|
Dr
Carlisle George, gives interview on cyber crime to "Internet
mirror" magazine.
January
2008
Dr
Carlisle George, Barrister
& Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing Science,
was featured in the January 2008 issue of the Serbian magazine
Internet
mirror - Business & Technologies, giving
an interview on cyber crime. The full interview is published
in the hardcopy of the magazine and a short summary is given
online (in Serbian) at the Magazine's website. The full English
version can be read below.
Frauds
without borders
by Nemanja Pašalic, January 2008
Internet
mirror - Business & Technologies
Carlisle
George, a lawyer and a lecturer at the School of Computing
Science, Middlesex University in London, claims that the cross
border character of cyber crime demands inter governmental
coordination inaugurated by the Budapest Convention in 2001.
Carlisle
George is a lawyer and a lecturer at the School of Computing
Science, Middlesex University in London, and his main area
of interest is legal aspects of modern technologies. He is
an expert in the international cross border dimension of widespread
cyber crime. He was in Belgrade last November as a speaker
at the TELFOR conference. It was an opportunity for him to
point out some important facts regarding cyber crime to readers
of Internet mirror.
The
Convention on cyber crime was held in Budapest in 2001. What
benefits has it brought and are things going better in recent
years?
- The
cyber crime convention carries many benefits for countries
which sign and ratify it. It enables harmonization of offences,
as countries are asked to define criminal actions in their
legal acts according to four categories. Those are security
breaches (hacking), fraud and forgery, copyright offences
and child pornography. The Convention likewise sets procedures
for detection, investigation and prosecution of cyber crime
offences, and the collection of electronic evidence of other
criminal activities. Finally, the Convention defines a quick
and efficient system for international cooperation. This forces
signatory states to engage in cooperation at the highest level
possible and to minimize all obstacles in the way of investigating
and punishing offenders. Cooperation includes extradition
as well.
Extradition
Please
explain extradition in the terms of the Budapest Convention.
- The
important point is that extradition does not require “dual
criminality”, what usually happened in past. This means
that a person A can be delivered to country B, even if a punishable
act is not considered to be criminal in the country of origin,
but is defined as punishable in the country where it’s
been committed. For example, it is illegal in France to sell
objects in relation to Nazism, which is not the case in many
other countries. Someone out of France might sell these objects
to someone in France over the Internet, and therefore commit
a criminal offence. France authorities may ask for extradition
of that person if the person is located in the territory of
signatory countries.
What
suggestions would you give to Serbian institutions regarding
the delivery of legal acts and regulations in this field?
- I believe
that Serbian legislators must look at what happens in western
countries, where the Internet is in much more widespread use.
They will be able to learn a lot about different types of
cyber crime, and the challenges that legislative and regulatory
bodies face. One of the main areas where Serbian authorities
should invest in is digital forensics. Also, ratifying the
Convention on Cyber crime will lead to advanced international
cooperation. That is of extreme importance, as most sophisticated
criminals are in other countries, out of national jurisdiction.
British
experience
What
are current trends with cyber crime in Great Britain?
- The
most recent trend is usage of “botnets”, armies
of computers infected with malicious software, without the
knowledge of computer owners. These infected computers transmit
viruses, phishing frauds, spam, spyware, keyloggers and denial
of service (DoS) attacks. There are also many of the common
types of cyber crime in Great Britain. There’s a lot
of phishing frauds, child pornography, hacking, viruses, offences
against individuals (threatening e-mails, blackmailing), and
criminal activities related to infringement of intellectual
property rights.
It
seems that cyber criminals are always one step in front of
the law?
- A lot
of cyber crime offences have been operated by organized criminal
groups with huge resources for research and improvement of
technical skills. Authorities in Great Britain are facing
the fact that it is almost impossible to supervise these activities
due to their volume, increased sophistication of attacks,
inadequate resources for protection and great difficulties
in collecting evidence.
What
was the greatest challenge in Great Britain during the implementation
of laws and regulations in this field?
- I think
that one of the greatest challenges was the need for awareness
and understanding of all the possibilities that technologies
have in potential criminal activities. Rapid development of
technologies must be apprehended in the sense of securing
adequate and up-to-date addressing of criminal activities.
Generally, legislation is still not able to keep the step
with technological progress. For example, the Computer Misuse
Act brought in 1990 was updated in 2006 to address DoS attacks,
because the old version simply did not foresee them.
Summary:
https://www.intobiz.info/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.55
January
2008
|
