The Internet has opened the world to new possibilities, as well as new threats. As such, governments everywhere are working to put laws and regulations into place to protect people, businesses and groups, to varying degrees of effectiveness. The latest attempt is the “Deter Cyber Theft Act,” introduced by a group of U.S. senators to protect trade secrets.

The “Deter Cyber Theft Act” is intended to protect products that contain intellectual property from theft and reselling. It was introduced by a group of four senators – two Democrats and two Republicans – mainly as a means of fighting against cyber espionage, designed to block the imports of products from companies that are benefiting from cyber theft.

Under the proposed act, the Director of National Intelligence would have to create an annual report of countries involved in economic or industrial cyber-espionage against the United States, and the companies and government entities that are benefiting from it. Included in the report would be the information targeted, intellectual property stolen, and what was created from the stolen information.

With that information, the president would then be required to take action to block the import of products that benefited from the cyber theft. Admittedly, the current description of what kind of products and benefits is pretty broad, but it is still a work in progress.

Of course, the report would also list steps the DNI and similar agencies took to prevent the theft, but it is also important to learn how the cyber thieves stole the information, so it can be better protected, and future thefts prevented.

While this is an undertaking that can help many businesses that have been hurt by cyber theft, it may still prove difficult to enforce. If the cyber theft is done correctly, there won’t be any evidence of who took it or how, and if it’s done in such a way that the perpetrator is conclusively caught, there should be more penalties than saying “Well, I’m not buying from you anymore, so there.” Still, it is a start, and hopefully will become something more effective and efficient. Until then, business owners, employees, and anyone with access to company data are advised to ensure their security measures are complete and up-to-date.