THUMPING THE cyber war

-Pivotal times in quelling cyber crimes; -Sri Lanka accedes the Budapest Convention on Cyber Crimes -First country in South Asia to accede. Beats out Malaysia, Singapore and Canada as well

WITH OMINOUS PREDICTIONS OF AN ERA OF ‘CYBER WARFARE’ AND ‘INTERNET TERRORISM’ LOOMING OVER THE ENTIRE WORLD, AN IMPENDING CYBER CRISIS UNSURPRISINGLY PRESENTS ITSELF BEFORE THE ORDINARILY BEHIND - THE - TECH - SAVVY - WORLD SRI LANKA AS WELL.

Though many may not be aware of the threat posed by cyber crimes, the proliferation of such crimes should have well rung alarm bells among the people a while back. While cyber space is too vast to ensure total control and protection of the rights and liberties of individuals, the best that can be done is to provide robust safeguards in the event such offences take place so that a clear course of action rests against the perpetrators.

Many countries in the world have established mechanisms in their respective municipal law, in dealing with such instances.

With the availability of vast resources at their disposal the battle against the cyber crime has reached, if not the climax, a region in very close proximity to it. However, even countries with even the most purportedly secure and reliable internet security systems such as the USA, Japan, Australia and Canada have had their strongest firewalls breached at the hands of ‘cyber terrorists’ or even ‘hacktivists’, and the

municipal laws and systems in place have not proven to be sufficient.

As a result of this development countries all over the world have sought to become signatories of ‘The Council of Europe Convention on Cyber Crimes’ (Budapest Convention), in order to create uniformity in the arena international law governing this province, particularly in the search of establishing clear procedural laws to accommodate the many offences that are committed.

The most significant development in the realm of the cyber world in relation to Sri Lanka rests with the monumental achievement of being the first country in South Asia to become a signatory of the Budapest Convention and then to accede to the Convention on May 29.

The Budapest Convention is the only legal instrument specifically designed to facilitate international cooperation to fight cyber crime. As a precursor to becoming a contracting nation of the Convention, the Computer Crimes Act No. 24 of 2007, the principal statute governing municipal law on IT related crimes was drafted in a manner consistent with the Convention. Along with this, provisions of the Penal Code (as amended), Electronic Transactions Act No. 19 of 2006, and Payment Devices Frauds Act No. 30 of 2006 have been incorporated to represent overall conformity to the Convention.

As a result of the accession to the convention, Sri Lanka is on a fast track to becoming the hub for Cyber Law and IT related crimes as many other countries slower to accede now seek our advice on securing an invitation to join. This places Sri Lanka in a strong position when it comes to matters of international relations, economic ties and matters of international security and the pulse of the international community in its dealings with Sri Lanka. Barely two weeks after the accession, Sri Lanka commemorated 20 years of internet via a digital forensics and incident response workshop titled “INET 2015”, organized by TechCERT

As a result of the accession to the convention, Sri Lanka is on a fast track to becoming the hub for Cyber Law and IT related crimes as many other countries slower to accede now seek our advice on securing an invitation to join.

DarkLAB, which is a leading digital forensics institute.

IT experts such as Jayantha Fernando of the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Champika Wijayathunga of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Amila Bhagya Perera from TechCERT DarkLAB shared a wealth of information on the subjects of the legal implications and provisions of dealing with international crimes, internet identifier systems and abuse handling, and practical training programmes on the principles of digital forensics and evidence analysis respectively.

Major advancements are being made in IT related fields, and the law relating to cyber crime as well as Sri Lanka announces its long overdue arrival as a contributor to internet security. It remains to unfold exactly what benefits or repercussions such an accession will bring, but the conjecture for the recent future appears to be fruitful and beneficial in many aspects. Though only time will tell the exact effect of this ratification, we can at least take heart with a positive forecast.