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[FYI] France Urges Ban on 'Digital Havens' for Hackers
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- Subject: [FYI] France Urges Ban on 'Digital Havens' for Hackers
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>
- Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 18:22:45 +0100
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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000515/wr/crime_cyberspace_3.html
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Monday May 15 7:08 AM ET
France Urges Ban on 'Digital Havens' for Hackers
By Tom Heneghan
PARIS (Reuters) - The world's leading industrialized states,
struggling against Love Bug-style computer attacks from the most
unexpected places, opened a cybercrime conference on Monday with a
call to prevent lawless ``digital havens'' from springing up around
the globe.
French Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement, addressing
officials from the Group of Eight (G8) nations and private industry,
urged countries to agree on a world convention on cybercrime and
harmonize their laws to crack down on hackers, virus writers,
software pirates and other Internet fraudsters.
Governments and high-tech companies should develop a ''co-
regulation'' of the Internet, he told the three-day conference aimed
at launching a dialogue on computer security between the public and
private sectors.
Drawing a parallel to international measures against tax havens that
hide hot funds and launder money, Chevenement said a cybercrime
convention being drawn up by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe
should become a global treaty.
``The idea is to produce a global text so there cannot be 'digital
havens' or 'Internet havens' where anyone planning some shady
business could find the facilities to do it,'' he said.
Countries also had to make clear to their citizens that the Internet
was not a lawless zone, he added.
``An adolescent should know that, even if he is very gifted in
computer science, the tricks he can play on the Internet could be
serious crimes that land him in prison. Internet isn't a toy
anymore.''
The high-tech blitz that flashed around the world in an e-mail
entitled ``ILOVEYOU'' this month showed how vulnerable computer
systems are to attack from anywhere. Unlike earlier viruses from the
United States and Canada, the ``Love Bug'' was launched from the
Philippines. The Paris conference, part of longer-term efforts by
developed countries to fight cybercrime, brought together about 300
judges, police, diplomats and business leaders from the G8 states --
the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada
plus Russia -- and private high-tech firms.
G8 leaders will take up its recommendations at their annual
conference in July in Okinawa.
Chevenement said he hoped countries such as India, China, South
Africa, Israel and the East European states would join in the effort.
In his speech, Chevenement highlighted the trans-Atlantic gap by
rejecting the idea of an international ``cyberpolice'' supported by
U.S. officials eager to crack down quickly on computer crime.
``Nothing could be more wrong,'' he declared. ``Sovereign states can
develop the capacity to act, first at home and then in international
cooperation.''
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said in a message to the
conference that ``freedom is the most precious gift the Internet
brings us.''
All states should ``fight the digital divide'' between high-tech
haves and have-nots, he said, but at the same time ''restrain the
excesses of an unfettered freedom.''
Cybercrime has risen rapidly in recent years as the World Wide Web
lives up to its name.
A recent survey showed total losses to U.S. companies last year more
than doubled to over $266 million.
Chevenement said France registered more than 2,500 Internet-linked
crimes last year ``but that figure surely does not cover all big or
small infractions.''
Experts say high-profile attacks like the ones which paralyzed major
commercial sites like Yahoo! and Amazon.com in February are likely to
multiply as online services migrate to new platforms such as mobile
phones.
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