US Mulls Tougher Penalties For Criminal Use Of Proxy Servers

Many IT administrators already know that our end-users attempt to use anonymous proxy servers to bypass the organizations' proxy web gateway. They do it to either hide their activities or get around the organizations use policies on what's acceptable to visit on the web.

Now, there's even more incentive for IT administrators to make sure their end-users aren't using anonymous proxies to surf the web. Whether knowingly or unknowingly if an end-user uses an anonymous proxy to commit a crime, they could find themselves behind bars for a longer time period.

From redorbit.com:

The U.S. Sentencing Commission is set to hold a crucial vote on Wednesday regarding new federal sentencing guidelines that would classify the use of proxy servers as an indication of “sophistication.” Those facing such charges would face prison sentences about 25 percent longer than those called for under current sentencing guidelines. Depending on the crime, convicted criminals now face years or even decades longer behind bars,

Digital rights advocates are against these longer convictions, claiming "new guidelines might lead to unreasonably harsh sentences for technology neophytes who were unaware they were using proxies, or were merely engaging in a practice often encouraged as a safer way of surfing the Web".

If the commission votes in favor of the amendment, the change would go into effect Nov. 1 unless Congress takes the exceptional step of blocking it before then.

One other important item redorbit.com noted:

Criminals often use legitimate proxies that are misconfigured. Universities, corporations and home users who own such proxies are often unaware their bandwidth is being sucked up by cybercriminals trying to cover up their tracks.

These are two good reminders to make sure our proxy servers block access to anonymous proxies, and to make sure our proxies are configured correctly.