House committee OKs bill to counter stolen credit card forums

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill aimed at cracking down on the cyber thieves who profit from stolen credit card information.

{mosads}The Cybercrime Anti-Resale Deterrent and Extraterritoriality Revision (CARDER) Act would give law enforcement more tools to go after foreign criminals who sell credit card data stolen from Americans to fraudsters, often on dark Web forums. Known as “carders,” these middlemen bring together hackers who have stolen credit card data and criminals who make illegal purchases with the pilfered information.

“Security breaches and the theft of American credit card data have reached epidemic proportions, costing time and money for both businesses and consumers,” Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), who is backing the measure along with Rep. Randy Forbes, (R-Va.), said in a statement shortly after the bill passed by voice vote.

“Cyber crime has a very real financial impact on those affected, and also on the underlying cost of doing business, and we must provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to bring these criminals to justice,” Langevin added.

The CARDER Act would remove some barriers its backers say are preventing the Department of Justice (DOJ) from going after people who operate overseas forums selling stolen credit card data.

Current law requires the DOJ to prove that information used in the fraud or profits were “moved through the United States.”

But many of these “carders” operate overseas and are not involved in actual hacking or the subsequent fraud, often keeping them immune from legal action, according to the bill’s supporters. 

The CARDER Act would allow DOJ prosecutors to go after anyone caught with stolen credit card data with an intent to defraud, regardless of where they or their profits are located, as long as a U.S. company issued the card.

The bill, Forbes said, would “ensure bulky, outdated requirements don’t hinder the Department of Justice’s ability to prosecute criminals outside the U.S. who commit crimes that harm Americans.”

There is no specific timeline for the bill to head to the full House floor. But if the CARDER Act does ultimately pass the lower chamber, the Senate has already approved identical language as part of its recent cybersecurity bill, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), according to Langevin’s office.