Cybersecurity Gateway

With its cybercrime legislation resources and material, the ITU is working to assist countries in understanding the legal aspects of cybersecurity in order to move towards harmonizing legal frameworks.

Through these cybercrime legislation resources, ITU is addressing the first of the seven strategic goals of the GCA, which calls for the elaboration of strategies for the development of cybercrime legislation that is globally applicable and interoperable with existing national and regional legislative measures.

This activity also addresses the ITU-D Study Group Q22/1 approach for organizing national cybersecurity efforts, highlighting that establishing the appropriate legal infrastructures is an integral component of a national cybersecurity strategy

ITU Publication on Understanding Cybercrime: A Guide for Developing Countries

The ITU publication Understanding Cybercrime: A Guide for Developing Countries aims to help developing countries better understand the national and international implications of growing cyber-threats, assess the requirements of existing national regional and international instruments, and assist countries in establishing a sound legal foundation.

The Guide provides a comprehensive overview of the most relevant topics linked to the legal aspects of cybercrime. In its approach, the Guide focuses on the demands of developing countries. Due to the transnational dimension of cybercrime, the legal instruments are the same for developing and developed countries. However, the references used were selected for the benefit of developing countries.

The Guide provides a broad selection of resources for a more in depth study of the different topics. Whenever possible, publicly available sources were used, including many free-of-charge editions of online law journals.

ITU Toolkit for Cybercrime Legislation

The ITU Toolkit for Cybercrime Legislation aims to provide countries with sample legislative language and reference material that can assist in the establishment of harmonized cybercrime laws and procedural rules. The Toolkit is a practical instrument that countries can use for the elaboration of a cybersecurity legal framework and related laws.

The Sample Language provided in the Toolkit, while not a model law, was developed after a comprehensive analysis of the most relevant regional and international legal frameworks currently present. The Toolkit language is consistent with these laws and is intended to serve as a guide for countries desiring to develop, draft, or modify their own cybercrime laws.

The Toolkit is intended to advance the global harmonization of cybercrime laws by serving as a central resource to help legislators, attorneys, government officials, policy experts, and industry representatives around the globe move their countries toward a consistent legal framework that protects against the misuse of ICTs.

Toolkit Project Partners

The ITU Toolkit for Cybercrime Legislation was developed by a global, multidisciplinary team of policy experts, industry representatives, academicians, attorneys, technical experts, and government personnel from around the globe working through the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Privacy & Computer Crime Committee (PACC), Section of Science and Technology Law.

The project was led by Jody R. Westby, chair of the PACC, and member of the ITU Secretary-General’s High Level Experts Group on Cybersecurity. The project vice chair was David Weitzel, PACC vice chair.

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Cybersecurity Gateway

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