Cybercrime is a growing problem that affects nearly all of the world's nearly 200 nation-states. From ransomware attacks to rampant cryptocurrency theft, criminal exploitation of borderless digital systems threatens global economic security and the political welfare of all countries. In response, the United Nations has launched an initiative to develop a new and more inclusive approach to addressing cybercrime that would replace a two-decades-old international cybercrime convention. This revised global approach could spark new laws worldwide to battle cybercrime more effectively. On December 27, 2019, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to counter the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes. Through the resolution, the General Assembly established an open-ended ad hoc intergovernmental committee of experts from all countries to create the cybercrime convention, which will be voted on by the General Assembly at its 78th session starting in September. This convention will replace a convention on cybercrime developed in the 1990s and signed in Budapest in 2001, commonly referred to as the Budapest Cybercrime Convention. The ad hoc committee aims to create a new cybercrime convention that is more widely adopted and influential than the Budapest Convention. The US and other like-minded countries have been participating in the Ad Hoc Committees discussions to get views of Non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and the private sector. The drafts released at the fourth session in Vienna point to a range of provisions that go far beyond the strict parameters of cybercrime, suggesting room for improvement before the US and its like-minded allies could agree to a new convention. The first area for improvement is in the area of civil disputes, such as violating a sites terms of service. Another area to watch out for is clarifying the nature of intent when it comes to provisions that criminalize The serious and unlawful hindering of the functioning of a computer system. Perhaps most concerning are the draft sections that criminalize the content of speech, such as extremism or terrorism. Many countries who will be signatories to this treaty use similar language to strike down dissent and say that anyone whos opposing the regime is spreading sedition is spreading strife and hatred. Terrorism is handled in other fora, violent extremism is handled in multiple fora, and this particular instrument is not appropriate for these things that are being handled in other fora. Despite these and other thorny issues, the US and its like-minded allies are working to create a new cybercrime convention that is more widely adopted and influential than the Budapest Convention. During a fifth session in April, small subgroups of the ad hoc committee will tackle The difficult things that we ran into on the fourth session. The teams will continue negotiating between sessions. The crunch time will come before the sixth session in late August, by which time the committee chair will have produced what is called the zero draft or the last draft version of the convention.
This Cyber News was published on www.csoonline.com. Publication date: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 19:47:02 +0000