China working to toughen up hacking laws

From InfoWorld: Chinese police and judicial officials are formulating new measures that govern how hacking crimes are handled by courts, the country's latest step to strengthen its cyber laws, state media reported.

China's police are working with the country's highest investigative organ and the Supreme People's Court to release a judicial interpretation on hacking crimes, according to the People's Daily, the official paper of the Communist Party, citing a Chinese police representative. The report gave no details, but such documents are used to direct lower-level Chinese courts on how to apply laws.

The move would be the latest of China's efforts to strengthen laws against cyber crime, which have come alongside a growing number of reported arrests and court sentences for hacking in the country in the last year.

The report comes after Google last month drew global attention to hacking in China by saying it had been hit by cyber attacks from the country. Google cited the attacks, which resulted in the loss of intellectual property, as one reason it plans to stop censoring its China-based search engine, even if the move forces it to shut down its China offices.

China's national political advisory body has also called for changes to a law on online information safety and other measures intended to reduce cyber crime, according to the state-run China News Service.

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