The UN Cybercrime Treaty: The One Treaty to Rule All the Hacking Laws

Presented at ShmooCon 2023, Jan. 21, 2023, 11 a.m. (60 minutes).

The United Nations is currently negotiating a major cybercrime treaty that has the potential to substantively reshape international anti-hacking law when implemented by the signatory states. It is intended to become more widely adopted and influential than the current Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and standardize anti-hacking law around the world—including in your country.

We have already witnessed too many examples of anti-cybercrime laws being used to persecute, chill human rights, and bring spurious and disproportionate charges against activists, whistleblowers, and security researchers. This presentation will let you know the status of the negotiations (expected to finish in Fall 2023), the provisions proposed by the participating countries that might limit or deter security research, and discuss EFF’s efforts to ensure proposed treaty does not invite abuse and overreach by countries and deter the security research that helps keep us all safer from cybercrime.


Presenters:

  • Kurt Opsahl
    Kurt Opsahl (@kurtopsahl) is the Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In addition to representing clients on civil liberties, free speech and privacy law, Opsahl counsels on EFF projects and initiatives. Opsahl is the lead attorney on the Coders’ Rights Project, which works to protect researchers through education, legal defense, amicus briefs, and involvement in the community with the goal of promoting innovation and safeguarding the rights of curious tinkerers and hackers on the digital frontier.

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