A global treaty to combat cybercrime, without combating mercenary spyware: article by Kate Robertson in Lawfare

The United Nations International Convention on Cybercrime has been finalized and will be ratified by the 193 member states of the UN General Assembly. This could happen as early as September 2024.

In an article for JurisdictionCitizen Lab senior research associate Kate Robertson analyzes how the draft treaty in its current form is poised to “become a vehicle for complicity in the global trade in mercenary espionage.” Robertson warns that despite broad agreement among both civil society and industry, the treaty will do more harm than good in the fight against transnational crime. The proposed treaty’s oversight and cooperation procedures in Chapters IV and V contain gaps that could be exploited by countries seeking legal justification for the use of commercial spyware. If adopted by the General Assembly, the UN treaty would be one of the first major setbacks amid ongoing international efforts to combat mercenary espionage, and a missed opportunity to reform international law to address transnational dissident cyberespionage.

Kate Robertson is a senior researcher at Citizen Lab.

Read the article here:

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-global-treaty-to-fight-cybercrime-without-combating-mercenary-spyware