G-8 to clamp down on cybercrime

Will Knight ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 14 Oct 1999 13:05 BST

The world's most powerful countries are to meet in Moscow on 19 October to discuss ways to co-ordinate the fight against organised international cybercrime.

Ministers of interior and justice from the world's G-8 nations come together in Moscow to discuss how they can co-operate in order to deal with growing problem of professional international computer crime. Britain's Minister for State at the Home Office Charles Clarke will represent the UK.

The G-8 nations -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK and US -- will discuss the possibility of unifying multinational legal and technical regulations concerning the tracing and storing of data.

European Union data-security commissioners met with G-8 representatives in September claiming the variety of technology used in modern computer communications makes it virtually impossible to trace illegal activity. Differences in domestic regulations on data-tracing and storage compound the problem either further, they heard.

The question of what restraints should be placed on ISPs to "Freeze and Preserve" data at the request of law enforcement agents will also be considered.

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