More than 60 countries sign cybercrime treaty
The UN Convention against Cybercrime was first proposed by Russian diplomats in 2017.
Text size
Share
Daily TribuneThe UN Convention against Cybercrime was first proposed by Russian diplomats in 2017.
Share
Photo courtesy of AFP/Nhac Nguyen
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Countries signed their first United Nations (UN) treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi on Saturday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance.
The new global legal framework aims to strengthen international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering.
More than 60 countries were seen to sign the declaration Saturday, which means it will go into force once ratified by those states.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” but that it was “only the beginning.”
“Every day, sophisticated scams, destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy... We need a strong, connected global response,” he said at the opening ceremony in Vietnam’s capital on Saturday.
The UN Convention against Cybercrime was first proposed by Russian diplomats in 2017, and approved by consensus last year after lengthy negotiations.
Critics say its broad language could lead to abuses of power and enable the cross-border repression of government critics.
“There were multiple concerns raised throughout the negotiation of the treaty around how it actually ends up compelling companies to share data,” said Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, founder of the Tech Global Institute think tank.
“It’s almost rubber-stamping a very problematic practice that has been used against journalists and in authoritarian countries,” she told Agence France-Presse.
The Cybersecurity Tech Accord delegation to the treaty talks, representing more than 160 firms including Meta, Dell and India’s Infosys, will not be present in Hanoi, its head Nick Ashton-Hart said.
Among other objections, those companies previously warned that the convention could criminalize cybersecurity researchers and “allows states to cooperate on almost any criminal act they choose.”
Potential overreach by authorities poses “serious risks to corporate IT systems relied upon by billions of people every day,” they said during the negotiation process.
