The best practices in developing legislation designed to address crimes involving computers and the Internet were discussed at a three-day regional conference on cybercrime legislation, opened by US Ambassador to Malta Douglas Kmiec.

The conference, an initiative of the US Department of Justice, focused on cybercrime legislation for states in the Broader Middle East and Northern Africa. It was attended by government officials and law makers from seven regional countries – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan and Malta. During workshops, the participants developed a framework for cybercrime and electronic evidence legislation based on the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. The participants also had the opportunity to develop proposed revisions to the cybercrime legislation country profiles for their individual countries.

Ambassador Kmiec expressed his appreciation to the organisers of the conference – the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the US Justice Department’s Criminal Division and the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training. He also thanked the African Union, Council of Europe and government of Malta for their support.

Ambassador Kmiec highlighted the risks posed by seemingly garden-variety computer crime (hacking and creating so-called ‘botnets’ or zombie networks) in which third parties can assume control of another’s computer to unknowingly support the forces of terror.

“The two types of wrongs together result in the most dangerous threat to peace also becoming the most likely. A zombie or hacked computer system could theoretically launch a chemical weapons attack or jumble defence communications, worsening a conventional military threat. Keeping criminal codes up to date against computer fraud and invasion is the first technical line of defence of a civil order against terror.”

He said that “helping guard against terror is a key goal of the United States in the southern Mediterranean region. Beyond this, we are meeting to reinforce values which are shared among all people; to bridge the divide between cultures and faiths; and to emphasise the common concerns of different communities. One of those concerns is to provide for economic and personal security among the citizens of your countries.”