Russia Presented Plan on Fighting Cybercrime to UN

Russia has presented a draft treaty on fighting cybercrime to the United Nations. The 55-page document, which covers 23 forms of cybercrime, describes the method for extraditing hackers and giving legal aid in criminal cases, including identifying crimes, arrest, confiscation, and asset recovery.

Russia proposes establishing a new institution under UN auspices to supervise the implementation of the agreement, dubbed the International Technical Commission. According to experts, the present legal instruments for combatting cybercrime are insufficient, and a worldwide convention is desperately needed.

However, analysts warned that Moscow will have a difficult time getting this paper adopted.

The Russian document’s full title is the United Nations Convention to Combat the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes. It is worth noting that the Convention prohibits cross-border operations carried out by state computer networks without the consent of their respective authorities.

Russia did not sign the primary international convention on combating cybercrime, the Council of Europe’s 2001 Budapest Convention, primarily because of this clause, which permits such cross-border activities.

Russia is the only Council of Europe member state that has not signed this agreement. Allowing outsiders to undertake cross-border cyber operations, according to Moscow, may jeopardize the country’s security and sovereignty.

Another significant problem in the Budapest Convention is that it criminalizes just nine forms of cybercrime, despite the fact that this number has grown over the last 20 years. According to the new Russian Convention, there are 23 such groups. The paper also addresses the critical problem of international collaboration, proposing the establishment of a number of new groups and procedures.

On a nationwide scale, they are contact centers that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Dmitry Volkov, technical director and co-owner of Group-IB, a cybercrime-fighting firm, termed the new Russian endeavor “a very reasonable and acute step.”

The Budapest Convention, he claims, is “outdated and no longer efficient,” because new forms of cybercrime and cyberthreats have evolved in recent years, with hackers exploiting cryptocurrencies for money laundering.