Capacity Building as an International Response to Cybercrime - Assignment Example

Capa Building as an International Response to Cybercrime Table of Contents Introduction 3 Issue of Cybercrime 4 Capa Building 5 Benefitsof Capacity Building for Dealing with Cybercrime 7 Critical Evaluation of Capacity Building as an International Response to Cybercrime 9 Conclusion 15 References 17 Introduction In the contemporary scenario, people in the society need to deal with several challenges in relation to privacy. Notably, individual all over are largely dependent on numerous technologies to communicate, access or share information in between two distinct places. Furthermore, technologies used by people globally are required to be organised for better usage in terms of social consideration. It is apparent that Information and communication technology (ICT) has been rapidly transformed over the past two decades especially in the northern and southern regions of the world owing to which numerous development has been observed in various domains. Notably, the development of ICT has enlarged the choices of people, which further helped them towards personal and professional growth. However, the other side of the coin depicts that over reliance of people towards ICT has made the societies and the people living in it to be more vulnerable towards various threats including cybercrime. Cybercrimes are offences against computer systems, which are conducted within or via computer networks. It affects the security along with the rights of the people living in a society and on the hand, it further strengthening the presence of crime within a society. It has been analysed that cybercrime raised considerable risk for infrastructure to which the people in a society are dependent that further impact the aspect of security and trust in a negative manner. Therefore, it is apparent that in order to meet the challenges of cybercrime, certain set of measures are required to be adopted (Council of Europe, 2013). Contextually, the primary aim of the discussion is to illustrate the probable and the potential measures to eradicate or control the extensive presence of cybercrime within a society. The discussion further focuses on depicting capacity building as an international response towards cybercrime. Issue of Cybercrime Cybercrime is a particular crime that is conducted with the use or within computers and internet networks. It is regarded by legal authority as a punishable crime and is one of the major issues to be resolved in the contemporary scenario. Cybercrime is also often regarded as computer crime, which involve the use of computer, as a particular instrument to conduct illegal activities such as fraud, child pornography and unauthorized access or damage of other’s property among others. In the present day scenario, the issues of cybercrime has enhanced rapidly especially within the internet. This is because of the aspect that computer and internet became the central components that are extensively used in every section of a society including healthcare, education, business and lifestyle among others. Notably, it is quite an evident aspect that with the emergence and the development of new technologies, people develop new ways of executing their illegal activities and fulfil their inappropriate wishes and needs. It has been often argued that criminal do not require computers or internet to conduct crime, but the use of internet and computer has certainly made it easy for criminals to commit their illegal ideas in reality. It also helps in extending the criminal behaviour of the people to a larger extent. Cybercrime mostly include unauthorized access to information of individual, government or any business. It has further been analysed that cybercrime do not usually include physical body crime, rather it attacks the intellectual property of the victims (Wall, 2007). It has also been evaluated that cybercrimes also included the traditional crimes conducted through internet including hate crimes, crimes of telemarketing and illegal access to other bank accounts and credit cards. These are quite common and widely identified crimes performed with the help of internet and computers. In the present day scenario, cybercrime is identified as one of the major global issues and in this regard, government of nations ensures extra focus towards dealing with the same. Notably, as per the report of The Hindu (2014), cybercrimes has increased by more than 51% in India in 2013 against the figures presented in the preceding year. Similarly, reports have been also seen in the overall global world. Notably, the report of Wiener-Bronner (2014) suggests that cybercrime is on a rapid rise, as there were 63,000 more cybercrime incidents during the year 2013 in comparison to that of the preceding year. The figure shows that cybercrime is on a rise in more than 95 nations of the world. The report further depicts that the type of cybercrime where the increase is mostly exercised. Few of the major cybercrimes in the present day scenario includes POS intrusions, Web App attack and information misuse among others (Wiener-Bronner, 2014). Furthermore, the report of Brown (2014) depicts that presently, countries all over the world face loss of more than US$245 billion owing to computer related crimes. Contextually, cybercrime has become one of the major threats for the nations of the world and hence, stern measures are needed to be adopted in order to combat with the same (Brown, 2014). Capacity Building It is apparent from the above discussion that cybercrime has become one of the major issues for nations globally. The global world needs to face severe loses owing to the increasing activities of cybercrimes. Hence, adopting appropriate measures to deal with computer related crime has become one of the most prominent priorities of the nations. One of such measures of the countries might include the practice of the concept of cybercrime (Westby, 2004). It is comprehended as a process of allowing criminal justice to be able to meet the challenges emerges with the prevalence of cybercrime. This particular concept also includes enhancing the knowledge as well as the skills of the criminal justice system to be tactical in dealing with increasing rate of cybercrime all over the world. The concept mainly intends to strengthen the cooperation of the criminal justice system with that of its stakeholders in order to ensure better compliance against cybercrime incidents. There are certain specific aims of the capacity building concept which includes protecting people within a society from numerous crimes, promoting security and trust for extensive technologies amid the people and strengthening the laws associated with cybercrime activities among others. Notably, the activities that are being conducted in capacity building are usually based on three specific principles including partnership, organisational development and civil society strengthening. As per the capacity planning, it is believed that relationship building not only bring unity but also provided strengths to deal with crimes within a society. Notably, one of the major activities of the capacity building includes strengthening the laws relevant to cybercrimes. In this regard, as per the concept, workshops have been conducted in numerous areas including Eastern and Western Africa. In this part of the world, the legislation relevant to cybercrime was deemed to be scattered and inconsistent with regard to the global laws of cybercrime (Council of Europe, 2013). Contextually, development has been made as per the capacity building in different areas that include improvement in legislation for e-evidence and reforms in Rwanda and Burundi among others. Furthermore, auditing has also been conducted with regard to the Ghana Electronic Act 2008 and Nigeria (Executive) Cybercrime Bill 2013 to ensure improvement in the same. Furthermore, the approach of capacity building also includes the approach of addressing the issues relevant to cybercrime and cyber security. Consequently, in parts of Latin America, strategies have been adopted to provide training to judges and prosecutors, so that they could effectively manage cases relevant to cybercrimes. It has been often identified that capacity building is one of the most effective means for dealing with threats associated with cybercrime or other electronic crimes (Council of Europe, 2014). Notably, there are certain specific and key elements associated with the concept of capacity building program. The first element includes policies and strategies of the capacity building program. This means that as per the concept, government and business units are encouraged to adopt policies and strategies that are coherent as well as comprehensive in dealing with the problems of increasing threat of cybercrime. The next prominent element of the concept of capacity building includes strengthening the legislation. It has also been ascertained that the legislation relevant to criminal justice should be in alignment with the laws of respective nations. Furthermore, the concept also depicts that measures must be adopted to strengthen the domestic legislation. The next element of the program includes cybercrime reporting. It has been noted that there is a very limited knowledge and data relevant to cybercrime, which further acts as a major difficulty towards eradicating as well as dealing with computer crimes. Hence, proper reporting of cybercrime is indeed quite crucial in this regard. Subsequently, another key element of the concept of capacity building includes prevention measures against cybercrime. It is evident that measures can be taken to protect computer system from cybercrime. This can be done by providing public education relevant to cybercrime as well as its affects and enhance the level of awareness of the people about the crime (Council of Europe, 2014). Benefits of Capacity Building for Dealing with Cybercrime From the above analysis, it is apparent that capacity building is one of the approaches to enhance and improve the effectiveness of the legislations for eradicating or controlling the increasing threat of cybercrime. It is believed that the concept or the program of capacity planning has shown certain effectiveness in the domain of dealing with the threat of cybercrime. It has been noted that Two-thirds of the members of the United Nations (UN) have either developed legislation against cybercrime incidents already or they are mostly engaged in legislative reform that are yet to be accepted and applied to deal with cybercrime. Contextually, it can be depicted that the program of capacity building intends to respond to the needs of the legislative authorities along with the criminal justice domain to ensure practical application of the designed policies. Furthermore, the program is also expected to provide immediate benefit in the presence of appreciative legislative reforms. The result for the same can be in the form of building stronger legislative framework, establishing specialized cybercrime units and ensuring maximum skills for judges and prosecutors through systematic training among others. This aspect will work towards ensuring investigation and prosecution on cybercrime cases in a more stern and systematic process with fruitful results (Council of Europe, 2013). Another potential benefit of the program will include gathering the cooperation of numerous stakeholders towards dealing with the issues or threat of cybercrime. It will be vital to mention that the program of capacity building is not only about the assistance of the government but also requires the cooperation of various stakeholders that comprises private sector entities and civil society as well. This aspect implies that multi-stakeholder cooperation is the ultimate approach in Internet governance (Council of Europe, 2013). Furthermore, reducing the level of digital divide is another potential and prominent benefit of the concept of capacity building. Notably, cybercrime and the associated electronic evidences pose challenges in the conduct of the criminal justice departments in various parts of the world with regions in the south displaying more vulnerability. The concept of capacity building program includes the aspect of resource mobilization and networking along with sharing of knowledge, which further enables the weak regions to eradicate crime relevant to computers in their respective regions. In addition, the support of the international community towards the program has been quite valuable and it will certainly enhance the sustainability of the program. Therefore, it can be stated that the program i.e. capacity building is potentially beneficial to be practiced globally against eradicating cybercrime (Council of Europe, 2014). Critical Evaluation of Capacity Building as an International Response to Cybercrime The challenges faced by different nations of the world owing to increasing incidents of cybercrime are quite significant in terms of large monetary losses. Notably, cybercrime is quite complex in nature especially for the legal authorities of nations, as it provides an everlasting threat to the intellectual property of nations. In this context, it will not be ambiguous to state that individuals, business units and civil society along with the public sector have faced severe losses of billions of Euros and Dollars owing to ever growing incidents of cybercrime. Therefore, it is prominent to take effective measures to deal with this particular issue on a global perspective. As per the report of UNODC (2011), it is important to promote international cooperation in order to eradicate or control the increasing incidents of cybercrime. The reports depicted different range of measures that can be adopted to deal with cybercrime. Few of the measures include technical solutions, awareness education and capacity building among others. However, the report laid specific focus on capacity building programs where countries can collaborate and combat against cybercrime. The report affirmed that the program of capacity building could be effective for the developed and the developing nations, which might significantly work towards reducing cybercrime (UNODC, 2011). Furthermore, the report of ITU (2012), presented some key goals as important agendas for international legal authorities to combat cybercrime. Few of the goals include adopting legal measures, improving organisational structures and capacity building. These aspects affirm that capacity building is among the prominent measures that international governing bodies are taking into consideration to deal with cybercrime. The report further explains that capacity building includes a set of strategies that combines other agendas of international authorities together and work towards ensuring an effective control of the issue of cybercrime. Notably, capacity building stresses on the aspect that cybercrime is quite a prominent issue and can be regarded as a global phenomenon. Hence, it is important to ensure widespread efficiencies in order to bring down the increasing rate of cybercrime globally. Contextually, capacity building will aid concerned authorities to have a better approach towards dealing with the culprits of cybercrime offences. The program intends to harmonize the laws along with developing cooperation amid the various nations of the world. Furthermore, international authorities are also aware of the aspect that in order to establish equal global standards for both the developed and the developing nations, the need for capacity building is quite significant. It has been determined that there are certain forms of cybercrimes, which specifically require capacity planning for total eradication. For instance, few of the forms of cybercrimes like “phishing” and “spoofing” will not mandatorily required technical know-how to control and eradicate but it will certainly require proper awareness, which can only be circulated or conveyed by capacity planning program. This can enable the victims to acquire the preliminary knowledge required to deal with cybercrime in general cases. Subsequently, the importance of capacity building program is identified for mitigating cybercrime globally (ITU, 2012). Contextually, it has been noted that international legal authorities have been considering the concept or the program of capacity building to respond to the challenges pose by cybercrime in the global level. In this regard, the report of UN (2010) can be regarded as vital. As per the report, the developing nations of the world are emphasizing towards capacity building practices to minimize the rate of cybercrime. This has been done with the adoption of the approach of continuous learning of the people associated with cybercrime authorities along with considerable reformation in the legal structure of the nations to deal with cybercrimes. For example, with the adoption of the capacity building approach countries such as Kenya has been able to enhance their ability of e-evidence handling to combat cybercrime in their respective regions. Furthermore, there has been a positive change in Uganda with regard to the harmonization of their cybercrime laws. Notably, with the implementation of the capacity building program, this particular region has been able to upgrade their legislation relevant to cybercrime regarding sentencing of the culprits. In a similar regard, it has also been noted that in the recent years, country like South Africa has supported the plea of Botswana and Angola (active members adopting capacity building) to build capacity in their respective regions to minimize the presence of global cybercrime. Subsequently, South Africa has recently released a draft where it extensively depicts its policies relevant to mitigating cybercrime from their region. It is worth mentioning that the draft also advocated the need for global cooperation along with compliance with the global cybercrime standards developed as per the program of capacity building to effectively deal with cybercrimes all over. In this context, the country has shown positive approach towards adopting the policies of capacity building. This can better comprehended from the fact that in the recent times South Africa has developed and modernized its IT equipment along with the use of centralized hosting system to augment its competencies to deal with cybercrime. Countries such as Spain and Argentina have also shown positive approach towards supporting the capacity building program (UN, 2010). The extensive support of various nations of the world towards capacity building can also be comprehended from few of the facts mentioned above are provided hereunder. Tanzania has changed its compensation laws for the victims of cybercrime incident as per the capacity building program Ghana has introduced the Electronic Act 2008 to deal with cybercrime owing to its involvement with the capacity building program Nigeria has emerged with the Cybercrime Bill 2013 with the influence of the capacity building program Philippines has emerged with the project named Global action on cybercrime from which it has been able to attain positive results With the involvement in the capacity building program, countries and numerous regions of the world have not only been able ensure proper investigation of cybercrimes but it also enable them to detect the threats of cybercrime well in advance and act for better prevention of cybercrime (Source: Council of Europe, 2014) It has been analysed that the concept of capacity building provides support to a particular process of change. The concept intends to assure that it could attend long term sustainability in conducting its activities in a systematic process. The process of change that is intended to be followed by the concept of capacity building is provided hereunder. (Source: Council of Europe, 2013) From the above structure, it is quite apparent that the process of capacity planning is initiated with the intention to ensure better legislative approach towards mitigating the global issue of cybercrime. There are certain other specific reasons owing to which the global world has been considering capacity building as an effective measure or response against global cybercrime. Notably, the concept aligns different nations to cooperate and act together against global cybercrime. In this regard, the concept seek the engagement of the global decision makers to agree on one set of common strategies and determine the resources that can be used effectively towards dealing with the issue of cybercrime. Furthermore, it has been noted that the laws and measures against cybercrime must not only be practiced extensively but it should also be promoted on a wider scale, so that each and every nation is aware of the same. Notably, it is evident that cybercrime entirely relates with the negative or illegal activities conducted within computer networks. Hence, capacity planning strictly ascertains that the laws relevant to computer networking and other activities on computer could be properly governed, so that cybercrime could be eradicated to a maximum extent. Furthermore, it has been recognized that procedural laws with the assistance of capacity planning ensure efficient investigation of cybercrime incidents through the use of electronic data and evidences for criminal proceedings. This approach will include preservation of the data, seizure of the computer on which the crime is conducted along with real time collection of the internet data among others. All these aspects will certainly affect the process of dealing with cybercrime in a positive manner (Council of Europe, 2014). Observably, the approach of the international authorities towards implementing capacity building as an effort to deal with cybercrime can also be aligned with some other benefits of using the capacity building approach. Notably, establishing proper reporting channels is one of the major elements of the capacity building program. As per the program, reporting channels must be enhanced in both the public and the private sector, as it will help in ensuring proper investigation of cybercrime incidents. One vital element of the concept that encourages the international authorities to adopt capacity building as a response against cybercrime includes the aspect of prevention against the crime. Additionally, the concept advocates the need for having public websites that must contain information relevant with the measures to be adopted against cybercrime. The websites must also contain education material that ensures awareness amid people with regard to cybercrime and the ways prevention can be ensured against the same (Council of Europe, 2014). Hence, it can be affirmed that capacity planning is among the latest approaches of internal authorities to deal with cybercrime. It is one of the most important and widely considered approaches by the government owing to the numerous benefits associated with it. Therefore, the concept of capacity planning is one of the first choices of the international authorities to deal with cybercrime. Conclusion From the overall analysis of the paper, it can be comprehended that in the present day scenario there are several key issues face by people that are required to be dealt in a society. One such issue that has become a major concern for the international community includes the aspect of cybercrime. Notably, the use of internet and computers are wide in every domain of a society and it has become the integral part of the present day scenario. However, like in any other element, the use of internet and computers also creates certain undesirable situation for people. Cybercrime is one such situation where people need to deal with negative consequences that arise for the conduct of crime within computer networks. The impact of cybercrime can be in the form of monetary losses and loss of intellectual property among others. Additionally, the rate of cybercrime is identified to rise in an immense manner owing to the development of ICT and usage of the same in every spheres of life. In this context, the rate of cybercrime is required to be mitigated substantially with the aim of protecting the privacy and identity of people. In order to mitigate the issue of cybercrime, international authorities have developed numerous agendas in which capacity building program is among the primary. Capacity building is a particular approach where the cooperation of various nations is desired to collaboratively deal with the issues of cybercrime. It has been observed that capacity building has become one of the most widely appreciated approaches worldwide, which is used as a response towards the issue of cybercrime. Owing to the major benefits associated with the program, international authorities promote capacity building, so that each and every nation implements it to deal with the issue of cybercrimes. Hence, it can be concluded that capacity building is indeed an international response to cybercrime. References Brown, R. B., 2014. The Threat of Cybercrime. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.thelondoneconomic.com/2014/07/10/the-threat-of-cyber-crime/ [Accessed July 24, 2014]. Council of Europe, 2014. Capacity Building on Cybercrime. Home. 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