Pornography, breach of intellectual property rights, the illegal access to persons' records and the creation and transmission of viruses over the Internet are among the offences to be addresses under a proposed Cyber Crimes Bill.

A committee has been set up to begin drafting the legislation that will also cover issues such as the misuse of data, spamming and hacking.

The committee, which met for the first time on March 3, will present a united front in dealing with cyber crime and ensure consensus on the various provisions of the legislation, according to senior legal officer in the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology, Charmaine Patterson.

The committee consists of representatives from:

. the Tax Assessment and Audit Department,

. Jamaica Customs,

. the Bank of Jamaica,

. the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Finance and Planning, Justice, National Security, Commerce, Science and Technology,

. the Central Information and Technology Office (CITO),

. the Director of Public Prosecution, the Attorney General's Department, and

. the Chief Parliamentary Counsel.

The proposed legislation, Patterson explained, would seek to prevent the misuse of data by preventing persons from invading the privacy of those who supplied information - such as their credit card number - electronically. It will also address the issue of pornography, so that persons would not have it forced upon them over the Internet.

"Therefore, your children can be protected from adults trying to get them out of their homes and into their company," she said.

The Cyber Crimes Bill will also seek to prevent the sending of unsolicited pop-up information, or spamming, and will address the protection of intellectual property on the worldwide web, as well as hacking - the illegal entry into persons' or organisations' computer files.

The Cyber Crime legislation, Patterson said, was important to the proper functioning of the Electronic Transaction Act (ETA) currently being considered for passage in Parliament.
The ETA, she explained, would facilitate the transaction of goods and services over the Internet.

"If we have no legislation to protect persons outside (Jamaica), who would do business with us and also (protect) persons within our own boundaries," Patterson queried. "People would not be comfortable in doing electronic transactions."

These are among the issues expected to be discussed, Wednesday, at the Regional Data Security Summit at the Hilton Kingston Hotel. The summit is seen as pivotal to the government's effort to promote the development of e-commerce and e-government in the island. It will involve the three main suppliers of computer security products and services in the region - Fujitsu, Microsoft and IBM. The theme for the event is "Securing Enterprise Data in the Cyber World".

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