Martin-Swaby wants CARICOM’s voice heard in shaping UN cybercrimes treaty

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Andrea Martin-Swaby has said that CARICOM is deeply concerned about the threat of cybercrimes, and called for the region to be included in the development of a multilateral convention to address the global challenge.

Martin-Swaby made the appeal while speaking on behalf of Caribbean countries as she addressed a meeting called to discuss a proposed United Nations cybercrimes treaty in New York on Tuesday.

United States lead negotiator Deborah McCarthy, who guided the review of the treaty, pointed out that the US was focusing on international cooperation, technical assistance, prevention, and having a mechanism for implementing the agreement, along with some final provisions.

“CARICOM is deeply concerned about the threat and impact of computer crimes,” Martin-Swaby, who also heads the Cybercrimes and Digital Forensics Unit in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, said at the meeting.

“Being transnational in nature, all member states of the United Nations are vulnerable in the fight against the use of ICTs (information and communication technologies) for criminal purposes. For this reason, CARICOM believes that the development of a multilateral convention to address the use of ICTs for criminal purposes must be inclusive, and, as such, it is important that there is full participation and adequate representation of all UN member states in this process, particularly small developing states such as those in our Caribbean Community.”

Several Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, suffer at the hands of cybercriminals on a yearly basis.

The Bank of Jamaica reported that, in the first nine months of 2018, there were 62 counts of Internet banking fraud in the island, totalling J$38.2 million. In 2016, Jamaica lost in excess of J$12 billion (US$100 million) to cybercrime, with evidence of hackings by Europeans.

Earlier this year, a PwC report put cybercrime at the top of the list of current threats facing businesses, noting that, of companies with over US$10 billion in global annual revenues, 52 per cent experienced fraud in the past 24 months.

Jamaica’s national security minister, Dr Horace Chang, has also acknowledged that cybercrime is among emerging security concerns in the Caribbean, noting that it grew during the COVID-19 pandemic through online fraud, extortion and ransomware.

Criminal offences

The multinational convention is expected to provide a “settled list of substantive criminal offences which address and reflect a strident response to the main threat vectors within the cyber ecosystem, as well as a clearly defined outline of investigative powers”, said Martin-Swaby.

It would also create a framework for international cooperation, and a mechanism for offering technical assistance and capacity-building initiatives, especially as it relates to the needs of small developing states such as those in the CARICOM region.

Ultimately, the treaty would facilitate the criminalisation of cyber-dependent crimes which interfere with computer systems.

Vice-chairman of the ad hoc committee, Terlumun George-Maria Tyendezwa, said it was made clear when the UN General Assembly passed the December 2019 resolution to begin negotiations to form the treaty that the convention should focus on threats posed by cybercrime to collective economies, to ensure a minimum standard of procedural guidelines to facilitate the operation of law enforcement investigators.

“One of the key things that we look forward to achieving at the end of this process is a convention that makes ample provision for international cooperation,” Tyendezwa noted.

He said that, while countries are constrained by national borders, cybercriminals are not, and, until most countries are able to cooperate effectively, the fight against cybercrime will not be won.

carl.gilchrist@gleanerjm.com