Dar urged to fight cybercrime

TECHNOLOGICAL advancements the world over have rendered it inevitable for countries to conduct assessments of their capacities in addressing cybercrime within their borders, experts say.

Speaking at the cybercrime need assessment programme held in Dar es Salaam on Monday, an expert from the United National Office on drugs and crime (UNODC), Division for Treaty Affairs, Ms Anika Holterhofi, said the assessments are a must if the countries have to survive the technological progression.

The programme which is prepared by the Ministry of Communication, science and technology in collaboration with the Commonwealth and UNODC will be conducted for seven days.

The assessment exercise will be conducted for four days and the experts will meet with seven groups of different professionals and specialties comprising 80 individuals among which 10 are judges, permanent secretaries and leaders of the national legal sector and 70 are professional representatives.

Ms Holterhofi said the main aim of the assessment was to identify areas which need more efforts to curb cybercrime and not to tell the country what it has not done to combat the crime.

“This assessment is very vital. It is what we do with countries in order to find out both what is actually present and to see where the country really wants to go,” she said.

The expert further added that the assessment is not to measure and tell the country what it has not been doing to combat the crime but to improve what has already been established.

The ministry’s Deputy Permanent Secretary, Dr John Mngodo, said that the experts will help us on ways to improve fighting cyber crime. “They will asses and advise us on what our requirements are in order to effectively deal with cybercrime within the country and eventually help the country to accomplish its mission to become cybercrime free,” said Dr Mngodo.

Dr Mngodo mentioned some of the areas which will be assessed as including policies and strategies, human and technological resource, legislation regulations, organization capacity, structure and training and international and regional cooperation in fighting cybercrime.

UNODC is a global leader in the fight against illicit drugs and international crime established in 1997 through a merger between the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention, UNODC operates in all regions of the world through an extensive network of field offices.

UNODC has been part of global and regional responses to cybercrime, producing a comprehensive study of cybercrime related threats in 2013.

UNODC assists member states to more effectively combat and prevent cybercrime, working with national and regional level partners, particularly to improve understanding of cybercrime and related responses and enhance staff knowledge and skills to identify and prevent the crime.

Source: Daily News Tanzania: