[JURIST] A judge for the District Court of The Hague [official website, in Dutch] on Tuesday approved [judgment, in Dutch] the extradition to the US of a Russian citizen suspected of involvement in a multimillion dollar computer hack. Vladimir Drinkman will be sent to New Jersey, where three other Russians and a Ukrainian citizen are charged in a data breach that gave them access to more than 160 million credit and debit card numbers and resulted in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars over seven years. Russia also requested Drinkman’s extradition for the purpose of a criminal investigation into his alleged involvement with the data breach. However, last October, a Dutch Minister of Justice and Security ruled in favor of the US extradition request. In front of The Hague District Court, Drinkman argued that his extradition to the US would allow him to be prosecuted in additional states other than New Jersey. According to Drinkman, this possibility would be in violation of the Extradition Treaty between the US and the Netherlands, which allows persecution for only the offenses for which extradition is requested. The judge ultimately based his decision to extradite to the US because the US requested Drinkman’s extradition first, stating that the Minister responsible for the October ruling reasonably could decide to give priority to the US extradition request.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced in 2013 [press release] that the federal indictment made public in New Jersey charged the five men with conspiring in a worldwide hacking and data breach scheme that targeted major corporate network. Due to cybercrime’s international reach, many countries have recently began to implement specific laws pertaining to the Internet and cyberspace. Last February the Philippines ruled constitutional [JURIST report] its Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 which combats various online crimes such as hacking, identify theft, child pornography and libel. In April 2013 the US House of Representatives passed [JURIST report] the controversial cybersecurity bill known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which was designed as a way to stop cyber attacks on US infrastructure as well as private companies. In 2012 a draft Iraqi cybercrime law was found [JURIST report] to violate the international standards protecting due process, freedom of speech and freedom of association, and was later revoked. In 2011 Australia introduced [JURIST report] the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill of 2011, which was aimed at reinforcing current cybercrime laws and improving Australia’s international cybercrime security.