FC: G8 complains of digital havens; French hate "unfettered freedom"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[As an experiment, I'm going to try to follow the G8 meeting this week from 
afar here on politech. If you have info that might be relevant, please 
forward. Thanks, Declan]

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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000515/ts/crime_cyberspace_2.html

By Tom Heneghan
PARIS, May 13 (Reuters) - The world's leading industrialised states, 
struggling against Love Bug-style computer attacks from the most unexpected 
places, opened a cybercrime conference on Monday with a call to prevent 
lawless "digital havens" from springing up around the globe.
French Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement, addressing officials from 
the Group of Eight (G8) nations and private industry, urged countries to 
agree on a world convention on cybercrime and harmonise their laws to crack 
down on hackers, virus writers, software pirates and other Internet fraudsters.
[...]
Drawing a parallel to international measures against tax havens that hide 
hot funds and launder money, Chevenement said a cybercrime convention being 
drawn up by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe should become a global 
treaty.
"The idea is to produce a global text so there cannot be 'digital havens' 
or 'Internet havens' where anyone planning some shady business could find 
the facilities to do it," he said.
[...]
In his speech, Chevenement highlighted the trans-Atlantic gap by rejecting 
the idea of an international "cyberpolice" supported by U.S. officials 
eager to crack down quickly on computer crime.
"Nothing could be more wrong," he declared. "Sovereign states can develop 
the capacity to act, first at home and then in international cooperation."
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said in a message to the conference 
that "freedom is the most precious gift the Internet brings us."
All states should "fight the digital divide" between high-tech haves and 
have-nots, he said, but at the same time "restrain the excesses of an 
unfettered freedom."
[...]

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Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 10:11:01 -0400
To: declan () well com
From: Holly Porteous <hporteous () ewa-canada com>
Subject: An article on G8 cybercrime activities

Dear Declan:

I saw your request for info on the Paris G8 conference.  Here's a CanCERT
Bulletin interview I conducted with a Canadian Department of Justice
official that might provide you with some background.  I write the Bulletin
for EWA-Canada and expect to be writing more on the G8's work.

BTW, if the link below doesn't work, just go to our website at
www.ewa-canada.com and look in the News/Editorial section.

Here's the link for the "G8 Talks Traceback" article...

http://172.16.231.3/CANCV2N5.htm
Holly Porteous, Senior Analyst
EWA-Canada

*********

http://www.ewa-canada.com/CANCV2N5.htm

G-8 Talks Traceback in Moscow

by Holly Porteous

On October 19-20, G-8 justice and interior ministers met in Moscow to reach 
an agreement on practical measures to combat transnational organised crime, 
including high-tech crime. The results of this meeting are likely to have 
far-reaching implications for both the Internet Service Provider and 
telecommunications industries.

Known as the "Lyon Group," the ministers^Ò conference moves the G-8 into the 
endgame of a two-year effort to implement its action plan on computer-based 
crime. The action plan, adopted at the Lyon Group^Òs first meeting in 1997 
in Washington, DC, called for an international, 24/7 network for rapid 
incident response and national legislation to enable prosecution of 
cyber-criminals who commit their crimes from foreign soil.

Since 1997, the G-8 has stood up the 24/7 network but ­ without the legal 
means to access cross-border communications and data ­ its operational 
effectiveness is bound to be limited. This is why the legislative process 
set in action by the Moscow delegates^Ò adoption of "Principles on 
Transborder Access to Stored Computer Data" is being hailed as a major 
advance.

These principles represent an agreement by the G-8 members (Canada, the 
United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and 
Russia) to offer each other expedited legal assistance in accessing, 
searching, copying, seizing and disclosing data connected with criminal 
activities. [...]

Because it sets the stage for talks with industry, the G-8 members^Ò 
agreement to undertake measures to ensure rapid preservation of data stored 
in computer systems ­ referred to in short-hand as "freeze and preserve" ­ 
is perhaps the most significant among the adopted principles.

In essence, by agreeing to the idea of "freeze and preserve," the G-8 
members have agreed to begin drafting national legislation that will 
require ISPs and telcos to maintain, preserve and hand over audit log files 
to law enforcement agencies that have lawful authority to request them. 
Audit log files record selected activity on the provider^Òs networks and 
servers, thus forming the basis for both security monitoring and billing. 
While many (but not all) providers preserve log files, among the G-8 there 
are no uniform regulations for the format of these files or for the 
duration of their storage.

[...]

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