World Cybercrime Treaty May Be Underway

[mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>]

Forwarded From: darek.milewski () us pwcglobal com

http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/142185.html

World Cybercrime Treaty May Be Underway
By Steve Gold, Newsbytes
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM,
14 Jan 2000, 7:24 AM CST

 Unconfirmed reports circulating on the Usenet suggest that the US
government is working with the European Union (EU), Japan, Canada and
other countries, including South Africa, on a draft cybercrime treaty that
would try to ban hacking and Internet eavesdropping utilities.

The move, if true, would be the first time that legislatures have started
to tackle the issue of Internet security since the Internet first was
developed.

While individual governments, most notably the US, have striven to
introduce such legislation, the international nature of the Internet has
caused problems enforcing such laws, Newsbytes notes.

However, a treaty between the US, the sprawling EU countries and others
would make life a lot easier for enforcers, especially since a sizable
portion of the Internet and its servers resides in the US and EU
territories.

EU press officers declined comment on the reports, but one Newsbytes
source said that a draft treaty would be subject to considerable public
discussion and would need the agreement of all the countries concerned, if
it were to succeed.

The Usenet reports - details of which can be found in Dutch at
http://www.http://www.bof.nl/cybercrime_treaty.pdf - suggest that the
draft of the treaty aims to be completed by the end of 2000.

Reports suggest that there is no public draft available yet, but that
letter from the Dutch minister of Justice to the Dutch parliament mentions
some of the details under discussion.

A note posted to the Politech mailing list said that the cybercrime treaty
covers many aspects of the issue of Internet eavesdropping and
surveillance.

The note translates the Dutch file as follows:

"Protection against so-called CIA-crimes (confidentiality, integrity and
availability) of public and closed networks and systems: computer hacking,
unauthorized eavesdropping, unauthorized changing or destroying of data
(either stored or in transport). In discussion are also denial of service
attacks to public and private networks and systems. This will probably not
cover spam. The treaty will outlaw the production, making available or
distribution of hardware and software tools to do the above-mentioned
(hacking, denial of service, eavesdropping, etc.). The letter does not
mention the possession of these tools."

The report also said that the treaty would outlaw sites with lists of
passwords or codes that give unauthorized access to computer systems,
noting that the treaty does not cover issues such as copyright related
serials and cracks.

The report adds that the letter explicitly points out that as a result of
this treaty countries that wish to implement digital wiretapping for the
use of hacking tools by law enforcement need to implement that in their
national legislation.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .








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