FC: Civil lib groups oppose CoE treaty, OECD "cybercrime" forum

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

"Global Web Crime Agency Mooted"
Financial Times (10/18/00) P. 7; Grande, Carlos
Cybercrime and online privacy will top the agenda at the World
E-Commerce Forum, to be held in London today by the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Representatives from world governments and the Internet industry,
including British Telecom and RSA Security, will attend the
meeting. The OECD is urging world governments to fight
cybercrime through greater regulation of the Internet. Risaburo
Nezo, head of the OECD's Science, Technology, and Industry
directorate, says the number of security attacks in the U.S. and
Japan are on the rise. "The global nature of the Internet means
that there will have to be harmonized security standards," says
Nezo. International Data predicts that expenditures on
information security services across the globe will jump from
$4.8 billion in 1998 to $16.5 billion in 2004.


See text of groups' letter (discussed below):
http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/17/1622228&mode=nested


http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,39519,00.html

    Police Treaty a Global Invasion?
    by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)

    3:00 p.m. Oct. 17, 2000 PDT
    WASHINGTON -- Civil liberties groups are vexed over a proposed treaty
    that would grant more surveillance powers to U.S. and European police
    agencies, and expand copyright crimes.

    Thirty groups -- from North America, Asia, Africa, Australia and
    Europe -- said this week that the treaty "improperly extends the
    police authority of national governments" and places the privacy of
    Internet users and the freedom of computer programmers at risk.

    In a long letter to Walter Schwimmer, the Council of Europe's
    secretary general, the groups advise the participating governments to
    delay action on the treaty and consult with technical and privacy
    experts instead.

    "It's a direct assault on legal protections and constitutional
    protections that have been established by national governments to
    protect their citizens," says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy
    Information Center. "It's both an end run by police agencies and a bit
    of policy laundering by the U.S. Department of Justice to get more
    (surveillance) authority."

    Rotenberg said EPIC and other groups wanted to rally opposition to the
    measure before a summit of participating nations next week in Berlin.

    The U.S. has helped craft the Council of Europe's proposal, which is
    expected to be finalized within the next few months, making it the
    first computer crime treaty. The draft treaty is designed to aid
    police in investigations of online miscreants in cases where attacks
    or intrusions cross national borders.

    [...]




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