Under a bill introduced Tuesday in the Senate foreign countries that benign neglected to cybercrime will lose US financial assistance and resources.

The International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act is to require the President to identify "countries of cyber concern" and to plot a course to help each one get tougher on cybercrime.

Those countries that don't reach prescribed benchmarks would face economic penalties in the form of cuts to trade assistance grants, US export dollars and foreign-direct investment funds.

This bill, that has the support of about a dozen companies, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, eBay, Visa, and Mastercard, is sponsored by Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, and Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah.

The bill comes almost one year after senators introduced a separate bill that would establish a broad set of cybersecurity standards designed to bolster US cybersecurity.

The bills are intended to crack down on people who commit computer-based bank fraud, remote attacks on the networks of US-based citizens and businesses, and other types of cybercrime.

The International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act is supposed to bolster counties to cooperate more with US law enforcement officials.

The Act would require the President to issue a report every year that assesses the state of various countries' use of information and communications technologies in critical infrastructure.

The President would be required to develop an action plan for any country of concern, though the President could waive the requirement if the waiver was based on national interest. It would also require the Secretary of State to designate a senior official at the State Department to coordinate an international policy fighting against cybercrime.