Microsoft Joins Opposition to Proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty

The ink isn’t even dry yet; in fact the treaty has not even come up for debate in the UN and won’t until January. If it makes it out of the drafting process, it will either take a two-thirds vote or a consensus to pass.

The issue is that repressive regimes like Russia and China want the treaty to be vague and open to abuse. Allowing them to to criminalize online content, suppress dissent and go after human rights.

It would also allow countries to increase surveillance in the name of fighting cybercrime.

This is not the first year the UN has been working on such a treaty. In fact, it is the 6th try. But there are still a lot of disagreements – like what is the definition of cybercrime anyway.

The current draft also lacks transparency – there are no provisions for data custodians to notify their clients of surveillance. Surveillance could occur in total secrecy.

The treaty also does not protect security researchers. This is probably the most favorite piece of cyber criminals. No research means bugs will persist. And be used/abused.

It is not clear if this treaty would need to be ratified by individual governments, but if it does, the authoritarian governments will ratify it and the rest of the countries may not.

This is definitely something to watch. Credit: The Record

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