CAIRO: It's no secret that the exponential growth of the IT industry has opened the door for illegal trade and cyber crime, and that stringent measures must be taken to address the problem. There has been a drastic increase in cyber crime activities over the past few years, and a framework of rules governing the telecommunications sector must be established to tackle this trend, said participants of the first Regional Conference on Cyber Crime. The Middle East is expected to lose up to $180 billion during the next four years as a result of software piracy, the leading form of cyber crime. "The framework of laws governing the telecommunications [sector] must evolve to compliment the Internet and telecommunications boom the world is experiencing, said Fathi Sorour, head of the People's Assembly, in the conference's opening speech. Internet exposure, as well as the overall expansion and diversity of the telecommunications sector, has opened gateways of information that were not known to people in the past. This has undoubtedly affected the lives of citizens worldwide, said Sorour, and "Egyptian law cannot stand still in the face of technological and scientific progress. Sorour called on the IT sector and government officials to establish a strict authority to identify perpetrators, one that constantly updates its technology to keep up with the masterminds of cyber crime. "We do not want an authority that will work only until hackers find a way to bypass its system, he said. A committee of IT experts, legal specialists and university professors was formed to draw a preliminary draft of a new law to secure information and combat cyber crime, said Tarek Kamel, minister of communication and information technology. "Over the next two months, all ideas and suggestions will be discussed before the law is passed to the government for approval, Kamel said. The committee will first study the lessons learned by international federations, institutions and governments in combating cyber crime. Kamel called on the government to establish a technological center that will utilize MSRT (malicious software removal tool), which is used internationally to combat cyber crime. Cyber crimes can be simply defined as unlawful acts targeting computers, a tool or both. In addition to piracy, cyber crimes include credit card fraud, cyber pornography, online sale of illicit items - such as drugs, weapons and endangered wildlife - online gambling, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) violations, email spoofing, forgery using computer scanners and printers, cyber defamation and cyber stalking. The regional conference was held on Nov. 26-27 in Cairo with over 400 international IT experts participating. Experts examined cyber crime in six different sessions over two days. Topics on the agenda included current trends in cyber crime, Malaysia's experience with electronic passports and the uses of smart card chips as well as issues surrounding the legislation and enforcement of cyber crime.
