Microsoft wants international accord on cyber security

HARMONISATION of laws globally and swifter collaboration between law enforcement and other parties across international boundaries are essential in order to speed up cyber crime prosecutions, according to former US government prosecutor Scott Charney.

Speaking at the London Conference on Cyberspace, the current corporate VP of Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft argued that his 10 years' experience of prosecuting cyber criminals has revealed the "limitations and slowness of international collaboration across borders".

"We need to harmonise national laws, build capabilities in countries all over the world and capacity all over the world and establish 24/7 ports of contact," he said.

"The strategy is clear but the execution is difficult. We need to speed up the response process. Unless we have a fast process of following the electronic trail back to its source, cyber criminals will stay one step ahead of the good guys."

Establishing 24/7 contacts is particularly important in ensuring a speedy response to international cyber crime, as companies and law enforcers will be able to "access knowledgeable people" at all times of day or night to "freeze" crime data before it disappears, Charney said.

These contacts need to be built on an ad hoc basis, but it is important that they are put in place before rather than after an attack.

Charney argued that the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, which has been ratified by the UK and US, is a "good place to start" in harmonising international laws and "streamlining the process for international assistance". µ