statutes and apply them to cybercrime, but for the most part, we are not recognizing entire categories of crime. This is all about giving prosecutors 21st Century tools to deal with 21st Century crimes.”

Johnson:  The statute was put on the books by the governor (Friday).  It targets new classes of cybercrime:  tampering, spoofing, and denial of service attacks, while keeping existing rules on identity theft and computer trespass alive.  The law, says Magendanz, has been badly in need of an upgrade.

Ruth Johnson, Olympia.