It has become an essential condition for countries and regions to meaningfully integrate into the global economy and reap the benefits from it.
As a result of globalisation, activities and transactions are increasingly being conducted using the internet.
ICT applications, like e-Government, e-Commerce, e-Education, e-Health and e-Environment, are seen as enablers for development, because they provide an efficient channel to deliver a wide range of basic services even to remote and rural areas.
The costs of internet services are often also much lower than comparable services delivered by other means. In some cases, e-mail services are available free of charge or cost much less than traditional postal services.
The growth of the digital economy or Information Society, as it is sometimes referred to, has however brought on new challenges. Essential services such as water and electricity supply now rely on ICTs.
Cars, traffic control, elevators, air conditioning and telephones also depend on the smooth functioning of ICTs. Attacks against information infrastructure and internet services that today are the drivers of e-commerce, among other services and benefits, are increasingly common and now have the potential to harm society in new and critical ways
It is, for instance, estimated that revenues from cybercrime exceeded US$100 billion in 2007, outstripping the illegal trade in drugs for the first time. According to the 2011 Price WaterHouseCoopers Global Economic Crime Survey, cybercrime ranked as one of the top four economic crimes.
The adjustment to the new digital environment to maximise the opportunities availed by globalisation and minimise the risks associated with it is therefore important.
Quite apart from the financial risks, the health, security, and technical risks associated with attacks against information systems and the internet call for the need to protect information infrastructures.
Cybersecurity plays an important role in the ongoing development of information technology, as well as internet services.
Enhancing cybersecurity and protecting critical information infrastructures are essential to each country’s security and economic well-being.
Making the Internet safer (and protecting Internet users) has become central to the development of new services as well as governmental policy.
Fighting cybercrime is an integral component of a national cybersecurity and critical information infrastructure protection strategy.
Zambia is one of the few African countries with laws on cybercrime.
The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act No. 21 of 2009 that became effective in December 2009 partly deals with cybercrime.
The National ICT Policy under 2.13 is dedicated to security in the information society and emphasises protection of networks and information systems to guard against cybercrime.
The question, nonetheless, is whether or not the present laws and especially the penalties are enough to discourage would-be offenders and ultimately instil confidence for communication and especially business to be conducted using the ICT or the internet.
To properly understand this, it is important to look at what the phenomenon of cybercrime involves.
It is not intended to discuss this at this juncture. Suffice to say that bearing in mind that the internet is not limited by traditional geographic boundaries of countries, a person can use the internet from any place or country in the world to commit an offence directed at a target or targets located in another country or countries
There are many offences that are capable of being committed using the Internet.
Some of them are covered in already existing laws associated with paper-based communication while other offences are not capable of being brought within such laws.
Common offences associated with the use of the Internet include identity theft through fraudulently obtaining and using another person’s identity, computer-related forgery, copy-right and trade mark offences, and denial of service attacks making computer resources unavailable to users, and spam.
Because of the fact that the internet and cybercrime knows no geographic boundaries, the fight to combat such crime and ensure that networks on which business and other communication is conducted are safe requires the involvement of everyone including co-operation of countries for instance that law enforcement agencies not just within individual countries but also from different countries work together in their investigations and prosecuting of offences.
Concerted efforts are therefore being made regionally and globally to fight cybercrime. From a consumer point of view, it calls for caution in the way that we use the Internet and computers generally.
This is especially so with the development of social media and the inclination to share information with others. User awareness on using the internet is important in reducing cybercrime in that sharing of personal information can add to the risk crimes such as internet-related identity theft for instance.
Although children are especially vulnerable it can be seen from social media such as face-book that the potential risk virtually applies to everyone.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): jmc tembo
Quelle/Source: Zambia Daily Mail, 20.04.2012
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