Crime
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This week, I was proud to join my colleagues in supporting a bipartisan package of bills to combat human trafficking – a problem that is, unfortunately, proving more widespread here in Maryland than many other states because we are home to a convergence of international transportation options.
(Timonium, MD) – U.S. Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger today announced that the Baltimore County Fire Department and Abingdon Fire Company will receive nearly $2.4 million in federal funds to buy life-saving equipment.
It’s like a recurring bad dream.
March: Hackers allegedly stole the credit card numbers from more than 10 million Visa and MasterCard customers by breaking into the computer systems of the company's payment processor in New York. The thieves stockpiled the stolen credit card numbers for months before beginning to use them.
August: Cyber attackers disrupt production from Saudi ARAMCO, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil – taking out 30,000 computers in the process – according to the press.
BY REP. DUTCH RUPPERSBEGER and REP. MIKE ROGERS
The Chinese government has been quietly pursuing a strategy to help project that nation into superpower status. China steals as much intellectual property as it can from U.S. companies and uses it to artificially and unfairly compete in the global marketplace. Beijing uses this information to further its military modernization and, most important, to help fuel economic growth.
Few innovations have transformed humankind like the Internet. What began as a Department of Defense research project has morphed into a global system of interconnected networks making us more connected, more informed and more efficient. We pay our bills, get directions, seek out information, connect with our loved ones and put to use countless other new and vital applications. But all of these life-changing tools are at risk because the Internet is under attack.
American businesses are under attack. Right now, countless hackers in China – many sponsored by the government – are actively trying to steal valuable intellectual property from U.S. Fortune 500 companies. Every day, China, Russia, Iran and others are blatantly stealing reams of information from U.S.-owned computers.
This unprecedented heist, at an estimated cost of $1 trillion per year worldwide, includes the theft of the crown jewels of our economy: intellectual property created by American ingenuity and housed on corporate computer networks across our nation.