Cyber-treaty Goes Too Far?

May 3, 2000

By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. and European police agencies will receive new powers to investigate and prosecute computer crimes, according to a preliminary draft of a treaty being circulated among over 40 nations.

The Council of Europe's 65KB proposal is designed to aid police in investigations of online miscreants in cases where attacks or intrusions cross national borders.

But the details of the "Draft Convention on Cybercrime" worry U.S. civil libertarians. They warn that the plan would violate longstanding privacy rights and grant the government far too much power.

The proposal, which is expected to be finalized by December 2000 and appears to be the first computer crime treaty, would:

• Make it a crime to create, download, or post on a website any computer program that is "designed or adapted" primarily to gain access to a computer system without permission. Also banned is software designed to interfere with the "functioning of a computer system" by deleting or altering data.
• Allow authorities to order someone to reveal his or her passphrase for an encryption key. According to a recent survey, only Singapore and Malaysia have enacted such a requirement into law, and experts say that in the United States it could run afoul of constitutional protections against self-incrimination.
• Internationalize a U.S. law that makes it a crime to possess even digital images that "appear" to represent children's genitals or children engaged in sexual conduct. Linking to such a site also would be a crime.
• Require websites and Internet providers to collect information about their users, a rule that would potentially limit anonymous remailers.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36047,00.html

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