Forwarded From: Nicholas Charles Brawn <ncb05at_private> Reno Urges Crackdown On Cybercrime In The Americas RTos 26-11-1998 07:21 By Joelle Diderich BRASILIA (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said Wednesday the Americas should unite in a crackdown on cybercrime, warning that the use of new technologies posed an increasing threat to the hemisphere. "Today a man can sit in his kitchen in New York City and steal from a bank in Chile," Reno told the 10th Inter-American Congress of Public Prosecution, which brought together attorneys general from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Law enforcement authorities have so far failed to keep up with the explosion of computer networks and the Internet, and "already technological advances have empowered criminals to move their illicit wealth from bank to bank and country to country in the blink of an eye," Reno said. "We cannot hope to prevail against our criminal adversaries unless we begin to use the same interactive mechanisms in the pursuit of justice as they use in the pursuit of crime and wealth," she told the seminar in Brazil's capital. The attorney general also called for closer cooperation between specialists in computers and experts on crime, to pinpoint existing loopholes in the law. Justice officials should build on agreements signed at the Summit of the Americas in Chile last April to form a united front against crimes in cyberspace, Reno said. "Let us work together to come to agreement on a common statute or legal regime to address the issue of cybercrime," she said, without elaborating on the proposal. "We must and we can make sure that we control the technology." Intellectual property rights are another area in which authorities are lagging, allowing trade in fake copies of CDs, video games, computer software and videos to flourish, she noted. Many countries in Latin America, under pressure from the United States and other powerful trading partners, have recently started to bring their copyright piracy laws up to date, although cyberspace remains a gray area for most. Paraguay earlier this month signed a bilateral accord with the United States to strengthen its copyright laws, seeking to shed its reputation as a haven for counterfeiters supplying pirated goods to the rest of the region. Brazil and Argentina updated their laws this year to make computer piracy a crime. Before the new law came into effect, illegal copies accounted for 68 percent of all computer programs sold in Brazil, according to the Brazilian Association of Software Companies. Reno suggested using new technologies to swap information and proposed an increase in the use of videoconferencing and the creation of a Justice Studies Center, a legal database for the region. She stressed the importance of improving extradition procedures to make sure there were no safe havens for criminals, saying this could best be achieved through informal contacts between nations. "Let's discard the outdated formalities," she said. "When we didn't do something right, pick up the phone and call me." -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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