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Countries Join Global Fight Against Cybercrime
President Clinton's much anticipated counter-cyberterrorism plan unveiled this month might be one of the more comprehensive schemes to protect a nation’s critical infrastructure from hackers, but it's not the first time a nation has addressed the issue. As computer experts express mounting concern about the ease of hacking into computer networks, countries other than the United States have been making small inroads in addressing ways they can fortify computer security.
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin last summer announced plans for a package of Internet-related laws that his administration intends to send to Parliament early this year. Among other things, he proposed an increase in France's defense budget to protect the nation’s information infrastructure from cyberattacks. He also created a central bureau to fight computer crime within France's national police administration.
"Information networks are a vital infrastructure for our country," Jospin said in a speech. "What they carry may be virtual in nature, but the attacks that target them are very real indeed." Jospin added that he aims to ramp up funds by almost 20 percent within the nation's defense budget to study cyberattacks. But he also acknowledged that a nation can't successfully do it alone and called for bolstering legal cooperation between countries to fight online crime.
The "legal cooperation" Jospin seeks has been addressed in a few multinational forums, with little result. About a year ago, the Organization For Economic Cooperation and Development attempted to tackle the issue within its member countries, most of which are located in the Western Hemisphere. But the idea was aborted when some countries complained that an international economic organization shouldn't meddle in national security issues. The G-8 also has mulled ways to investigate, prosecute and punish high-tech crimes, and the European Union has made attempts to address cybercrime in its own borders. One plan, known as ENFOPOL, would have given police increased powers to monitor the Internet. But protests from industry and Internet service providers prompted the European Union abandon that plan for now.
An International Cybercrime Treaty?
Outside of these national plans, the Council of Europe has been drafting a cybercrime treaty between European countries, the United States, Japan, Canada and South Africa on ways to fight computer crimes. The plan, which isn’t expected to be completed until June, addresses banning hacking tools, international investigation of cybercrime, computer fraud, copyright violations and wiretapping.
Although the draft of the treaty is confidential and the details thin, Peter Csonka, a legal officer for the Council Of Europe, said the document's intent is to define computer crime and address the interception of electronic transmissions, online child pornography and hate speech. The plan does not give direct guidance on how law enforcement should deal with those issues.
Csonka said negotiators have reached consensus on about 80 percent of the treaty's language and are now fine-tuning the language. The Council has been looking at the issue since 1997, and Csonka said the process has been slow because countries have had major disagreements on key issues.
"Cybercrime is not similar to other crimes, it challenges all traditional legal concepts," he said.
Business Takes Matters Into Its Own Hands
Because government and law rarely move fast enough for business, the International Chamber of Commerce is jumping into the fray to fight computer crime. Although cybercrime issues often fall under the jurisdiction of governments aiming to protect national security, business have a huge economic interest in keeping computer systems safe from cybercriminals.
That's why the International Chamber of Commerce announced plans in December to launch its own cybercrime unit, which will build a database on criminal acts in cyberspace and act as a liaison between the private sector and law enforcement. The unit also will advise companies on ways to protect against cybercrime.
Pottengal Mukundan, director of ICC Commercial Crime Services, said although there are cybercrime-fighting initiatives from various governments, they don't satisfy business and are conducted in a piecemeal manner.
"Business can't wait for these initiates to carry on," Mukundan explained. "Business has to look after itself on these issues; the laws will follow."
Show Us The Money
But governments fighting cyberterror often face a lack of resources. Mukundan said well-wired countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore have some trained law enforcement that can investigate cyberattacks. And in November, China's media reported that the government planned to create a fourth branch of the armed services to deal with cyberwarfare. But Mukundan pointed out that even though these countries are fighting cybercrime, many contries don’t have the money to combat online crime.
Still, Frank Cilluffo, a cyberterrorism expert with the Center For Strategic And International Studies predicted that the U.S. government’s cyberterrorism plans would kick-start other nations into action. But Cilluffo lamented that this could also give rise to countries addressing the problem in a patchwork fashion without much multinational cooperation.
"You have a global problem with national blinders on it," he said.
- by Caroline Broder
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