Topic:
Country: Niger
Delegate Name: Amant Grewal
Cybercrime: one of the most global problems of our day and age. As the understanding of the web has grown and individuals have gotten more access to global platforms, the rate of online crime has grown as well. The ability to connect everyone to everything has proven to backfire and pose global threats.
Cybercrime rose in prominence with the globalization of the web and the explosion of personal device ownership. Since the start, it has affected individuals, businesses, governments, and essential organizations. On the individual level, cybercrime often targets susceptible portions of the population: the young and the old. Oftentimes, those too young to understand the internet and those too old to have grown up with it fall into the preying hands of cybercriminals. Cybercriminals then exploit these individuals for money in a wide variety of ways. On a larger scale, Cybercriminals attack the government, companies, and essential civil organizations such as hospitals and police departments. Through these attacks, cybercriminals breach classified data, compromise the private information of millions, and pose a risk to the physical wellbeing of individuals.
Niger experiences relatively low levels of cybercrime due to its low estimated internet penetration rate of 5.25%. Despite this, the Nigerien government has imposed laws to fight cybercrimes that pose threats to the wellbeing of the public. These laws take a strict approach to cracking down on internet terrorism through surveillance and interception of online activity. This legislation was passed in an effort to maintain public order and human dignity.
One of the larger problems with efforts to prevent cybercrime is international inconsistency. Only when the international community can define cybercrime can it truly begin to fight it. This definition should include the use of information and communication technology to disrupt and cause distrust of the government and commit crimes such as sexual abuse and fraud. Upon the creation of this definition, real solutions, such as education on avoiding fraud and promoting civil order, can be put in place.
